NOTE: Hello all. Sorry for the spotty postings. While our timeshare apartments have been great, we don't have easy access to internet. Here is four days of posts, which means we are only 2 days behind. More soon!

Day 26: More in the North. The Shapiro family woke to a beautiful sunny day, ate a quick breakfast in and left to meet Raz. Once together we headed to Mt. Gilboa, the location where King Saul and three of his sons were defeated by the Philistines. This was also the location where soon-to-be-King David declared that the mountain will remain barren as a curse due to the defeat of Saul. After walking around Mt. Gilboa we headed to Bet She’an to view the magnificent remains of an ancient Roman City. Be sure not to miss the picture of the Shapiro family in the communal bathroom. With the weather quickly heating up, we finished our walk, viewing the Cardo, bathhouse, and some other ruins, ate a picnic lunch and some ice cream, and then left for our next destination.

To our delight we ended the day with another water walk, or in this case a water swim. On Raz’s recommendation we had purchased a raft, which came in very handy for this water walk. We entered the refreshing water and quickly placed Esti and Avi on the edge of the raft while we towed them down this river. The water was deep, requiring us to swim much of the distance. During the swim, on two separate occasions, we came upon two culverts connecting the water on either sides of intersecting roads. The best part of the swim was going through the culverts on our tushies (maybe not one of our finer parenting moments-but we all came out unscathed and laughing). After a few minutes of relaxing in the water we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a movie in the room.

Day 27: A Quiet Day. With no schedule for the day, we all slept in – as many of you know for the Shapiro family that means we were all up by 8:00 am. After a quick breakfast and school work in the room we headed downstairs for a day at the pool. The best part of our time at the pool was the games played by the pool staff. Using what looked like old gymnastic mats floating on top of the water tied to each end of the pool, the kids ran on top of the mats until they fell off. Avi won the game running a whopping 18 laps. The games continued with having the kids stand in the middle of the pool on a round piece of wood tied to an inner tube on which the kids were asked to jump rope. Scott found much humor, imagining the dialogue between the hotel’s legal department and the recreation department as the recreation department described the Rube Goldberg nature of the floating jump rope platform. The evening continued with dinner at Avi’s Restaurant - a restaurant we located during one of our earlier walks in Tiberias. With much excitement our Avi met the owner - whose name is also Avi. The owner Avi was very nice and gave our Avi many souvenirs with Avi’s Restaurant written on them, including postcards, a key chain, and a magnet. Our restaurant service continued as our waiter walked with Scott across the street to assist Scott in getting a haircut. He later came back and checked on Scott. The evening ended with a little shopping; ugghh, the lines at the market were crazy. We did learn an Israeli technique for shopping - once you arrive at the market get in line, leave the cart on line, and then shop.

Day 28: Finally, the Alligator Farm! With much excitement we headed to Hamat Gadar-The Alligator Farm. Avi had been waiting fopr this for months. We arrived and quickly headed to the parrot show. The birds were beautiful and did some amazing stunts. We continued our visit walking around and looking at the many alligators. Before heading to the pool at Hamat Gador we spent a great deal of time at the petting zoo. The kids picked up one-day-old chicks, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Of course, the conversation as we left the petting zoo sounded something like “when we get home after we get a new dog can we also get a rabbit, turtle, guinea pig, etc.” We continued our visit at Hamat Gadar with a quick dip in the cold water pool and finished our visit with a relaxing soak in the 100 degree mineral springs pool. Other then the sulfur-like smell we all enjoyed the soak. With some time before Shavuot we headed back to the hotel to complete some school, eat some lunch and relax a bit. After a quick shower we headed to the car for a drive to Karmiel where Scott located a Masorti connected synagogue for us to spend the evening. We arrived and were warmly greeted by the Rabbi and his family. We enjoyed the service and shared in the communal meal. Scott and Monica spent the evening talking with lots of congregants while the kids played with other children. Everyone enjoyed the evening.

Day 29: Bees and Shabbas. After arriving home late everyone slept in - again in the Shapiro family that means about 8:00 am. Our plans for the day included a tour of the Honey Farm which specializes in teaching people how to make honey. We were pleasantly surprised to have the owner himself provide us our tour, which included three stations. The first station talked about the process of collecting the honey and a taste of the delicious honey, the second station talked about the bee boxes and the jobs of the worker bees and the queen bee, and in the last station the owner suited up and went into a room with many bee boxes, and picked up and showed us individual bee screens within a bee box. He spoke about the importance of wearing proper clothing when handling the bees. We enjoyed the tour and purchased some amazing bee hand lotion. With some time before Shabbas we headed back to the hotel for a quick swim, some school work, and a bite to eat. After a quick shower we headed to the village of Shorirshim. Once again Scott located this synagogue on the Masorti web page. The village began 26 years ago by a group of Zionist from California and now consist of about 70 families. We were pleased to be invited to someone’s home for Shabbat dinner. The family had a daughter age 9 and also invited were their neighbors who had a son age 9, a daughter age 7, and a younger son age 2. The kids had an amazing evening filled with game playing, rubiks cube, puzzles, and of course a long discussion about pokemon. Scott and Monica enjoyed the conversation and learned a lot about the community which is surrounded by many Arab communities. The neighbor’s son attends an Arab/Israel school which focuses on co-existence. Before we knew it, it was well after 10:00 pm and time to go. Unfortunately, we had a hard time leaving the gated community because the gate would not open when we arrived at the exit. Singing the chorus to Hotel California, we drove around the community looking for anyone who would buzz us out. With some luck and patience we found someone nice enough to let us out of the community. We arrived back very late with three sleeping children.