Over the Jordan

Funny now that I look at it, most of my pictures were either out of the front or side window of the car. Seems like I remember most of Dad's being the same way, but that may be a false recollection. Today we went north to the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights. I seem to remember someone telling me, likely lots of someones, that every notable place in the Holy Land with something to do with the Savior had a church on top. I can verify the voracity of that statement. I don't know what they were trying to do with the church, but I will tell you that it took all the enjoyment out of those places for me. Instead, we were left to look around at the relatively untouched scenery to find a small portion of what it was like when He walked there. The Sea itself was beautiful, although drained considerably from its usual height because of an ongoing drought here. The hills and mountains around it were striking, rising to great heights quickly after leaving the lake shore. It was not hard to imagine the Savior teaching people on the hills or fisherman preparing nets or sailing along the shores. After visiting the sites around the Sea of Galilee, we continued north to the Golan Heights. Daniel told us about his role in the Six Days War, planning how the tanks were supposed to ascend the bolder strewn hillsides. I am not sure how tanks were supposed to move there knowing what a little rock does underneath a track vehicle from my time on the D-6. Somehow they made it, at great personal loss, up through the the steep hills and took the heavily fortified positions of the Syrians.

The pictures, in order, are of the Sea of Galilee, the Sermon on the Mount location , the Jordan river as it flows into the Sea of Galilee, a little warning on the fields of the Golan Heights (we didn't take a walk there), and a beautiful sunset from Daniel's hilltop home, looking over the Mediterranean.