Thursday, January 31, 2013

Caesarea 1/26/13

King Herod built a large port on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, he named it Caesarea in honor of his patron Octavian Augustus Caesar. It was occupied by the Persians, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Mameluke, ottoman- Bosnian refugees.
There is so much to see and it is amazing the different levels of architecture that are left. 



Chris standing in front of the theater that was built in Herod's time.


Jonathan, Michael, and Olivia (the theater in the back)


The kids are by pillars that stand where a great palace once was, dating back to the Roman period (37 BCE-324AD) 


The waves were huge and we couldn't pass up the photo opportunity so we all ended up walking away quite wet!



Herodian Amphitheater:
This was so amazing to see, there is a huge amphitheater built by Herod that use to hold horse races and sports events. It was so well intact. The kids had fun pretending to drive the chariots. 


 So many beautiful archways.




The kids are standing in front of an amazingly well preserved bath house. The tiles in the floor are spectacular to look at.


Hike to Nahal Me'arot 1/19/13

We went on a little hike with some friends of ours to Nahal Me'arot, it was only about a 30 min hike that took you up around some caves. The kids had a lot of fun doing the hike and then poking there heads in and out of all of the holes in the cave.














Fun in Utah

What a fun time we had in Utah with all of our friends and family. It was so nice to see everyone and to spend so much time there. We are missing Utah and all that it has already but are glad to be somewhere warm again. 













Thank you all for making our stay so terrific! We will see you soon.