day three. from tiberias to capernum to dan and back again

the day began in tiberias. we began the morning with a short job over to magadelena, boarded the boat to capernum, then took the bus to northern israel 

i thought the morning was especially successful. sam and ben managed to spend 45 minutes on a boat and did not fall in. 

they also did not lose a finger feeding the birds. 

sam likes to lead the way. he’s the leader of every hike. ben likes to find sticks and use them as swords. he almost started an international incident today at the tel dan national park when he started working on pulling a tree from the ground and a park Israeli park ranger came running out of nowhere to kindly inform him that trees stay in the ground. ana likes talking, singing while she walks, and generally providing the cheer and smiles needed to overcome the jet lag haze.

The Dan national park area is fascinating. Ancient ruins are cool. In this case, ancient city from the 10^th century B.C.E, complete with the city gates and an ancient religious altar. The altar area was especially interesting. 

Standing on the top of the altar, you can see three countries: Isreal, where you are standing, Lebanon to the north and Syria to the east. The three countries come together and where people have fought for years and years and years and years for control of the land.

here's lebanon in the distance: 

and syria: 

the river Jordan starts small. Just like every other river, I suppose.

i have a new idea that is sure to make a ton of money: give people the opportunity to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. charge them a ton of money, and then ship them to Israel and have them walk around for 10 days. we’ve done a ton of walking these first two days. and I’m glad: walking away from the well worn path has gotten us to some pristine spots.

to grandpa and grandma, who better be reading this: please know we are safe, your grandchildren are not in much danger, the food is great, I’m not going to lose my figure, many people speak english, those who don’t are able to comprehend my request for coffee with milk, and we’re having a good time. and they have pomegranate wine. you can't get that back home.  

THERE'S WIFI!!!

we found a restaurant for lunch with free wifi. the highlight of the day for the boys. :) they completely lost their minds when they sat down. to my surprise, the first thing they did when they sat down was check for wifi... evidently they have been waiting for two days for to apply an upgrade to their roblox app. 

...although they passed on tahini as a dipping sauce for fries. 

i didn't.  tahini and fries are a surprisingly delicious combination. 

in post dinner news, the owner of the restaurant attempted to charge my wife 45 dollars for 3 orders of fries. this owner just learned what happens when my wife feels cheated. after a short, rather one sided "discussion," the price changed. :)

it's fun to be in a place where all things are negotiable. 

capernaum

we traveled across the sea or tiberias this morning and arrived in the city of capernum. here in capernaum, simon peter lived before he met a young man named jesus. 

there are fantastic ruins of an ancient synagogue in capernaum. This synagogue is famous to Christians from the stories of the later half of the gospel of john chapter  6. 

here it is. the synagogue is the bright white limestone building. the other black ruins are the native volcanic rock that the remainder of the city was built. 

simon peters house is near the synagogue. 

today it's a good example of churches one upping one another. 

on top of his house is an ancient Byzantine church from the 6th century. on top of the Byzantine church is a Latin church. 

mount arbel

from arbel, looking at the sea:

from the sea, looking at arbel:

transportation

here's our bus for the week. we named her smokie.

smells

one more observation from day two. it smells awesome here. maybe it's because we leave in a place where all smell dies for the winter months. maybe because it really does smell better here. it doesn't matter much, i suppose; it makes me happy. 

ironing rooms

israel, the land where ironing happens in a separate room. because everyone in the hotel wants to see me in my bob the builder pajamas. 

day two. Caesarea and other places on the road to tiberias

after two days my first impressions of israel is that it is strikingly beautiful. and it's small. for all the time it occupies in minds and hearts of so many, it's a small place. 

on day two we drove from tel aviv to Caesarea to Galilee and made a few stops along the way. 

the kids were awesome. although for all of the sites, I think their number one favorite was the hotel pool. 

lunch. i found my falefel  

sam on mount arbel. 

good morning galilee

how do you make fire?

sam found a rock and a stick on the beech in Caesarea. he is disappointed in his dad's inability to make fire. 

"weren't you a Boy Scout?" he asks me. 

even without fire, Caesarea is beautiful. 

what smells like chicken

its chicken. 

and a blown fuse. 

we bust into the food shortage supply case and made meal #1 for the kids. oven baked chicken.  finishing their meal included searching the hotel room for the fuse box. i found it. 

in related news, elaine engineered a mechanism for fitting 6 pounds of food into a 5 pound box. that's right - push a suitcase up against the front to keep the door closed. 

day one. tel aviv

we made it. our hotel is near the beach. we decided to try and fight off the jet lag with a nice walk. 

ben is looking for blackbeard's secret booty. I don't think he's going to have any luck. 

we ended our day with a nice meal at the hotel. I looked for some street vendors selling fresh falafel, but alas no luck tonight. 

the highlight of the evening was when I was drinking my post dinner tea. Sam suddenly woke up from his jet lag haze, " I NEED SHEKELS!!!"

we ran down the steet to exchange his money. they close at 8. we bust through the door at 7:59. sam slapped his 18 bucks on the counter. the money changer looked at me...looked at Sam..."that's it?"

time for bed ...  a good first day. 

rico lost his h2o

h2o is a threat to national security. no water for you! we were busted in security (again) in JFK. 

rico took matters into his own hands. he quickly boarded, made a beeline for the flight attendant station, stuffed some after bottles down his pants, and headed for our seats in economy comfort ( I think delta forgot the comfort in economy comfort ). 

thanks rico for the water. 

brothers

dogs

A relatively sane process this time. With all of our misadventures in the past getting all 5 of us on a plane, this was tame. No security hold ups, no lost shoes, no crazy people yelling at us in line. We did lose 2 airplanes, but hopefully others will get to use them instead of us. 

We're off. A dog the size of mars is in the row in front of us. See you soon Jerusalem. 

Yep - that's the head of a Saint Bernard. 

I miss martin and minnie. 

for colonel cramer

rico made it through security

dinner!

if you drove past our house this morning and wondered, "why is there a red suitcase sitting on the front step?" you should know that there might be a food shortage in jerusalem. i haven't heard anything on the news or read anything online about it yet, but one is best to be prepared. so we packed a suitcase full of food. and an electric skillet. since everything in the suitcase is cold, i'm storing it on the front step until we leave. i figure the -14 degrees is just as good as a freezer. and a suitcase doesn't fit very well in my freezer anyway. 

i wonder what i'm forgetting....passports. check. food. check. underwear. check. yahtzee! check. good enough. 

the starbuckization of of the world

the final countdown

packing