III - Yarkon & Tel Afeq-Antipatris

The tour continued north along the Mediterranean coast. We crossed the Yarkon river and then went inland a little bit to Rosh Ha Ayin (Head of the Springs) to the Yarkon National Park and the Tel Afeq- Antipatris site.

We visited the ruins of the Cardo and the Fortress.

Sat in a rocky hollow under a big shade tree while we heard the history and the Bible stories related to the area.

Last three pictures taken from the Blue Bay Hotel just north of Netanya on the Mediterranean coast. This was our lodgings for the first night. The rest of the tour group joined us at supper time to make up a full compliment of 66 persons. We had a get acquainted meeting after supper where we each introduced ourselves. Helmut had a swim in the pool before supper and several of the younger folks went for a swim in the sea.

II - More of Jaffa (Joppa)

We spent quite a little time walking around Joppa. Several pictures to show you what the area looks like and some of the folks that were with us on tour.

Second from top picture Left to right four brethren from Albania - second person is a missionary to Albania. Several folks mostly from ON sitting on the wall. The brother standing alone with sunglasses on is a missionary to Ghana. The man in the black hat is the Israeli guide.

The all buildings in the misty back ground are in Tel Aviv.

Jabe talked to us about the port where the cedars of Lebanon were brought to Solomon's workers, Jonah, Peter"s vision at Simon the Tanner's home, and Dorcas being raised from the dead.

Walking in some of the narrow streets.

The pomegranate flower.

Tour of Israel 2011

On May 22, 2011 we met 14 other members of the tour group at the Toronto airport and boarded our flight on El Al Israel directly to Tel Aviv at about 1 pm. The nearly 12 hour flight brought us to Ben -Guiron at about 7 am Mon. May 23.

We were met by our Israeli guides and five other members of our group who had arrived from points in Europe and Africa.

The first order of the day was to drive to the hotel to pick up two more of the tour members who came by way of Cyprus.


Our first place to sight seeing was Joppa which is a little south of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean Sea coast.

Here we walked around and the guide, Philip, gave us some general history and Jabe Nicholson, our host gave us many points to remember and think about as related to the various incidents in the Bible that took place at Joppa.

Lac Lu outing - part 3

Swimming was one of the big activities of both days. when T. found out that he could actually stand on the bottom and still have his head out of the water he wanted to try without using the life jacket. The area between the dock and the rock was just the right depth for him.

After spending some time in the water it was time to get warmed up on the rock.

Sat. about noon we packed up and took a short trip into Kenora, ON to visit the Railroad Museum - it was a very interesting place with an old station like building housing a model RR which depicted rail service from coast to coast and from the early days until now. The volunteer who showed us around gave us a good lesson on the history of the RR. T. really enjoyed watching all the trains traveling around on the big model.

Outside we were able to go into a real caboose and walk around on the external walkways of an engine.

After a DQ stop we went to a park that was close by where there was a beach on Lake of the Woods - Opa and T. had a good time swimming and Oma just sat around in the shade.

When everyone was good and hot and tired we headed home to Winnipeg.

Outing to Lac Lu part 2

Off for a canoe trip - about a half hour paddle towards the west of the island there is an inlet from another lake - to go to the other lake requires a portage. Getting to the portage point one must paddle through an area of many water lilies and cattail plants. With careful paddling it is possible to get right among the plants and see some interesting wild life. We were able to come quite close to a turtle (likely the western painted kind) sunning itself on a rock. We also found a discarded Red-winged black bird's nest in the cattails and collected it for T. to take home for show and tell.

At the portage point there is a small rapids where the stream flows into Lac Lu. Opa found a good place to beach the canoe with T. and Oma still in it - thus we could disembark with dry feet - didn't matter to T. but Oma sure likes keeping the feet dry. We hiked around in this area and then spent some time sailing stick boats down the rapids.

When T. was in the woods looking for dry sticks he made a great find - dry animal bones (likely a young deer). Something more to add to his collection for show & tell.

Oma what happened to the tote box?
Oma had to rest for a while by sitting on the tote box. Opa had to help her up while T. took another picture which is not going to be published.

After about an hour we headed back to the cabin - reaching there in time for lunch which was very much needed by everyone.

Outing to Lac Lu - July 22-24, 2010

We took our grandson for a couple of days to Helmut's sister's cabin on Lac Lu. The cabin is located on an island and we reached it by canoe. The crossing was pretty wet because it was raining but the luggage was well protected by plastic bags and the people didn't suffer much from getting wet.

We arrived after supper so only had to get ourselves settled for the night.

Fri. morning we had a pretty early start on the day because everyone was awake just after 6 am. We started out with a big pan cake breakfast. Then Opa and T. investigated the dock and tried the water which he thought was chilly while Oma cleaned up.

Then it was time for a hike around the area (20 minute walk if you keep going) . We took a little longer because we had to see where three deer went bounding off to. Then we met the neighbors' big golden retriever, who is a lot of bark but quite friendly. Stopped for a view from the rock at the top and also smelled the wild sage. When we came around to the fire pit area we saw one of the deer at the far end of the clearing.

Keep watching for the next installment.

Sun. Nov. 22, 2009

On Sunday we chose to attend the Waialae Kahola Chapel which was located not far from the Diamond Head Crater. Helmut had jogged from our hotel to the chapel on Sat. morning to see exactly where it was. It wasn't all that far but very up and down hill. He had visited with a brother who was there for some reason. So we drove there on Sun. and when we arrived the sister that was in the lower area met us and asked if Helmut was the jogger.

The pomello fruit was in a tree in the adjacent yard to the parking lot. I wondered what would happen to a car if one of those fruits fell on it.

The people were very friendly with us and made us feel right at home.

Some of the young people were staying at the chapel for lunch and to practice some music. They invited us to have lunch with them.

The elderly man is a retired missionary from
Japan.

This chapel was right beside the main highway that took us to the airport where we met up with Jim and Myrna and waited around for our flight to Kona.