Cairo!!!!!

Where do I start? Getting to Cairo was one of the longest 1.5 days ever. We left Bowling Green at 4:00am on Thursday morning, flew to JFK in NY for a looooooooooong layover. Our flight from JFK to Milan left at 7:00pm and was a 6.5 hour flight. I will say, the layover in Milan was quite interesting. I guess they decided the airport didn't need to be expanded in the last 20 years, which was a bad idea. To get to your gate, you could take stairs or an escalator. We hopped on the escalator, but about halfway down, I realized the area below us was completely crowded with people, so much so, there was no room to get off the moving escalator. You can imagine the pile-up!!! So, while we were waiting on our plane, we had the best time watching other groups come down the escalator then falling all over each other. 2 guys even thought it best to start trying to climb up it. Too funny!!! If only I had the camera ready for that one! From Milan to Cairo, it was about 4 hours by plane, and by that time, I was so confused what day it was. We left the airport at 3:00pm and were able to do a couple of fun things the first day that weren't originally on the itinerary.

In the picture below, clockwise from the left:
leaving the airport
the "president" of Egypt (he loves himself because his picture is everywhere)
Erlene (one of my parents' friends) with a guard at the tomb for the unknown soldier
the lower class section of town (let me tell you, the middle class section didn't look much better!)
Also, on the first day, we got to sail up the Nile. I don't know Cap'n Ahab's name (just an affectionate name since I love his namesake paper line :) but this is a money shot, don't ya think?

It was very overcast, not from the clouds, but from the blowing sand.
Now, onto day 2. We might have found something for some Studio Calico lovers.....
Clockwise from left:
Mom and Dad at the Pyramids right outside Cairo (it's amazing how close to town they are)
The pyramids (the large one, we got to crawl down into. Let me tell you: I can't even describe how hot it was in there and suffocating. The space to crawl down was about 4x3' and descended about 50-75' then ascended about the same before opening into a large area where the tomb would be. Amazing!)
A shiny shot at the pyramid Kyssop
The Sphinx

On the left, Louetta, who is Greg's "hero." She's 76 years old and didn't let age stop her from anything. Not only did she crawl down inside the pyramid above, but she hopped on the camel like she had done it a million times before.

Our last stop of the day was the oldest pyramid, called a "step pyramid" named Sakkura. The palms in the picture are date palms and they're supposed to be an aphrodisiac. I guess that's why the average family size in Egypt is 6.
We're off to the wilderness tomorrow. Seriously. So, I probably won't be able to update until Monday. Shalom!