Tampa, FL

 I took a trip to Tampa for a bris in the JCC

The baby had a cute shirt!

Door to door... 10 hours. Better than flying!

Fort Myers, FL

I drove 2.5 hours to get to Ft. Myers for an 8:30 Bris - stopping at a rest stop to Daven, because I left too early for a minyan and wouldn’t have had time to find Shul due to our timing.  

This was a cool image from the drive - when I spotted it the flag was pointing to the moon. But a bit later, the photo came out this way.

Anyway, I had the best time with the family, even though our time together was short.  

Here is the view from the back porch of the Bris location.  

Being brought into a family's inner circle at this special time often allows for a deep connection. If the family has another boy in the future and I am privileged to be invited back, it is like meeting an old friend.

That's how I felt with this one - perhaps I'll be back in a couple of years. Who knows?

Houston, Again

 This is the first time I've been back in UOS of Houston since they rebuilt the shul after years being in an interim space. I couldn't find a photo of the old building (I remember posting it here, but the picture doesn't seem to show up?), but I am pretty sure that they put the old stained glass windows in the new sanctuary. The new building is beautiful, with many things done "Texas Style" and now "Houston Style" (= elevated in case of flooding).

Anyway, it was an honor to be back and to "see what they've done to this place." The family I worked with was lovely, and their new son evened things out for them - he has an older brother and 2 older sisters.

The bris was the Friday before the periphery of Hurricane Beryl hit Houston. I made it home for Shabbos without a problem. Subsequently saw that Beryl hit over the weekend. 

Looking forward to my next trip Houston, which might not be so far off in the future!

Jamaica

 I haven't traveled much in the last couple of years due to the difficulty of getting out of the country on short notice. Most of that has lifted throughout the world, so this opportunity was embraced as a way of getting "back into things." This new destination was one to which I had never been before. 

Welcome to Jamaica! I went from the airport to the house and then back to the airport, and didn't give myself much time to take pictures along the way. But the water was beautiful, and the mountains I saw near Montego Bay were breathtaking.

There is kosher restaurant about a five minute drive from the airport - I did not have the chance to stop in there, though. But I did speak with the Chabad Shaliach there.

Here are my pictures from inside and outside the airport, and one from my setup before following through on the purpose of my visit.

Travels Update

UPDATE in March-April 2023

Below the line is what I wrote on the original post here from July 2022

We are back up and running for travel - if we can make it work I look forward to joining you for your simcha and bris!

____________________________________________________________________________

 Over the past two years I have been to much fewer places than the past, simply because COVID made travel such a drag. International travel was out of the picture altogether, and even now it isn't as exciting as it used to be. 

I have been to Houston several times, to North Carolina, to distant parts of Florida, and even to Phoenix, Arizona. 

It never hurts to call - if I can't make it I'll tell you real soon. 

But if you are looking for a traveling mohel, start here and hopefully we can make it work!

MAZAL TOV!!

COVID Travel

 COVID has certainly put a damper on travel, but I have been around the State of Florida (where I live) by car, and have revisited a couple of destinations, such as Houston and New York, during this time period. 

It's still always worth a phone call if you are in a tight pinch for a mohel. 

International travel is still much more of a headache unfortunately - I spoke to someone in one of the islands I have visited in the past, who told me that when his son was born, the only way they could get a mohel was from Europe because the island where he lives wasn't even allowing travelers from the US!

Hopefully one day soon things will return to normal and a quick trip for a bris will be a more simple affair than it has become. 

New York on a Friday

This past Friday started off just fine. I was in NY for a bris, and was scheduled to take a 12:45pm flight back to Florida for Shabbos.

 Of course the flight was delayed. 3 hours!! 

To make matters worse, the plane we were to take (to replace the plane with a mechanical failure) had fewer seats than the number of people booked for the larger plane. So the airline (SW) was asking people to volunteer to go on a later flight that day, or even Saturday or Sunday.

[Had it not been Friday, I would have taken their offer in a heartbeat. Refund on this flight. Rebook to whichever flight you want (to same destination). Plus $600 voucher to fly whenever and to use for whomever.

Alas, Shabbos....]

Why is it worse? Because they were planning to bump the last few people who checked in if they didn't get enough volunteers! Of course, I'm number 3 on that list, so if they don't get 3 people to volunteer, I'm sunk and stuck in NY - despite my pleading and explaining why I couldn't get on a plane after 4pm.

After an hour of nervous nail-biting, a woman (I'll call her my Shabbos-guardian-angel) came along and asked about the vouchers, etc.

She was hesitant because she was traveling with her two granddaughters who were "excited to go to Florida today." I was there as she deliberated, and I extolled to her the virtues of taking $1800 in vouchers from the airline and convincing her granddaughters that going the next day would be the greatest chesed to me in that moment.

She thought about it, called her husband, and a few minutes later I was called by the flight attendant to come pick up my boarding pass!!!!!!!!

I thanked her, thanked her granddaughters, thanked the airline people, thanked Hashem, and got on the plane 1/2 hour later. It took off around 3:40, landing 6:40, and I was in shul by 7:18pm.

Hair raising, but all worked out in the end!