Sunday — On the Way Home

6 AM, five or less hours of sleep. Oh well, we soon will be on our way back to the U.S.A. Megan still isn’t feeling well and Bonnie isn’t either. Hopefully this won’t hinder our trip home too much. Took a taxi to the airport. For some reason it only cost half as much to get to the airport as to go to the hotel. Anyway the ride was uneventful as it should be. Kind of just streamed through the airport as we were already checked in when we left Cairo. Passport was checked probably half a dozen times altogether but no big deal. We sat outside the gate to have some breakfast. Again Bonnie and Meg weren’t feeling well so they did not eat much. I had eggs Benedict with smoked salmon instead of Canadian bacon. It was tasty but pretty salty. Not something I would probably order again.

After breakfast was time to proceed to the gate. Got in a very long line and had our passports and boarding pass checked three more times. I was a random security check so Meg and Bonnie got on the plane while I awaited further screening. There was really no problem but the ladies were worried they wouldn’t let me on the plane because it was taking so long. We are sitting in row 18 which is right behind business class so we should be able to get to customs pretty quickly in Seattle. Will say much more about Emirates Airline in a separate entry. There are many nice things to say. Still 10 more hours to Seattle.

I am now writing on the plane to Anchorage. We actually got to Seattle about a half hour early. That was really nice. Got a bite to eat. Then it was time to go to the gate again. The Sea-Tac airport is a very familiar place and it was nice to be in a familiar place once again. While we were sitting on the airplane waiting for everyone to get on Patty Bryant passed us on the way to her seat. You know you are home when you run into someone on the airplane that you know.Plane to Anchorage left on time and it’s supposed to be a 3 hour 8 min flight. Hope that’s a good estimate. I’m ready to be home. I look forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. It’s supposed to be in the mid to upper 70s today in Anchorage, We will probably feel a little chilly.

We arrived in Anchorage about 5:50 PM. That makes almost 24 hours traveling. Temperature here is 77 F. It’s now 6:50 and Bonnie is in bed. I’m going to try to stay up so I’m not up in the middle of the night and not tired. It is good to be home with wonderful weather on top of it. Will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow.

Saturday - On the way home

This morning seemed to come early for everyone and we overslept. Ephraim had made arrangements for a taxi to take us to the airport. We are an hour and a half from the airport and we were taking a taxi. We were supposed to be up by 6 this morning and we got up at 6:50. The taxi was supposed to pick us up at 7. He had actually been waiting for us since about 6:40. But with getting up late there were no protracted goodbyes. The hardest part was to part company with Melanie. She had changed her flight and was going back to London direct from Cairo instead of flying to Dubai with us. It was a tearful departure. We will miss Ephraim and Kaja. They were a lot of fun to spend time with on the trip. They are wonderful hosts and wonderful people. We hope to visit them in Poland one day.

We wanted to get to the airport 3 hours ahead of departure since we had bad experiences the last time we left Cairo. We were away from the resort by 7:20. That is a record for us to get ready that fast and say our goodbyes as well. Off we went to the airport. The driver did not speak any English except for a few words but as usual we were able to communicate just fine.

We got to the airport about 9 AM. Went through initial screening and off to the departure counter to get our bags checked and our boarding passes. That was all done by 9:30, So now we had 2.5 hours to kill. Melanie’s flight from Cairo was 5 hours after ours so Ephraim and Kaja took her to the airport later in the day. The flight left a little late because of traffic. Heavy traffic in on the taxiways in Egypt, who would have guessed.

We arrived in Dubai about a half hour late. Breezed through passport control and off to the taxis. Went to the wrong hotel first. They provided us transport to the correct one. We got checked in just fine but Meg was feeling poorly.  We went across the street to a mall to get her some Tylenol and a sports drink. We also picked up some dinner at the food court and took it back to hotel to eat. The Japanese food we got was very tasty and we ate while watching TV. Finally turned in around 1 AM setting the alarm for 6 for the final two legs home.

Friday - Reprise

Today was exactly the same as yesterday weather wise. We were all up by about 8 this morning. Breakfast consisted mostly of leftovers and using up the rest of the eggs combined with onions and tomatoes. All ate their fill. Bout 10:30 we headed for the beach. I went with Mel, Meg, and Bonnie this time. Ephraim and Kaja came down laster and brought a backgammon board with them.

