The Psalms of Ascent in the book of Psalms illustrate the anticipation of going up to Jerusalem to experience the city chosen by God for His temple.
We began the day overlooking the city from the Mount of Olives. The Dome of the Rock sits on the site where the Jewish Temple is believed to have been located.
Amazing history defines the sites we saw along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.
We started at the most visited site in Israel outside of Jerusalem.
The Jordan River drains the Sea of Galilee and takes it to the Dead Sea, at least geographically speaking. Today the Jordan is but a trickle and the Dead Sea is drying up. On this day we headed south, leaving Galilee behind.
The Jordan River Valley is green in March, with intensive agriculture under the white, water-conserving canopy.
The Sea of Galilee was the center of Jesus’ ministry, and it has a great deal of meaning for the people in our group. We spent a whole day traversing its shore.
From our new temporary home at Kibbutz Ginosar, our first daylong foray was east and then north, into the Golan Heights.
I am always cheered by seeing the colorful Orthodox church at Capernaum with its bright red roofs.
Our planned trip to Israel and Jordan was scheduled for March 2020. But that was when COVID arrived, urgently elbowing its way to the front of the line on every schedule. At first I thought we might make it in August, or the following November, or May. Nope, COVID was not going to allow it.
FINALLY, after 4 postponements, we made it to Israel in March of 2022. (more…)
I’m trying to get in more walking hours, so today it was off to circumnavigate the Pheasant Branch Conservancy.
The first thing I noticed was lots of animal tracks in the snow.
A couple of big writing and editing projects have kept me from traveling as much as I would like this summer but now that they’re done it was time for another road trip. I had a yearning to ride amongst the trees and a friend recommended Hartman Creek State Park for its fine off-road single track bike trails, so I headed off towards Waupaca.
The view from the observation towers atop Blue Mounds State Park is magnificent, especially on a clear day. I made several visits to the park in June.
View of the Wisconsin River Valley from the east tower of Blue Mounds State Park.
My hiking partner, Tom, and I have enjoyed several of the scenic trails at Governor Dodge State Park and decided it was time to tackle another one, the Cave Trail. This trail had a feature not shared with the other trails in the park: a cave.
The Cave Trail follows along one of the streams in the park.
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