Where the Wild Things Are

Christmas greetings, dear Reader!

How time has gone so quickly! I can't believe we are more than 2/3rds of the way through our time in Egypt. Thankfully this last part of our vacation is mostly down time. We have been staying home for a good part of our day with the exception of family gatherings (we have a lot of these!) and quick trips to the store and church. After being gone for a week away from the babies, I am really enjoying this time with them!

On a related note, our second honeymoon was amazing! We flew from Cairo south to Aswan, which is on the southern most end of lake Naser (a really big man-made lake, fed by the Nile.) Our accommodations were incredible! Amir reserved us a VERY nice cabin on a 5 star cruise ship. It was a beautiful boat with amazing food and warm, friendly people. It was a 3 day cruise north to Luxor, in which time we made many stops at tombs and temples.

The banks of the Nile are absolutely breathtaking. They reminded me of the illustrations in the book 'Where the Wild Things Are.' The deep murky color of the thick palm groves mixed with the cheerful sugarcane fields were quite a contrast. I let my imagination run rampant with all the possible 'wild things' that could be living in these thickets and might be spying back.

We stayed a day in Luxor and then we flew the Sharm il Sheikh. This beautiful city is located on the Red Sea on the Sinai peninsula. Our time here was much more relaxed. We had no schedule, just a list of things we may want to do.

The hotel booked was originally thought to be 5 stars. It turned out to be a 4 star in rating, but I would give it at most a 2 star if only because it is on the sea and had a nice pool. The food was comically horrible, along with the bar ( no ice, and they served everything with warm flat Pepsi or warm syrupy Tang.) Throw in a few thousand rude, unhygienic vacationers from Russia and it was quite the experience! However, I want to emphasize that these things were not able to distract me from the soul grabbing beauty of the sea or the wonderful companionship of my beloved husband. We could have slept under a 3 legged goat and I still would have had a fabulous time.

Benny and Joy didn't seem to miss us too much. When we got back they had gained 10 lbs. And we did pretty well without them, although the closer we got to home the last day, the more I realized how much I wanted to kiss their little cheeks!

That is all for today. I just ordered some KFC (yes, all fast food here can be delivered! and yes, ordering KFC in a city full of yummy Egyptian food might be grounds for smiting) I hope I can get over the guilt and enjoy it...


Love,

Sara (in Egypt)



P.S. - Pictures load very slowly on this site, but you can view a very complete moment by moment record of our time here by checking out my Facebook.