Scott and Tiffany in Israel

Caesarea

On our way to the airport to leave Israel, we stopped in Caesarea. We ate at a wonderful restaurant and saw an ancient amphitheater, horsetrack and lots of ruins. We saw the "place of hearing" where Paul demanded to be tried in Rome (Acts 25).

Arches

Columns

Ruins

Church in the Holy Land

Today we went to the Tiberias branch. Including us, there were 12 people there. Normally there are more like 20. Tyler will definitely raise the volume level in sacrament meeting.

After church we saw the sea of Galilee and then drove to the Mount of the Beatitudes. The church that is built there was closed, but we did have a beautiful view of the sea of Galilee. We sat in our car and read the bible dictionary entries about the area. We then drove to Capernaum and saw the ruins of that city.

Afterwards we went to Herziliya and had dinner with the Alsops, our friends from Hillsboro.

Work and dinner

Scott went to work Thursday morning. Scott met with his manager's co-manager, Arik, and met several co-workers.

We then went to Cesearea, but didn't get out of the car because it was pouring rain. We checked out Ikea and then ate dinner with Arik and his wife.

Brooke slept most of the day. This gives us hope that one day she might sleep through the night.

More Pictures

Rental car

Our apartment building

Our view

Our family room

Our kitchen

House Hunting

We had an exhausting day yesterday. We spent all day looking at apartments. We saw a wide range of apartments, from a three floor duplex to a penthouse apartment. We also ate at a Druze restaurant, which was very good.

This morning we went back to talk with the owner of our top apartment choice. It is a 14th floor, penthouse apartment. It is about 1500 sqare feet with three bedrooms, an office, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 2 stories and at least 4 balconies. Don't worry about the balconies, they have high railings about 4 1/2 feet tall. It has a beautiful view of the Haifa harbor and on a clear day you can see all the way to Lebanon and Syria.

The one problem with the apartment is that the stairway to the second level doesn't have a railing. We put that in as a requirement, so we will see if the owner gets a reasonable estimate for putting in a railing.

We visited the Ba'hai gardens, walked past the Haifa zoo and ate lunch in the German colony. We ate at an Egyptian restaurant called Ramses. We then took a nap and then to the mall.

Pictures

View from our hotel room

View of Haifa

First day in Haifa

We woke up at a decent hour this morning and had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. We especially enjoyed the pain au chocolat, and other breads reminiscent of our time in France. We were not brave enough to try the fish dishes or the vegetable salads.

We then went back to our room and slept until almost 12:30 pm. Scott checked his email and found that our orientation appointment was moved from 1 pm to 12:30 pm. So we were glad we were up and ready.

Mark is our relocation specialist. He took us on a tour of Haifa, including a cable car ride up and down the mountain and a walk through the marketplace. We saw lots of interesting things. He then took us to a mall and we ate shawarmas. We also bought Tiffany a blow dryer that works at 220V. The hotel did not have enough and we figured we would need one eventually. Tiffany is relieved to know that the mall is close and similar to what we would expect of a mall.

We then took another nap, just a short one and then had free dinner in the hotel business lounge (because Intel made our reservation). Fortunately, Brooke behaved and the hotel staff thinks she is very cute.

We will look at apartments all day tomorrow.