Hello,

This is my first trip report so please go easy on me! My trip report is different from most because:

a. We travel with kids (ages 6 and 8 months at the time of this trip) and we only travel in economy since I wouldn't want to subject premium classes with our kids. That and the fact that it takes SO many miles anyways to travel in J/F pretty much guarantee that we are in economy.
b. I actually don't like the journey; I only tolerate it to get my destination. It's not just because I travel in Economy, but just the thought of getting stuck in a tin can that is LOUD for 10+ hours makes me cringe. So, you won't see any pics on the plane, or of the crappy economy seating/food!

Many of our friends think we are crazy to travel with kids, but international travel has been such a big part of our lives even before kids that it just felt natural to go with our kids. This was the first international trip with 2 kids. We've taken our older son on at least one international trip a year starting as an infant. Israel was something like his 14th country he has been to (just a tad behind ironmanjt/hauteboy/DanielW!)

Enough setup ... here goes.

Ever since we went Egypt/Jordan a few years back, I've always wanted to go to Israel. We just love history and being in the same places as some of the oldest civilizations on earth. It never seemed a good time due to the volatile political situation, but we finally bit the bullet and decided to go near the end of 2013. First, let me say that this is not a religious pilgrimage. None of us are Jewish; we wanted to go purely for the history. That being said, our older son was in a Jewish daycare for a few years so he got immersed with a lot of Jewish customs and holidays, so we figured we should go while he still some interest in Jewish culture (I never thought I would hear: "Oh wow, I want to go to the Kotel!" when we first told him we would be going to Israel!)

Here is our itinerary:

El Al 6: LAX to TLV
12 days in Israel
El Al 323: TLV to CDG
4 days in Paris
Air Tahiti Nui 7: CDG to LAX

We decided to stop by in Paris on the way back, because, well it's Paris! Oh, and this was back when AA allowed a stopover so we tacked on a LAX to HNL leg about 3 months later, but that's not included in this trip report.

El Al security at LAX was interesting. Before checkin, the El Al security (former IDF?) started talking to me in Hebrew and then switched to English after my dumb look. As other trip reports have noted, they ask questions for the sole purpose of gauging the behavioural responses of the subjects. Perhaps it's the kids (or my non-threatening nature , but I don't think we got the extra screening that some others got.

The flight was long and pretty uneventful except for one incident. I never sleep well on planes, but must have dozed off for a bit after the kids fell asleep. I was suddenly woken up by my wife who pointed with concern at the emergency exit. There was a guy there who was praying (with what is apparently called a "tefillin") facing the emergency exit and swaying front to back. Perhaps it was our sleep deprived state, but we both got REAL concerned for a moment. After we realized what it was, it was OK, but a bit of a scare due to our ignorance. Over the course of the 13 hour flight, we saw at least 3 people pray in a similar manner.

One other note, it was interesting to see quite a few young Americans flying for "birthright" trips and also a few flying for making "aliyah".

We really didn't want to spend any time in TLV and were instead going to head directly to Tiberias, but because we were landing on Fri at 1:30pm, we didn't want to head to drive for 2 hours just before the sabbath in case we had any trouble. Rented the car and proceeded to get lost on the way to the Marriott in TLV. Our GPS directions didn't quite match up with the street names! All in all though, driving here wasn't as crazy as I expected (until we got to Jerusalem that is!)

Here's the view from our hotel room in the morning. It was really nice being by the beach. Our infant didn't adjust to the time zone as quickly as we would have liked so I took him for walks on the beach in the middle of the night until he finally fell asleep.



On Saturday, there was an impromptu group dance on the boardwalk next to our hotel. Apparently, this is done every sabbath?



After grabbing some breakfast at a very nice restaurant close to our hotel (where my son chose to eat *bacon*), we headed to Tiberias. We checked into our airbnb rented house on a hill overlooking Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee.

A lot of the sights in and around the Sea of Galilee have great significance to Christians, especially Catholics. A lot of the sights are purported to be where there was a significant Jesus visit or where He performed a miracle. However, there wasn't necessarily any evidence persented that unequivocally proved that the sight was what it was purported to be.

