Here are a few pictures from today.  We spent the day all around the Sea of Galilee.  The first picture is from the side opposite our hotel. Hopefully when you click on the picture the view will be a little better.   

 We got a chance to take off our shoes and put our feet in the Sea in the late afternoon and boy did my feet enjoy that treat!  It is very hot here.  In the thumbnail shot I thought this was Terry, but it's not.  The picture of him in the sea didn't download for some reason.

 The picture below is from the grounds of a Catholic church on the site that might have been where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount.  It was so pretty--lots of flowers, shrubs, rose bushes and the first grass that we've seen in Israel.  We saw some more later this afternoon at another Catholic church.

We took a boat ride today across the sea after having a delicious meal at a restaurant on the waterfront. The boat ride was very pleasant.

It was another full day with lots of beautiful sights and great food and nice people.

Post from Dad

  Today, Wednesday, we spent the day at various sites in northern Galilee.  This is the city of Dan, and the  

wall below is the entrance to it built before Abraham came to the Promised Land.  It is amazing to think that Abraham would have seen this same structure 

This is Banias Falls which we were told is the largest falls in all of Israel.  It was another hot day and so was very pleasant being in the shade and mist of the falls  

 Our last stop of the day was at Mount Bental which was within about a mile of the Syrian border  There were great views of the surrounding mountains including snow-capped Mount Hermon which is about 9000 feet high  Sorry about the lack of punctuation, but the blog page is in Hebrew so I'm lucky I accomplished this much

 Here we are going down 180 steps to see a water source in Megiddo.  I guess our lighthouse experience on Tybee Island was good preparation for this part of our trip.  We are definitely getting our exercise every day!

This is the view that we see each morning when we leave our room to go to breakfast.  These pictures do not do justice to how beautiful everything here is.

Even riding on the bus is nice because it gives us a little rest after sightseeing and it gives us a chance to see lots of the countryside---which I don't think I would ever get tired of looking at---there is so much to see.

Our Jewish guide and our BSF guide are both very knowledgeable about the land, the significance of all the sights, current events and they give us lots of information as we travel.

 This is a picture of our room or at least one side of it.  It is actually a pretty large room and the hotel is located across the street from the Sea of Galilee.  The view when we walk out the door each morning is very nice.  Hopefully we'll get a good picture of that to send soon.
Our schedule is very full---breakfast at 7:00, board the bus at 8:00, tour all day and get back in time for dinner at 7:00.  All the food has been delicious.  However, it is not food that I would have appreciated even 5 years ago!

 This is one of the first sites we went to.  It is a Roman theater and it is right beside the place where the chariot races took place with public executions for the half-time show.  This is right on the Mediterranean Sea.

New House Progress Report #9

Well I'm back from Germany, so let's try and get a house update in before Mom and Dad remember their password and post an update from Israel. All the exterior stone work is done, cabinets are installed, bathrooms are tiled, and trim is going up! The trim is really making the inside of the house look good.

Close-up of the stone. It's stacked a little tighter than I was hoping, but I'm guessing there isn't much I can do about that!

Cabinets installed! Lots of good natural light in the kitchen.

A view of the buffet going from the kitchen to the dining room, or as I like to call it, "the place where Grandma would put all the Christmas goodies"

Here is a shot of the guest bathroom. Both of the upstairs baths look the same, as in not much to blog about...

We had some vandals Saturday night. :( They kicked in the drywall in a few rooms... how rude! Time to put that deer stand to use.

Here are the bookcases, they are still a work in progress, but they are looking great. All of the custom finish work inside is looking really good.

All the exterior is missing now is the shutters. And a yard. And a team of Southern Living photog's.

The neighbors behind us had a few trees cut down!

 Then the neighbors next door to them decided to get in on the action.

 Incredibly, it doesn't really change the view from our backyard unless you walk out behind the shed!

New House Progress Report #8

Hello all, I'll be in Germany next week, so I thought I'd provide an update before I left. Good news, our current house sold in 8 days. We are under contract, so I guess it's not officially sold, but everything seems promising. We had ~25 showings during that time, which helped our confidence that it would sell. So currently we will be closing on the sale of our current house June 17, and our new house will be ready June 27, so we will be homeless for a few days. Maybe they will let us move some stuff in early? We'll see...

Not much has happened since last time. It rained a lot over the last 2 weeks, which slowed down the dry time for the drywall mud. They had to wait a good week before they could get in and sand the walls. Just a few days ago they installed the hardwood floors and just yesterday I noticed they delivered the stone. Next week, they should install cabinets, and probably install the stone siding, so I'm bummed I'll be missing that. I won't be taking the camera to Germany this time, so hopefully Lindsay will make it out there once or twice and take some pictures for us.

May 10, 2013 - Here is a lovely symmetrical view of our family room.

May 10, 2013 - Living Room, Foyer, and Dining Room.

May 10, 2013 - We had our trim walkthough where we walked through all the rooms and discussed details about any of the built-ins and finish details. Here is some proof that we are building a custom home. There are drawings all over the walls with custom details about the closets, stairs, beams, and bookshelves. These are our "lockers" coming in from the garage for dropping off shoes, coats, book bags...

May 10, 2013 - Stone has arrived. Hopefully it looks good on the house. We are doing the visible mortar joints, so hopefully it looks like the house in the picture above mom and dad's fireplace!

May 10, 2013 - Nothing new on the outside, but it was a nicer day than last time.