May 9 to 12; Trip to North of Israel;
Fun leaving Jerusalem. Rent carat 2pm. Rental has no cars, wait till 4pm, get car, head out in middle of rush hour, take 1 hr to go 2 miles till reach highway. stay calm. Drive to Zikhron Ya'akov,a beautiful town south of Haifa that has a very neat central street closed off to traffic filled with restaurants and shops, and museums. We meet Roberta and her sister's friend Jeff Finger a friend from Palo Alto. He lives in a town house behind the house where Sarah Aaronson was tortured by the Turks in 1915 for being  a spy for the British , which was true since her family started a spy  ring. After several days of torture he got them top take her to her house a block away to change clothe so she die in clean clothes. As soon as she enter the front door she  open a secret compartment grab a gun and shot her self. Her brother and a friend were torture and killed without revealing the names of their entire spy ring. Their effort did help the British easily defeat the Turks in 1917.  The house is in very bad shape as a squatter lives there and the family can't get him out. Anyway the view form Jeff  place down the valley is very beautiful. We had dinner sitting outside, he works for Google traveling to Tel Aviv and Haifa 2 days each per week. His wife and 4 years daughter are very nice.

Then of to our lodging, Nes Ammim between Acco and Nahariya, which I found online  as reasonable, very pretty, in right location near the northern boarder.I assumed it was moshav or kibbutz, that frequently have guess resort like lodges. On mentioning  with cousin Shimshon, he informed that no this what you thought, but i a Christian lodge! and is quite nice and even KOSHER. It turns out that in 1963 some Swiss and Dutch Christians being bad about the Holocaust decide to come to Israel and help build up the land and improve Jewish- Christian relations. They depend( still)  on volunteers to start farming and build the lodge. after 50 years they are very successful in farming with roses for export to Europe and also avocados. Now they are working on Arab-Jewish relations and are building a new village on converted farmland for mixed Arab Israeli house development. The grounds are very pretty with plants from all over the world and also of ancient Israel. They have a synagogue with Torah and  a  large group came Friday morning from Hillel at a college with very religious young kids all very fit and movie star looks or else character actor like. Breakfast was  good and a very pleasant place. Most Jews were staying but we talked a Christian  couple from Vancouver and they had a lecture on Shavot as that is one of their goals to explain Judaism to Christians. from them. Incredible several of the founders kids converted to Judaism after learning about it firsthand.

Friday, we off to Baha'i Founder's shrine and gardens just north of Acco. Their second prophet Baha'u'llah  and   really the founder   lived here from 1879 till he died in 1892  and is buried here. His shrine is the holiest place on earth for Baha'is and so holy no Baha'i lives in Israel thought they make pilmagridage   often. we had to take off our shoes and not speak inside the shrine. The gardens are magnificent. Their prayers are directed to this location world wide. The first prophet was killed in Iran in 1850 as a heretic.

Next was Rosh Hanika right on the northern boarded with Lebanon which has grottos or caves under the mountain formed by waves eating away at the soft limestone. You take a cable car ride down the mountain to the entrance to paths leading to the grottos or underground caves with giant waves coming inside the mountain and very pretty with blue-green water. First you go into a tunnel that had railroad tracts on it which i couldn't figure out. They show a movie on the geology of the grotto and also on the tunnel railroad tracts. In 1943 the English decided  to build a rail line for Haifa to Beirut and farther north that would go from \cario to Turkey and hence to Europe. The New Zealand and South African engineers in one year built 2 tunnels thru the mountain and a bridge. This line function in 1944-5 helping to move supplies back and forth and even bring survivors to Palestine. However in 1947 a war was starting and Haifa was under attack already, the Jews were worried that the Lebanese would use to bring stuff to resupply their forces,so the Hagana slipped in one night under the British guards noses and blew up the bridge. Maybe one day it will be rebuilt when peace does come to this area. It was very pretty walking underground to see various caves  with crashing waves coming in.

In one cave we saw to guys holding a bed sheet with Hebrew writing on it standing on the side hidden. I asked the nest person coming down to take our picture, but he replied just a minute. He then brought his girl friend to to the guys with the sheet were, got down on his knee and opened a engagement ring box and asked her to marry him. Their friends all ran down yelling and Roberta and I started them on Simin Tof and Mazel Tof. It was quite a sweet sight. After all the commotion  was over, I went over and apologized for interrupting his plan. He was very gracious said no problem and Ok now I'll take your picture.

We then went to the seaside town of Naharya a cute small town with a very pleasant boardwalk promenade where he ate lunch looking out on the Mediterranean Sea.

We went back to Nes Ammim and Stan went to Friday night services with the college kids who in Israel are 25----30 year old after army service and travel years to unwind.
What a great day!!