Egyptian Holiday

We were all very fortunate this holiday season to travel to Egypt as a family. It's hard to describe in a brief blog writing, but check out the pictures, and certainly we will share our many stories with you when we talk to each of you in person. Here are some of the highlights.

• The pyramids are unimaginable until you stand there before 3000-4000 year old structures. Each block is the size of Ariana in height! And the tallest pyramid is almost as tall as the tallest building in downtown Dallas.


• We also visited several temples, some still standing on their own, and some restored after 1,000's of years of Nile floods and Egyptian earthquakes. These places have hieroglyphics that represent the first known writings in history. And they are engraved on the walls of temples, tombs and pyramids in unbelievable detail.


• The tombs we visited in the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens also had hieroglyphics covering every inch of the walls inside these huge tombs. And, every inch was painted. Amazingly, much of the magnificent color still exists now, 1,000's of years later.


• We spent 4 nights of our trip crusing down the Nile on a cruise boat. Everyone loved that. The food was great. There was a computer for the kids to play computer games, and there were even other kids for them to hang out with. We even had a little pool. Ariana braved the cold water often, sometimes with Dad in tow.


• And the shopping in the old Cairo Egyptian market was fun but tiring. Negotiations lead to "discounts" as large as 80% off the original price. What...did they think we were knuckleheads?

It was a fantastic, once in a lifetime type of trip!