Hello from Israel!

Hi everyone! Thanks for being patient with us as we try to find a chance to update. Things have been pretty crazy on this trip so far but it has been a wonderful time. Indescribable, actually, so the words and pictures we put on here won't do it justice. But anyway. Here we go!
  Let's start with a debrief of our first few days so you can catch up with us.
  Day One: We set off from the dear and generous Joel Barkman household, thrilled beyond description and eager to show off our new matching t-shirts:

  The backs are cool too. In fact, we liked them so much we couldn't resist . . . (tell us if you get what "M-Bark" means.)

  Ahem. And then we sort of zoomed off to the airport, not really believing that this wonderful trip was real and about to happen.

  We flew through the night (1st NIGHT OF LOST SLEEP) and for those of you who hadn't known, our layover was in London.

  *Is this thing on?*

  *Tap tap*

  Our layover . . . was in LONDON.

  That London.
  For a whole day.

  And in case you didn't know, London is sort of a big deal to people like us. (Well, the girls anyway . . .)

  [We got caught in a rainstorm outside the Buckingham Palace (not pictured). True story. Her majesty must have been sleeping, because she didn't let us in.]

  Okay! Now, after a whole day of tromping all over London and getting lost (and being this [] close to missing our FLIGHT to ISRAEL) (also a true story), we fluttered into the airport and flew through the night to . . . ISRAEL.
  (That was the 2nd night of lost sleep.

  So, the next day, it especially felt like a dream to be in the Holy Land . . . we were all jetlagged; walking on solid ground felt like tightrope walking, and keeping your eyes open was a distant aspiration . . . but we were HERE! It was unbelievable . . .

Ruins of the city of Caesarea, Herod's amazing port city:

Can you tell what this is?
Herod's swimming pool.
Amazing.

The Mediterranean Sea . . .

Today we saw Capernaum, which is where Jesus began His ministry . . . this temple is built right on top of the one in His time.
  (There are so many more pictures we could add . . . moving on!)

Here we're wading in the Sea of Galilee.
Us. Wading. In the Sea of Galilee.

And here the Sea of Galilee's in the background: we had a picnic lunch on the mountain overlooking it.

The mountain where Jesus spoke the beatitudes! Wow . . . so amazing to be there.

Our wonderful tour guide, sharing a lesson with us:

We then made a trek to the top of a mountain on the other side of the Sea.

  On top of the mountain was a town very different from Capernaum; it was a Caananite civilization. It was so cool to hear how Jesus crossing the Sea of Galilee meant more than we usually think . . . it meant crossing the cultural divide and being willing to reach out to those who were different, to those living in sin.
  Here's our group on the top of the mountain, on the ruins of the town.

  This brings us up to date. Today was much better than yesterday, since we're relatively caught up on sleep. Still, it's bedtime, and that's all for now.
  Seeya!
  ~Cherie