Day trip to the Sea of Galilee

Since today is a holiday we thought we would take an excursion through Nazareth and on to Galilee. It was about an hour and half drive and we got a head start trying to beat the heat of the day. We actually didn't stop in Nazareth we weren't sure if they would be friendly, so we headed on to Tiberias. The sea was very calm, and not very big. Mountains surrounded the sea. We went to 4 main tourist places. The first was the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the mount. Beautiful view of the Sea with Tiberias in the background. Then we went to the Church of the bread and fish. This was a possible site for Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 5 loves of bread and 2 fish. There was a cool (literally) cave up on the hill so we took a 5 minute hike and sat inside for a while. Another amazing view of the sea and the city. The third stop was Church of St. Peter. This spot indicates the potential place that Jesus (after the resurrection) appeared to Peter. Peter had been fishing all night with no catch, until dawn when from the shore Jesus said cast your nets on the other side of the boat. So they did and their nets were full of fish.
Some people were waterskiing on the lake. Lots of people were swimming despite the swimming prohibited signs posted everywhere. It was so hot we were tempted to jump in ourselves. We were hungry though so we headed back to Tiberas. We hoped to catch a little Falafel stand. But I guess these guys are serious about holidays! Everything was buttoned up :-( We walked in the hot, hot sun until we finally found a McDs that was open. It wasn't my first choice but it was the only choice so we enjoyed a hamburger and pita wrap for $25! My last goal for the trip was to find the "free" swim area and hang out on the beach. We drove for quite a while before we bumped into another point of interest. The Jordan River. We stopped in and looked at the site where Jesus was possibly baptized by John the Baptist. There were lots of people there. Some getting baptized themselves by their pastor. After this stop we decided to head back towards home thinking we wouldn't find the free beach (everywhere else it was $20). On our way back to town we stopped to take a picture of some caves up in the rock and almost directly across was a beach. We stopped for a quick swim. It was pretty rocky and had a quick drop off. Not many people were swimming (and there were a lot there) so we were unsure how safe it was. The drive home seemed long, maybe because we were so tired. We stopped by a beach near our house. This beach had nice sand and a place to put our towels down in the shade so we stayed for quite a while and enjoyed swimming in the Mediterranean. Can't believe we are living here!