Before our gracious hosts arrived Mel and Meg went out on a sand bar and composed a message to Lindsay and Kiel regarding their upcoming wedding. They drew a heart in the sand with an appropriate message inside and took a video to post on Facebook.

There was a sand bar, actually there were many, because the tide was out. You could walk nearly a half a mile into the ocean and hardly get wet on your journey because there was that much sand exposed. Kind of reminded me of the tides at home but these were only about 8 feet instead of 30. The water patches between the bars were actually hot, probably about 105 F. The tide came back in about 4 PM and then there were no sand bars but much of the water was still very shallow.

Everyone went swimming at different times during the day. We had a cooler with us today so there was plenty of things to drink and it wasn’t necessary to go back to the flat until late in the afternoon.Ephraim and Meg started playing backgammon sometime during the afternoon and many of us took a turn at the board. It had been a long time since I had played and had to refresh my memory on the strategy and setup of the game. Taught Bonnie how to play so we will be able to play together when we get home. We had a pleasant day by the sea.

The goal for dinner was to eat up all the food that was left. In general we did a pretty good job. Meg and I played a little more backgammon in the evening but the general rule was to get everything packed and ready to go for the morning trip to the airport.

With most everything packed it was once again off to bed.

Thursday -- By the Sea, By the Sea, the Beautiful Sea

After breakfast this morning everyone went down to the beach except me. I decided to stay in the villa for a while to get the blog caught up. Much of the morning I spent doing just that. Shortly after noon I decided to go join the rest. Got my suit on, got all greased up, and then started looking for the key so I could lock up when I left. Alas, it was not where I was lead to believe it would be. So I stayed put and and work on my Master Gardening Class most of the afternoon. Kaja came back sometime after 3 and I told her I couldn’t find the key and she showed me where they “hid” it. Of course it was nearly in plain site. There was still another day to come for me to be at the beach and I enjoyed the time I had to myself.

When the rest came back Megan unloaded a bunch of shells they found on the beach. She spread them out on the coffee table. Ephraim was standing near the table a little later and exclaimed, “I think this one is alive”. Sure enough one of the shells was occupied by a hermit crab. It got taken back to the sea and hopefully it survived it’s ordeal.

After we ate our dinner and cleaned up we chatted and played a silly card game. I don’t remember what the game was called but it was played with a special deck and went very fast. There were a number of variations all just as silly as the previous. We did have fun playing the different games.

Around 10:30 we all were tired and turned in for the night. Tomorrow would be another sunny, cloudless day. They never have a weather forecast on the news because the weather is always the same, sunny with 0% chance of precipitation. They say it’s boring but tolerable.

Wednesday — Leaving Sokhna Behind

We had turned off the AC last night because it seemed chilly in the room. At 3 this morning I woke up sweating and flicked it back on. In just a few minutes it was pleasant in the room again and went back to sleep until about 7 AM. Bonnie got up shortly after while I was writing for this blog. Could not post but the same as today I am writing and will post later when wifi is available. We all ate a leisurely breakfast and then got everything packed up and down to the lobby so we could check out.

Once we checked out I asked what the plan was for the day and Ephraim suggest we go to the cave church in Cairo. I told him that would be fine since Megan and Melanie has not seen it yet. We loaded everything in the cars and off we went. About a half hour or forty-five minutes down the road we turned off into a different resort. Ezzat said there was a spectacular beach down here that wanted us to see. We stopped some distance from the beach and got out of the car. I was taking pictures of some flowers and they were waiting for me to turn around. Once I did I was told we would spend the rest of the time here in a villa that was owned by a friend of Kaja’s in honor of my retirement. I was very surprised. Everyone was in on the secret except for me. What a pleasant surprise.The name of the resort is Marina Wadi Degla.

After we got settled in everyone went down to the beach. Indeed the beach is beautiful. You could wade out quite a long ways this afternoon. The water was warm, 80+ F. We frolicked in the Red Sea for a few hours before we had “lunch”. Ezzat and Susan we going to return to Port Said while we stayed with Ephraim and Kaja at the resort. After lunch we said out goodbyes. It was a sad departure for us. We have enjoyed the company and hospitality of our Egyptian brothers and sisters for more than 10 days. We look forward to seeing them again whether it be in Egypt, Poland, or the U.S.A. We wished them a safe journey and a well deserved thank you and away they went. Ephraim got a call later in the evening when they had arrived safely in Port Said.

