Last Week in Review

So we are a little behind on our postings, but we'll do our best to catch everyone up. Last week we rented a car to head up north and take a mini vacations for a couple of days. We headed to Kibbutz Lavi as our base - a nice hotel with a really nice breakfast buffet. The first evening we went to a restaurant called Pagoda, which is exactly what it sounds like. The food was good, but you really go for the atmosphere - the whole building is an ornate pagoda right on the shore of Lake Kinneret.



The next day we headed to the tip of Israel - Rosh Hanikra. Located right on the Mediterranean and the border with Lebanon, Rosh Hanikra has these amazing grottos that have been created over the years. The day was gorgeous and the sights were beautiful. After doing some signtseeing there we drove down the shore a little bit to a beach to have a picnic lunch. After that we headed back east to Tsipori. It is an archeological site of a city that because they didn't revolt against the Romans their city was not destroyed and there are these amazing mosaics floors that have been preserved.
That night we headed back to Tiberias to go out to dinner again, but were met with a brick wall. The next day was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and since a lot of towns/cities have their commemoration events on the eve of all the restaurants were either already closed or in the process of closing. Luckily, our hotel had a dinner buffet so we rushed back to the Kibbutz to catch dinner there. We probably should have just started there in the beginning, the food was so good. It was also a nice environment since all these people kept on looking over at Adira and smiling. A couple of ladies even stopped us on our way out to coo over her.

The following day we headed back to Tiberias to a nice lookout point over the city and the Kinneret. We then drove around a little bit to visit some of the grave-sites of some of the Talmudic and Biblical scholars. Next we went to go to the Switzerland Forest for some lunch and relaxation before we headed back to Jerusalem. I decided to follow a sign for the forest that put us on a dirt road. This would have been ok except we were driving a car called the Nissan Micro, and it was micro. However, turning back seemed like it might have been worse, so onward we went and luckily it ended soon enough - at a gorgeous lookout point. When we finally reached the forest it was basically deserted and we had the place to ourselves, counting people. There were a lot of horses and cows right nearby. We enjoyed the fresh air and relaxing environment away from all the city noises. We then rushed to Haifa to try and catch the Bahai Gardens before they closed. After getting lost around the city, we were really excited to get to the entrance 20 minutes before they closed. Only to find out that they were actually closed for the whole week due to the Bahai annual convention. We got some great pictures anyway, and maybe another time we'll get inside to actually walk around.

It was a great trip and really exciting to see some new things and places that neither of us had been to before. The weather was perfect and with the spring time everything was in bloom. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity for some other little mini trips before we head back to the States.