Sunny Days

We began our last full day driving west from Jerusalem on the hunt for the Elah Valley. This is where the epic battle of David and Goliath took place. It isn't marked with a museum or any type of tourist attraction, but that is part of what made this visit so interesting. The brook of Elah, which lies in the heart of the valley, is a seasonal creek that runs dry in the summer months. Most probably the brook from which David chose five smooth stones in preparation for battle, it was an ideal place to reminisce about what is arguably one of the most famous story from the Bible. After doing some offroading to find the site we spent some time as a family picking stones & reading the events in our Bible. We were saying that this story often is almost thought of as a children’s fable or some sort of folk lore, but it is a true story showing the power of our Lord for the underdog. The story takes on a whole new dimension when you read it from the site of the action.

We then headed off to Tel Aviv to enjoy an afternoon in the Mediterranean. It was amazing! We felt so relaxed enjoying the scenery, the sun, the amazing sand beaches, the blue water and the occasional popcycle. Reese was quite happy with the level of saltiness in the Mediterranean compared to our day at the Dead Sea! Both the kids had a blast playing in the water and digging in the sand. Neither of them have had much experience with sandy beaches, so they kept themselves very busy building and digging and throwing. Carter did load quite a few handfuls of sand on neighboring suntanners! We think it was his way of hitting on some of the girls. Beyond building and digging we even had the unexpected chance to observe some marine life, which was particularly exciting for Reese and Carter. Numerous times while swimming or sitting in the water we were stung by jelly fish. They were just mild ones, so we didn’t think much of it. Well, later in the afternoon people came across a HUGE jelly fish – I am sure it was bigger than Lewis, that washed up onto the shore only 25 feet from us. It was still alive so some locals placed back in the water VERY FAR from us. Not even five minutes later another one washed up on shore even closer to us. For some reason we didn’t spend too much time in the water after that.
We drove home quite peacefully, each of us a little shade of pink, but all having had a really cool time.