We piled into the car and headed out to Rob Roy Kayaking (which is really canoeing) http://www.robroy.co.il/
Rob Roy is an Native American (Indian) Themed encampment just off the Kineret on the Jordan River. They display some totem poles, teepees, dream catchers etc. I think there are other more full day activities you can add on to do there, but we were just going to be canoeing this morning.
I had everyone change into swim clothes just in case we ended up getting wet. There are a few signs saying no swimming, and when you look at the Jordan river you can easily guess why. It is one big murky mess. You can easily imagine a variety of nastiness swimming under the water, but you can't see a thing below the surface. We were the only ones there that morning so they didn't mind putting up with Atara insisting on a life jacket that looked like everyone elses and not the "baby" kind. She also had to have her own oar. I tried to explain that she just needs to hold her own, but wouldn't be using it, but the man said he can only give us 3 oars. So basically Mendel and I rowed and steered the boat and Meir and Atara took turns whenever Atara thought Meir could have the oar for a few minutes. /The water was very still and once we got into a rhythm rowing the boat was very easy. We had an hour and half total water time. There must have been some sort of scavenger hunt along the river because there were a bunch of signs with hand drawn eyes and numbers. Around them were wooden creatures and animals. There were some homemade rope swings every so often, but there was NO chance my kids were going to use them to jump in the water. Even when I suggested they try them out, they shot that down faster than we could paddle away.
The route was not circular, so we had to pick a time to turn around and come back. Atara had pretty much had enough and could no longer be distracted by dragonflies and random songs, so we returned to the launch site after about an hour. Of course everyone was rewarded with popsicles and ice cream. We changed back into our regular clothes and headed into Tiveria.
Tiveria (Tiberias) was only about a 30 minute drive away. There we went to the Kever of the Rambam (gravesite). I had Mendel look up the Rambam and some of the other tzaddikim who are buried in Tiveria. He was most interested in Rabbi Meir Baal Haness. I told him that I had previously davened and given tzedaka in his name to help me find lost things. We learned that he is buried standing upright so he can just walk out of his grave and greet Moshiach. When we got to Kever Rambam (which looks like a modern white flame structure surrounding it) we split to our designated sides and said a bit of tehillim. After that we went to the Maimonides Heritage Center http://mhcny.orgThere is a small museum that goes over the life and works of the Rambam. We had an appointment at the Center to do their puzzle game. We first watched a short, but well done and interesting video on the life of the Rambam. We then did the one hour puzzle game trying to answer clues to earn us keys to unlock a safe with a surprise inside. This puzzle room was a little different than the escape rooms we had done in the past at home as we were given all of the clues at once and asked to either collaborate or to work alone finding the answers some where in the museum. The clues were written in cryptic form and we had to put in answers into an ipad to see if we were correct. We were able to complete all 5 clues in about 50 minutes. This was a fun and educational activity. The docent couldn't have been nicer. He even provided crayons and blocks to try and keep Atara busy. He prompted is with hints when needed. I highly recommend this activity. On our way out Mendel was needed for a mincha minyan at the Kever, so we waited for him realizing that since we are north of Yerushalaim his minyan was facing south instead of east.
We decided to go walk along the Tayelet (boardwalk) to see what was going on and to find food for our dinner. Pretty much nothing was open. It was EXTREMELY windy by the Kineret (Sea of Galilee). The water was very choppy. Meir had his own delight at finding his name in Hebrew as graffiti. We tried to walk along the water but it was too windy and cold. When we stopped to take a picture the stroller started rolling away. Obviously there weren't any boats to rent to cruise the water. Most things seemed closed for the season. We did find our usual Pizza and ice cream stops for Meir and Shnitzel/Shwarma stop for Mendel.As we walked back to our car we stumbled upon an open air art museum. We learned that the vowels for reading Hebrew were developed in Tiveria.
This was one of our less packed, hassle filled days with less driving but one of our more enjoyable.
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