Today we finished breakfast in the hotel and hit the road for a local artist village, but before we arrived, we stopped at a park to check out the view of the mountains in the area. We were able to see Mt Hebron way off in the distance as we took in the view of the Galilee. Just past the park you could even see the charred trees made by missiles that landed not long ago. 
We then loaded up into the van and headed for the artist village if Tzfat (kind of pronounced s-vaht). Like many places here, it is rich in history and mysticism. It is a believed that when the Messiah comes, he will take a path through Tzfat. It is also the home to Kabbalah, a sector within Judaism that was born to try to explain some events through numbers and connections. We met with a local artist, David Freeman, who shared some of his art and talked about the connections between special numbers like 7 and 8 and life. I wasn't buying any of it (or his art), but it was interesting what truths people like to bend to try to make sense of things.
Afterward, we took our time walking around the city. We passed through a very narrow alley that has the superstition that if you can walk through it without touching the walls, you would be married within one year. Sophie made sure to touch both walls the whole way through.
Meanwhile, Theo made a detour and discovered an hyrax (rodent not much different than a groundhog) hiding in some rubble.
We checked out the local shops, including a candle factory, and I tested out a new look with payos.
We checked out a couple of 500 year old temples, one Ashkenazi and one Sephardic. It was interesting to see some of the differences. The Sephardic was less about a focal point, people would sit all around the room, whereas the Ashkenazi was more in rows facing the ark. We then left Tzfat to head for the water (it is still 95 degrees here).
We arrived in Tiberias, a crazy village on the Kineret (the largest body of freshwater in Israel, and the only freshwater see in the world - doesn't that just make it a lake?). While there we went tubing. It was much tamer in the water than when we go in Maine with PopPop, but on land the locals were much more rude, being quick to yell at Lisa and Sophie for wearing a bathing suit, despite being a stones through from the water. After tubing, we checked out the public beach. It was pretty crowded, but was nice to take a cool dip.
Back to the hotel we went for yet another swim, this time in the hotel pool.
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