Mimi and Kari's Egyptian Adventure - Day 6 Part 2

Near-Death on the Nile

We wrapped up Mom and Kari's visit with a felucca ride. One of our favorite ways to relax, always a good time, and you get to see a more peaceful side of Cairo. Well, this particular felucca ride was neither relaxing, peaceful, or much of a good time, I'm afraid.

We invited some friends to join us, and Beth and Jen came.

We had just climbed aboard our felucca, when my friend Jen jinxed us by saying, "I can already tell this is going to be the best felucca ride I've ever been on!" She and Beth had both brought snacks - I had forgotten all about snacks because we'd just had Luke's birthday cake. They busted out their delicious goodies and we nibbled on strawberries and chorizo, cheese, and crackers as the felucca man prepared our boat and then sailed us out to the middle of the river. Luke played while we chatted, took pictures, and enjoyed the cool air.



It was a much windier day than usual out on the Nile. I thought this meant we'd be able to sail and sail... We usually sail down the river to the part that looks like it could be where Moses was found in the rushes. I love it there. I was so excited for Mom and Kari to see it. Apparently all that wind meant we would go a hundred yards out into the river and stop. For an hour.


To pass the time, Jen had fun making Luke's little army men dance like Michael Flatley (Lord of the Dance).




We got out into the river and the boat started listing toward the side Jen, Beth and I were sitting on. We almost got dumped in! We ran to the other side of the boat. Not ONE minute after we moved, a 2-foot piece of wood broke off of the mast somewhere and came hurtling down into the felucca, landing right where Beth was standing minutes before. It seriously could have been a devastating turn of events. I think that shook all of us up, and we kept glancing up into the rigging to see if there were any more potential stakes through the heart headed our way.


Here we all are huddled in one corner of the felucca.

The felucca man tried to get us turned back toward shore, but after another twenty minutes of just sitting there, another felucca captain pulled his boat up next to ours and towed us in.

Not quite the experience I was hoping for for their last night here, but one Mom and Kari will never forget.

Plus Beth got her new nickname: Near-Death Beth!

Mimi and Kari's Egyptian Adventure - Day 6 Part 1

We had big plans for Friday! We'd decided to celebrate Luke's birthday early with Mom and Kari, so I got up super early and made Luke's birthday cake. We went to church at 11:00, and I was so happy because my favorite percussion guy was playing - the man from (Sudan?) who worships the Lord with such abandon - and I wanted Mom and Kari to hear him play. Mom wasn't feeling well, so she stayed home and slept, but Kari got to go.

After church we went to Lucille's - Kari was craving a hamburger -- hooked already on Lucille's!
Then, home for birthday festivities! Luke loves Peter Pan and pirates, so we decided to have a pirate party. Luke got dressed up in his pirate costume for the party.


We had cake and ice cream first.
Luke wanted to know why there weren't FOUR candles on his cake.

But I think he got over it as soon as he tasted the cake! Thumbs up, it's GOOD!

The Simons joined us for cake and ice cream:
Then we had a treasure hunt for Luke's presents. I had made clues for him to read to find the presents.

First he opened his birthday cards, and then a special present Granddad picked out for him:He got lots of wonderful gifts from Mimi and Granddad, including pirates, a pirate treasure chest with a spyglass, doubloons, and loot, a little mp3 jambox with kids' songs loaded, an ipod Shuffle (!), and a Spiderman watch. His Aunt Kari brought him a Little Einsteins Pirate Adventure play set. Jason and I gave him some toy dinosaurs, air force pilots, a hot wheels watch, a toy saxophone, and a construction worker costume. He loved all his toys and didn't know what to do with them all at once!
Granddad also sent Luke this pen that lights up. Luke and Granddad have a special trick they do together - Granddad brings home toys that light up, and Luke waves his hand over them and says, "Magic, Magic" to make them light up. Here's some video of Luke lighting up his magic pen. (I hate that I can't figure out how to rotate the video in Blogger - anyone got any tips?)

After the b-day celebration, it was time to get ready for a felucca ride--our most exciting one yet! More on that soon!