"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."
- matchless visionary and first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion

Our sage guide Eres shared the above quote with us last night as we arrived in Netanya. He has three small children and a newborn girl at home. I will post pictures of him and Adi (our good humored and fiercely capable driver) by way of introduction soon!

Like Israel herself and so many of her cities that have sprung from the neglected desert sands, Netanya begun with 5 pioneers digging a well in December '28 and was the first newly designated city of the newborn state of Israel 20 years later (then 9,000 people lived there), and now is home to nearly 2 million.

With the sun rising at our backs, a few of us watched it brushed the clouds with a kiss this morning at 5:34AM above the Mediterranean. The water was warm and jellyfish abounded as we made the most of our morning on the sea. Now to breakfast and Caesarea!

 Sun rising behind us...

 (Right to left) Sara, Linda, Nate, Stacy, Mary, Archie, Lily, Ben, Elijah, Elias, Roger, Payton

 Gina jumping in at the last minute rather than missing out on her chance to cross it off her bucket list! #SoProudOfThatGirl

Coastline view to the south