Captain Peres takes to the sea

Who says the president can’t enjoy a beautiful spring vacation as much as anyone else? While some 300,000 Israelis hiked and traveled around the country on Thursday, the staff of Shimon Peres’s residence, led by the president himself, enjoyed a day of touring around the Sea of Galilee, and Peres even tried his hand at steering a boat.

Passover is a very popular time for Israelis to travel, and the springtime weather adds to the appeal, with many workplaces closed for the duration of the holiday.

While it would seem that the president’s responsibilities never end, Peres nevertheless arrived on Wednesday evening at Kibbutz Ein Gev, where he participated in a sing-along of Israeli folk songs.

On Thursday morning, the president and his staff boarded The Sussita, named for the first boat operated by Ein Gev’s Kinneret Sailing Company. Sporting a “captain’s cap,” Peres at one point took the wheel of the boat and navigated it back to port.

Peres — who will celebrate his 90th birthday this summer — spent much of his early life near the Sea of Galilee and was an early member of Kibbutz Alumot, just a few miles from Israel’s largest freshwater source.

“The most beautiful views in the world are right here in the State of Israel, the shores of the Sea of Galilee,” Peres posted on his Facebook page on Thursday. “Every time I come to this area I feel like I’ve come back to the scenes of my youth near the Sea of Galilee, which were reflected from the kibbutz of my youth, Alumot.”