The Road Trip (Part 2)

Friday July 23

Friday morning: Breakfast is great and I am delighted to see pancakes for the first time in about a month. Afterwards we spend 20 minutes or so speaking with the “hotel” manager/concierge about where to go for water sports on the Kinneret. He spouts off some places and we grab a map scribble them down and embark on our adventure. We thank him for his help and he calls us “wonderful Americans.” Ellie objects vehemently and insists that the British are nothing at all like those obnoxious Americans.

We arrive at the first beach after only getting a little lost and travel time has only been about an hour. The woman standing at the gate charges us 140 shekels ($45) to get in. Something does not seem right but we pay anyway and make our way down the hill to park the car. When we disembark the beachfront looks like a refugee camp and is sprawled from end to end with barbecues and tents. We quickly realize that the reason why the price was so expensive is because all of the Israelis have brought tents to camp out here for the weekend. In effort to gauge the situation I speak to two nice teenage Israeli girls whose English is excellent and they tell us that the woman at the game is quite reasonable and will give us our money back if we explain the situation. The three of us are quite surprised by this as Israel is a country well known for its no return policy. You can not return anything to the store for a credit or refund. All sales are final even if it is unopened or the wrong item. Sure enough we receive our 140 shekels back and try to find a non camping beach with water sports. I drive away contemplating whether a Nordstrom’s would succeed in Israel with its indomitable return policy.

The rental car radio has an MP3 USB port but none of us can you figure out how to use it. I connect it with my Ipod but it won’t play. (Israel doesn’t seem to like Apple products in general. Most web pages won’t load right in Safari or even Firefox. Damn you Bill Gates!). Of course it isn’t until after the weekend is over and we are on the ride home that Ellie tries her Ipod and it works but plays all the songs consecutively- which means that because she has all 7 Harry Potter books as audio files we must fast forward through 235 chapters of Harry Potter before we can listen to any real music. By this point we have bought the appropriate batteries for Ellie’s Ipod speakers and are having Becky DJ in the back seat. She plays and sings along to Akinyele’s 90’s classic “Put It In Your Mouth” – twice – before settling on agreeable classic rock tunes and later the Avenue Q soundtrack.

We arrive at the second beach entrance, which is located behind a very small waterpark. Before we fork over more money without knowing what we are getting I ask the man at the booth whether this is the place that has water sports. “I don’t know. I just work in booth.” We ask a few more people and no one seems to know where to find the water sports. Eventually I park the Avis rental car under a shady tree and we embark on a long walk down the hill to the beachfront. We stop at the bathroom to change and the conditions are less than par. It is eerily similar to the bathrooms in Eilat where I watched a man clean the bathroom and toilets with the water from the toilet bowl.

Abuv

The beach has a few small water sports and we elect to take a ride on the Abuv – which is like a 3 person water tube where you lie flat on your stomach. The ride is super fun and the three of us going flying off the raft and tumbling through the water. After about ten minutes we head back into shore and the girls beg the lifeguard for a ride on the motorboat while he takes out the next group. He obliges but says the he can only take two passengers and I let the girls enjoy their free boat ride.

 We swim around for a little bit and then dry off and head off to pick up our friend Zack who made aliyah two years ago and is now serving in the army.  The drive is only an hour and we pick him up on the side of the road outfitted in IDF army fatigues.  We stop for gas and I buy a Twix because -  well I felt like having one and there weren't any Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It was quite delicious.

We drive to Tiberias and eat lunch and rent a motorboat to take out onto the Kinneret.  Zack gets us a discount because he is in the army and his Hebrew is impeccable.  The woman who rents us the boat has a tattoo of a fetus on her back left shoulder.  Who said Israelis don't have class? Besides- what could possibly go wrong?  Zack and I take turns driving the boat between the marked buoys.  When we give the reins over to Becky - the engine sputters and instantaneously dies out.  "Great Becky - you broke the boat."  Sure enough- we have run out of gas.  We drift out to sea as the "Jesus boats" (boats filled with Christan pilgrims b/c this is supposedly where Jesus walked on water) pass us by and wave.
As we are floating out to Jordan Zack says: : "Maybe there's some sort of emergency number to call"
Me: "Right. Like Israeli lady with the fetus tattoo would put the important stuff in her motorboats."
Zack: "You mean like the placard under the wheel that says (in Hebrew) 'Mispar Cherum'   (Emergency number)"
Whoops. 

Zack calls for help.

Zack calls and a 16 year old Israeli boy comes out in a motorboat with two religious orthodox girls.  We laugh and take their pictures as they take ours.  The Israeli boy ties our boat to his and tows us back into shore.  Thirty minutes later we dock and are glad to be back on land.  A few minutes after the religious girls go by and I ask them if we can look at the pictures.  Hurriedly - they quickly turn and walk in the other direction.  Apparently I have affronted them with my polite manners and secular lifestyle.

Afterward we drop Zack off at the army base and drive down the other side of the mountain to get back to Kibbutz Gonen. The drive is beautiful and we can see all the way to Lebanon. As we come around a giant S curve the sun is setting in the distance.  I stop the car so we can get out - take a few pictures and watch the sunset.  However - almost immediately wasps and bees the size of which are larger than birds- begin to swarm around us and we make a mad dash for the car.


When we return to the Kibbutz Becky and I spend an hour online researching a restaurant in the area that will be open on a Friday night.  We decide on Japanik- a chic sushi/Asian restaurant not far from Kiryat Shemona.  However our plan is thwarted on account of Ellie's dislike (allergy?) to noodles! Oh dear. We drive over there anyhow and settle at a restaurant named Arburger bar.  As such - their burger is good and Etty our waitress is nice (and adorable).
The dessert - chocolate lava cake with vanilla ice cream is fantastical and a most perfect end to yet another fun filled adventurous day.

Mmmm!