We saw quite a few bus loads of pilgrims; especially from Eastern Europe. Undoubtedly one of the most unusual was a large group from Nigeria. Apparently, they were each given some colorful fabric to make outfits for the trip, so you had 3 bus loads of Nigerians who all wore the same fabric but each outfit was just a bit different than the others! They exuded the sort of happiness and raw enthusiam that one associates with Africans.

Our first stop the next day was Capernaum. The ruins of Capernaum supposedly include Peter's house. Unfortunately, there is a rather large Catholic church that dominates OVER the ruins of Peter's house. What remains of the ancient synagogue is quite amazing. The town is mentioned in all four gospels.



We then went to Ginnosar, which houses a 2000-year old boat. The "Jesus Boat" was a interesting exhibit. There is no claim that Jesus or any of the disciples were actually on this boat; just that the boat was dated to around that time period and was purpoted to be the type of boat that is mentioned often in the New Testament. The boat was found by some local fisherman after a drought which caused the boat to be exposed. There is an exhibit on just how big a project it was to excavate and preserve the boat.



Next, we headed to Chorazin which is mentioned in the Bible as one of the villages that were cursed due to the rejection of Jesus by residents. There were some structures of houses and pieces of the old synagogue.



Acre (Hebrew) / Akko (Arabic) is one the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The diversity of cultures that have conquered, passed through and/or lived here is just incredible. This extends from the Pharonic Egyptians, early Israelites, Greeks, Persians, Arabs and Crusaders to the more modern Turks, Napoleon and Bahai. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here's the old city wall.



Entrance to the Templar tunnel that lead from the walls to the Templar fortress in the old city. It's about 1/3km long.



Brightly painted mosque in the old city.



On the way back to Tiberias, we stopped by Caesarea Maritima. This is an ancient city built by Herod. It was here that the only archaelogical piece mentioning Pontius Pilate was found. Herod's palace ruins (with what is suspected to be a fish pond/swimming pool!), the hippodrome and a restored amphitheatre were the highlights at this location.







We drove to Nazareth to see some of the Biblical era sights there. The town itself is quite chaotic with traffic and congestion. In fact, it's the largest Arab city in Israel. We first visited the Nazareth Village which is a recreation of life in Nazareth during Biblical times. I was expecting this to be a little kitschy since there are costumed actors recreating scenes, but it was actually interesting. They used period-era tools for making wine and woodworking and the site actually had some very old olive trees and holes in the ground where wine used to be made.



Making wine.



The Church of the Annunciation is a Catholic church where it is said that Mary was visited by Gabriel and told that she would give birth to Jesus. There were quite a few pilgrims when we went. The courtyard surrounding the church had a bunch of Mother and Child mosaic portraits from around the world which was pretty cool. Here's a Thai Mother and Child mosaic.



The actual spot is a cave underneath the church called the Grotto.



In the small town of Tabgha in the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee is the Church of the Multiplication. This is considered to be the place where Jesus fed 5000 people by "multiplying" a few fish and loaves of bread. The church was erected 400 AD. The 5th century mosaics on the floor of the church are quite impressive.

Under the altar is a large stone where it is said the "multipled" meal was laid.







We weren't floored with the wine, but the experience was very nice. All of their wines are kosher as you might expect.





Byzantine-era tablet at the winery depicting grape vines.



We stopped by a local chocolatier in Ein Zavan where you can sample a bunch of chocolates and take a tour. My son also got to take part in a chocolate making class for kids which he absolutely loved. The owner is Argentine Jew who immigrated to Israel and started making the chocolate. At this point, we were less about 1 km from the 1974 ceasefire line, which is pretty much the Syrian border. In fact, the road just a bit north of here stradles the ceasefire line. The UN maintains a buffer zone in this area and has an observation force, although we didn't see any activity or people. After a little bit of trepidation, we decided to head north a bit to the Druze Israeli village of Mas'ade, which is just a few miles north. The food here has a lot of Lebanese influences and we heard about a pretty good restaurant just inside the town. The food did not disappoint! It was pretty simple but all of it was super tasty!



Cows crossing the road.



Here's a road sign you don't see too often.



Next up, we leave the Sea of Galilee and head to south to the Dead Sea.