Exploring Cesaria Maritime

Today I was excited to finally meet the Mediterranean. I never thought I would find myself sitting on top of an ancient Roman aqueduct staring at the Mediterranean. But there I was.

First we went to see the archeology park at Cesaria Maritime. This is the town that Herod built to show Rome how great he was. Paul was also there, and I saw where the hearing rooms were when he was sent to Rome for the uprising accusations. An important artifact found here is a monument stone the mentions Pontius Pilot. This is the first known record other than the Bible of his existence which supports the Biblical account. It was really cool to walk the mosaic floors of Herod's palace and peep into the grottos that used to be the town. Afterwards we met the rest of the archeology team at the beach where the aqueducts are. They were eating lunch there and spending the afternoon. The weather was very windy and the sea was too rough to venture out too far. But I enjoyed walking down the beach and picking up stones that had been smoothed by the waves. I picked up a piece of marble that had been smoothed.

We came back in the evening and then Pam and I went to the Promenade here in Tiberias near the sea front. They had pony rides for little kids, and kiosks of various souvenirs set up. We both bought some pretty wrap skirts. I wanted one to wear when we visit a family next week for Sabbath. I also might go to Mass with the Catholics one day. A funny thing happened when we were shopping. Pam had bought a skirt and was looking for another one at a different kiosk. The owner was a Jewish lady who took the skirt Pam had already bought and looked at it and said, this is polyester, mine are silk! And then hung around and wouldn't let Pam hardly look at what she wanted to look at. I walked away, but Pam called me over to look at one of her skirts. Then the lady used my name and said, my skirts are silk, tell her they are better! I just laughed and moved on, but we were tickled.

Then one of the boys on the team showed up and helped Pam shop a little, giving opinions about colors,etc. We laughed about that, too. He sometimes reminds me of Joshua.

Now I am washing my clothes. We get the washer on Saturdays and Tuesdays. We have to hang the clothes out to dry. The sheets on the bed are funny. The bottom sheet is like a duvet cover, you slide it on the mattress like a pillowcase!! We didn't know how long it's been since they had been washed so added them to our wash pile.

And now enjoy the pictures!

This big foot came from a fallen statue that was situated in the harbor of Cesarea. It's huge! Imagine the nail clippers he would need!