Not everything is necessary.

I know I may get a lot of flack For this, but here goes ...
Today we went to Yad Hashem. Now let me preface this with a disclaimer. I regularly read holocaust books. During the Nine Days, it's all I read. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but the Shoah is not a new idea to me. I personally found the museum to be boring. I think that the museum is incredibly very well thought out. It can be very, very meaningful. The museum itself has free entrance. We went to get information, and the woman told us where everything is. It has a huge, multi-complex lay out. We asked if we need a head set, but they cost 25 shekels. We decided not to get them. ( Maybe that was our mistake?) We did buy the map for $3. I wanted to see the children's memorial first. I thought that I had read that it has a bunch of children's shoes. ( Maybe that is the one in Washington, which I never visited.) Once we managed to find it, we were a little disappointed. You enter a dark building, and there is eerie music playing. Then you enter this dark room, with candles and mirrors. The room is set to reflect lights and make it look like hundreds and hundreds of lights, almost like stars at night. As you walk around, names, ages, and place of birth are being read. We left, and managed to get ourselves out of the whole complex. Much to our complete embarrassment, we had to walk back through the front and see the lady at information, who was surprised to see us entering again from the front of the building.
We decided to stick to the game plan, and go through the main building.
You enter a building with tons of rooms and displays. We watched a few movies, read a few displays, but truthfully, it was stuff I've already read. Ok, not word for word, but the ideas are the same. After a half hour, I was totally and completely bored. I found one quote that I really liked. When I whipped out my cell phone to take a picture, some guy comes running over ... No pictures allowed. Okay then .... So I told Shoshana I was bored, and it turns out she and Bashi were also bored.
We skipped through to the end, and went off in search of the gift shop. For us, the best part of the visit was browsing in the gift shop. I guess it doesn't reflect too well on us, LOL.
We took a taxi back to Shauly's, which was another interesting experience. Apparently, he didn't know where he was going. Once we got there, he tried to charge the full amount. I told him we weren't paying for his getting lost, and he nicely agreed to lower the price.
Came back to Shauly's apartment to find the power out. Great, I could be in  for losing power. I didn't come to Israel for that! Laughing at that.
We are preparing for shabbos; I'll see you on the other side.
GOOD SHABBOS or SHABBAT SHALOM!