Golf Days

Another thing Jason wanted to be sure to do before we left Egypt was play golf near the pyramids, so he went with our friend Art to play one Saturday morning. Cool pictures, huh?



AIS also has two golf tournaments each year for faculty. Jason played in the Galabeyya golf tournament (in which all players must wear galabeyyas) and Luke and I went to the pool at the club while he played. Jason took this goofy picture of me wearing Luke's visor with the built-in glasses. Those are my actual sunglasses on top of my head. I know, I'm fancy.


Here is Jason's team: Art, Jason, and Hany.

Luke and I had a great time splashing around in the pool and visiting with friends. It was nice and hot so the pool felt great!

Mother's Day

I had to work on Mother's Day, but Jason and Luke made the day sweeter by giving me a dozen red roses - Luke's idea, because my favorite color is red - and by taking me out to dinner. Later, Luke fell asleep on my lap while I rubbed his tummy. What better way to end Mother's Day?

Jason's Trip to Jordan

The weekend after we went to Aswan, Jason went to Jordan. He really wanted to see Petra before we left Egypt. I was indifferent about it, and I told him I'd rather he went on his own than spend the money for all three of us to fly out there. Here are some pictures from his trip.

























I think this might be Jerash.


He also visited the Dead Sea. You can only swim in it on the Jordanian side.


That's Jason floating out there!

Aswan - Day 3

Our third day in Aswan was short because we flew back to Cairo that afternoon. We spent the morning and early afternoon on a felucca ride around Elephantine Island. I was really looking forward to seeing the Nilometer on the island and visiting some of the ruins on the island.







We hit a run of bad felucca luck though, beginning with our felucca ride when Mom and Kari visited. This time there was absolutely no wind (what were we thinking?) so when we rounded the island and started going upstream, the felucca man had to row. With oars that resembled two by fours. Needless to say he did not keep that pretty smile on his face!



Luke and I helped steer while Jason helped the felucca man row.


Three hours later we arrived back at our starting place. (It was supposed to be an hour and a half ride, including getting out and walking around.)

Aswan - Day 2

Our second day in Aswan we went to Abu Simbel, an ancient temple built by Ramses II. Like the temple at Philae, this one had to be taken apart and reconstructed when the High Dam was built. We flew there from Aswan (45 minutes or so) and then took a taxi from the airport to the temple. We had to walk quite a way to get to the temples themselves. We walked around a big hill by Lake Nassar.



Then we saw this, which is the part of the temple dedicated to Ramses II's wife, Nefertari.


The front door of the temple has a golden key, which features prominently in the Little Einsteins episode where they go to Egypt. Luke was THRILLED to see a REAL golden key!



For some perspective, I was standing right under the statue looking up while taking this picture.


Here is the temple dedicated to Ramses and three other gods.



See the pieces of stone lying on the ground next to the second statue on the left? They're part of that statue's missing head.

Here are Luke and Jason standing next to them. Look at the size of ear on the stone next to Jason, and how massive the statues are in comparison next to him! (Jason is 6 feet tall.)





These statues are situated in the temple so that the sun shines directly on them twice a year - on Ramses' birthday and coronation day.



It took about an hour to see both temples and get back to the place our cab driver picked us up.
It was super hot at Abu Simbel. We were glad to be back in the airport and on our way back to Aswan, which was a little cooler.