Castles, Chocolate, Ancient Toilets and More!

Yesterday was a lot of fun. First we went to Kibbutz Naot Mordecai to get shoes. They make the shoes at the kibbutz and have a factory outlet store there. It was the sixth factory we've seen in Israel. Here's Jonah and me with our purchases:

Then we went to Nimrod's Fortress, a castle up in the upper Upper Galilee. It had an amazing view of the valley below!

We found secret passageways, places where they'd shoot arrows from, and this cool ancient toilet:

The fortress was destroyed in an earthquake. Here is the remains of a tower with my Abba walking next to it.

Here he is on top of it (with Jonah)

Inside the castle we found an underwater cistern and water pool area:

 Here's me taking an ancient "bath"

After Nimrod's Castle, we went to Mt. Hermon, the northernmost part of Israel. We took a chairlift up to the top of the mountain:

 Here is a view from the top:

Our tour guide was really smart. He told us about various plants that grow on the top of the mountain, including these tiny sour cherries that Isaac and I liked to eat:

We saw down into Syria from the mountain. There are two roads below. On the left of this photo is Syria. On the right is Israel.

There were a lot of soldiers up there. This one let us take a photo with him and his big walkie-talkie that Isaac got to hold!

From there we went to Kibbutz Dafna's Shulman Chocolate Factory. We got to make delicious chocolates there. Here's me in my chef's hat:

 Isaac got white chocolate squirted all over his face:

We made ganache balls rolled in coconut or sugared peanuts and we made characters with white and dark chocolate. I made a monkey:

 Jonah made a dog.

 Isaac made a pirate squirrel.

Today we went to Beit She'an, which had a great amphitheater that had room for 700 people! In this photo I am standing on the stage.

Again we found a room for ancient toilets.

Here are more ancient toilets from the other end of the site. I love finding ancient toilets. They are so cool!!!!!!!!

Beit She'an was really amazing:

After that we went to Gan HaShlosha, or Sachne natural water park. It has a river running through it with multiple pools. It was awesome to swim there!

Isaac is here in the blue swim shirt:

 Here's Isaac and Jonah:

 Here's me, my brothers, and Mommy in the river. Abba took the picture.

Some people believe that Gan Hashlosha was the original Garden of Eden. I don't think that is true, but it is a really beautiful place.