July 15th--Nachal Alexander, Chof Yannai and Burger's Bar

Well, isn't jet lag wonderful? The kids had to be woken up at 11:30 this morning! But...while all of my beauties were slumbering away(including Yehuda), I snuck out to go to the supermarket to stock the fridge and buy food for breakfast. The kids woke up to a yummy breakfast of Cariot cereal and Milkies. Yum!Next we decided to go to Nachal Alexander Stream where we were told they have soft shelled sea turtles, which are an endangered species, almost extinct. Since Joshua is obsessed with sea turtles lately, we had to check it out. We stopped along the trail and thanks to Leora's amazing eyes, she spotted a head popping out of the water. Talk about finding the proverbial needle in a haystack! The turtle (who the children affectionately named Carl) kept popping his head in and out until finally, after lots of patience on our part he climbed out of the water! It was completely and totally amazing. None of us had ever seen a soft shelled turtle before and we couldn't believe its size. It crawled right up to the kids and ate a onion that they found on the banks right out of their hands and then jumped back into the water. It was truly incredible! Not to ever miss a teachable moment, we did some research on the spot on the iPhone and found out that these turtles are actually carnivores. We wondered why he wanted our onion so badly. Who knows? But how cool!?Then, on our way to the beach, we stopped at some ruins which were an old customs station for goods traveling from the Mediterranean Sea down Nachal Alexander and into the country. We love ruins, so even the big hill and 100 degree heat couldn't stop us from checking it out.Next, we continued down to the beach at the end of Nachal Alexander, bought our yearly family pass to all of the national parks and eagerly ran down to the water anxious to jump in for a cool refreshing swim. Well, mother nature had other plans because the beach was covered with gigantic jelly fish. They were actually spectacular to see close up, but nobody dared to go into the water. The kids had a great time playing at the edge, digging in the sand and collecting beautiful shells. Hours later we had to drag them into the showers to head for dinner.Back in Raanana, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Burgers Bar, nice hot showers and comfy beds. Hopefully with a good night sleep we can be over the jet lag and all ready for another whirlwind day tomorrow!