If I Had A Boat ... 12/23

With Saturday being the Sabbath, there wasn't a whole lot of activity around the Kibbutz or most of the Sea of Galilee for that matter. The roads were even pretty quiet which was a pleasant surprise.

With the spirit of the day, we decided to go ahead and take a bit slower of a trip. We drove out to Cesearea and spent almost the entire day just wandering around the ruins there. There were plenty to see.

Now, it was raining when we first showed up and we only had two umbrellas (guess who didn't get one...right...) so I got quite wet to start out. But then it cleared up and I dried out quite quickly. To tell you the truth, it was really neat to stand out on the rocks overlooking to the sea while it was raining. It was a wild, raging beauty, but it was beautiful.
I'm standing firm on higher ground.







"Rain on, I will not drown
I'm standing firm on Higher Ground."








Here's a small sampling of the pictures Beth was able to get. I'm not posting my pictures because most of them didn't turn well due to the rain.










































Alright, now this picture deserves a little bit of an explination. We at an early lunch at a small cafe along the coast and since we were the only customers, the owner hung around and chatted with us from the time we showed up until the time we left. He was absolutely hilarious! He's a European Jew who spent much of his life living in Reno, Nevada working for a software company. I think I laughed harder talking to him than I have laughed since arriving here.

The kicker came when right as we were about to leave. He asked me if I knew what a survivor was. Obviously, I know what the word means, but I wasn't entirely sure what he meant by that. That is, until he reached down and pulled up his sleeve. That's right, he had a number tattooed on his forearm. He had been in a Nazi Prison camp. He was a survivor of the Holocaust. He went on to explain that it was a Polish prison camp and that he had been rescued when he was twelve years old.

It was quite the story. After we left, Dr. Fisher commented on how amazing it was that he was so full of spunk. I guess most survivors are very bitter and closed to life in general. This guy sure wasn't though, he was a barrel of laughs. Talk about responding the right way to a tough situation...

After leaving Cesearea we headed out to a valley along the Jordanian border whose name I can't remember at the moment and that I don't have pictures of right now. I'll have to get them up later. Until then, Merry Christmas!