in the middle east

Since Jocelyn is here, we decided to take a long weekend trip up to the Galilee region. If you head due east from Jerusalem on highway 1 you run into the north end of the Dead Sea. From there you go north up the Jordan Valley, past Jericho, and 2hrs later you arrive at the Sea of Galilee. We stayed in the coastal city of Tiberias on the eastern coast of the Sea, which is really more like a lake: it's freshwater and about the size of lake Mendota in Madison, WI. The forecast for the weekend was rain, and we got rain indeed. One morning we woke up to an overcast morning, and within 15 minutes a violent storm descended from the western hills and dropped monsoon rains on the lake which flooded the streets of Tiberias. It was a vivid illustration of how quickly storms can sweep down on the lake as they did for Jesus and the disciples 2,000 years ago. We spent one day driving around to the main archaeological and traditional sites: the "Galilee Triangle" on the north end of the lake contains the three main towns where Jesus carried out the "Galilean Stage" of his ministry: Capernaum, Bethsaida, Korazin, and the northern Jordan river. We had planned to spend the second day hiking in the Golan heights, but the rains were just too intense. We decided to run south where it looked clearer, but the rain clouds chased us the entire day, all the way down south to the desert fortress of Masada. No sooner did we hike up and down than the rains came down in the desert, causing flash floods that washed out the roads. It was quite an adventure, and Jocelyn got to see both the green hills of Galilee, the Jordan river valley, and the Dead Sea desert; all in one day! The country really isn't that big. To see a bit more of our adventures, just Click Here.