What is summer without a strenuous mountain hike that leads to a chilly waterfall? Here is one of the many views we took in as we traversed the Blue Ridge Parkway on our recent trip to my homestate – North Carolina. Other highlights included chanting the Book of Lamentations with my parents’ chavurah, enjoying the waterpark at Carowinds, seeing my kindergarten and sixth grade teachers at Temple Israel (Ruth Goldberg and Raph Panitz) and eating at Gliberman’s Deli!

Now I’m back in Manhattan, trying to prepare for a speech I’m giving in Montreal next month!