Sunsets, Sunrise -Sea to Sea- Beeeyooootiful pics of weekend trip...

Sometimes a girl's just gotta take a break from school work and go on a ROAD TRIP...

I hopped in Simantov and Linda's chariot and they took me first up to Nahariya for one night (northern Israel, on the Mediterranean Sea), then to their place in Tiberius, on the Sea of Galilee for the 2nd night. Wanna see??? Here we go!!..

 

 Here I am with Michael Nasrallah (from Nahariya - his wife Jane is in the US right now), and Simantov - we have just reached the Mediterranean Sea, and the beach there is gorgeous...

 Aqua blue waters, cool breezes, gentle surf....ahhhhhhh

 Linda and Simantov are holding hands and strolling along the beach walkway, aren't they cute??!!??

 Just had to take a pic of this little girl along the beach walkway - as you can see, she already owns her own automobile...but can you see what she's holding and staring at??!?? a smart phone....they start young in Israel!  I hope she knows not to text and drive...

 There were some young men divers along the beach who were snorkeling and catching fish with their bare hands.  This guy is cleaning his catch...

 The beauty of the Mediterranean...

 Time to eat Israel salad and pita and hummus and chips and beans and pickles and eggplant and sauces I don't know the name of and some more food and stuff it in a pita and eat it...AMEN:)

 After a fine Middle Eastern meal, it's time for Turkish coffee in a great big MAN-SIZE mug!!

 Walking back from the restaurant, it just happens to be time for the sunset....(oh yeah - show time!!)

 Sometimes you just want to freeze the moment, and savor it for awhile longer... just imagine being there: the breeze is gentle and refreshing, the relentless waves caress the shore - I have a billion dollar view along with some priceless God-given friends...

 I was saying - "Come on Linda!! Come sit with me and watch..."

 The sun's fireball seems to just melt into the sea as the waves in the foreground spill over the rocky shoreline.

 The next morning - we are now up on the heights of Rosh Haniqra - we are at the very northern tip of Israel on the Mediterranean, right on the border of Lebanon. This is the view down the cliff looking south toward Haifa.

 It's time to ride the cable car down the cliff...COME on LINDA, let's go!! Michael came too, while Simantov stayed up at the top...

 Linda and I are 'cabling' together....(look, it beats repelling down the cliff with a rope!)

 Here we GOOOOOoooooooooooooo.....(yes, we're about to go right over the edge...)

 Straight down...down....down.....(shoot, it was fun:)

 We came in for a landing safe and sound:)

 Now we gotta go inside the mountain...

 A view over the railing....too beautiful for words...

 Inside the mountain - we are sitting in a theater (about to watch a film about the history of Rosh Haniqra) - and this is where the British and built a train through the mountain connecting Israel with Lebanon, back in the 1940s.

 See the train tracks??  The Haganah (what later became the IDF) blew up the tunnel in 1948 so that no enemy soldiers or supplies could get through.

 Ok, so now we're going down to the water level - to see the grottos - be careful cuz YOU MIGHT GET WET!!!!

 The grottos of Rosh Haniqra - WOW, sooo exquisitely beautiful...

 Clear, deep, cool waters - we could see fish swimming in there...

 The tide has rushed in and out, and waves have crashed over and over for a verrrrry long time to create these grottos and caves.

 You just have to come see this for yourself - the pics can't do it justice:)

 Outside again, enjoying the view....

 So here I am, the breeze in my face, and the Mediterranean to my back. YESSSSSS!!

 Michael lives only about 7 miles from here - he loves it, too!! I think he's waving hello to his wife in Texas (she'll be back in Israel soon...)

 This is how you get a train through a rock mountain - a BIG carved out (blown out) tunnel!!!...

 A bird perched on the edge of the cliff - I wondered what she was thinking....

 As you can see - it's only 205 km to Jerusalem, and 120 km to Beirut. Which way you wanna go??

 So here's the gate between Israel and Lebanon - those white trucks on the other side are UN trucks. All seemed peaceful - and we prayed this would continue. Prayer on the border....

 Since this is a road trip - we got back on the road. This is a view of the sunset over the hills of the Galilee in Poriyya - just up above the Sea of Galilee. This was what I saw while sitting outside an AROMA coffee shop (stayed tuned for my next blog - the Aroma tour:)

 

 

And finally, the next morning (this morning, actually) - I woke up to this sunrise over the Sea of Galilee as seen from my bedroom window (Simantov and Linda's place) - Wow, wow, wow - can I just stay here?? Alas, I am now back in Jerusalem - and whenever I get these 2 blogs done I can almost promise you I am really going to do some school work....