During the evening we ate, talked, ate, and went for a walk around the complex. This is really a lovely place. If you know someone in Egypt that has a villa here I would highly recommend it.

Tuesday - Resort day

I woke up at 5AM this morning. Yes, I know I’m on vacation. I just woke up, can’t help it. I did lay in bed for some time before I got up and probably dozed in and out during that time. I finally hauled out at 7. Bonnie was doing her exercises so I did my morning stuff and decided to go for a walk to the beach.

Got the camera together and off I went. Got to the gate to the beach and found that it was locked. I could have went the long way around but decided not to and just went back to the room. Egyptians, I guess, don’t generally do things at a resort at 8 AM when they are on vacation. That is one interesting comparison, at Sharm El Sheik there were mostly tourists when we visited last time, here there are mostly Egyptians.

Got down to breakfast around 9. I thought there was chaos in the dining room at dinner last night, this morning was even worse. We should probably get here earlier tomorrow but don’t think that will happen. The meal was very good. There was certainly variety in what to have. Many different breads and rolls, salads, ful, cheeses, cereal, eggs made to order, most anything you can think of for breakfast was there. My brother would have loved it as he is a “carbaholic” at breakfast time.

We went back to the room after breakfast and got ready for the beach. Wasn’t much for me to do but Bonnie seemed to take quite a bit of time. We picked up some towels and off we went.

The beach we went to was a private beach for residents of a housing complex next door to the resort but the people in the complex let the hotel guests use the beach. There were ‘thatched’ umbrellas with beach chairs to sit in so you can get out of the sun. All ten of us eventually arrived at the beach. Ephraim, Kaja, Megan, and I went for what would turn out to be a long wade in the Red Sea. The tide was out so we could walk almost 1/3 of a mile out in the water without getting over our heads. There is a pier on the north end of the beach and we waded almost to the end of it before literally getting in over our heads. The water was very pleasant. Not nearly as warm as the Gulf of Arabia on the shores of the UAE.

On the walk back to shore we encountered Bonnie and Ezzat wading out. Bonnie wasn’t very excited about being in the Red Sea but brought her swimsuit so she was determined to use it. She didn’t really want to get very wet but Meg and I toke care of that for her. Bonnie and Ezzat joined us on the wade back to shore. We soon encountered Nana and Ehab on their way out to the sea. Ehab pulled Nana into the water and all was well. We finally got back to shore, showered off some to the salt, and hung out with the crew for a little while longer. Soon we headed back to the resort.

We got showered and changed. Bonnie laid down for a couple of hours and I tried to catch up on my writing. The hardest day to write about was the Saturday of the wedding. I could have written many pages but most of the people reading it wouldn’t be very interested in most of it so cutting was essential and difficult. I could ramble on in most of my entries and probably do. I don’t generally proof them before I post so there are many spelling and grammatical errors as well. Hope you will forgive me.

There is a small water park that is part of the resort. The “kids” went over there late in the afternoon. They took a number of short videos that I’m sure Megan will post on Facebook. We walked over to watch for just a little while and it looked like they were have great fun.

We said goodbye to Nana and Ehab about 5:30 in the afternoon. They have to get back to Cairo to catch a plan in the morning for their honeymoon in Europe. We won’t see them again on this trip. We will miss them but I’m sure we will see them again. We will be back to Egypt at least one more time since we still have not seen the upper Nile. There are many more things to see in Egypt than can possibly be done in even three trips. This trip has been mostly about seeing people though and not seeing the sites.

Dinner was much the same as the night before though I didn’t think the food was as good. More of the same from the night before with a couple of new dishes. We did eat outside this evening though. The temperature cooled down to about 24 C. The dining room was down right frigid. I certainly felt chilled inside and was happy to eat outdoors. It was a little breezy but that helped to keep the flies away. There is some type of mystery scheme going on and Kaja and Ephraim drove back to Cairo this evening and were either going to come back tonight or in the morning. Do know the whole story or any of it for that matter but it will be interesting to watch it all unfold.

I commented the night before that it would be nice to have a beer. Melanie found me one this evening and we toasted and had our drink together. Meg and Mel showed the videos they had done while we sat around this evening. But soon we all got tired and decided to go off to bed.

Monday — Off to Ain El Sokhna

The morning comes and it appears I am the first one up. About 5 AM I woke up and did my regular morning things and laid back on the bed. About 6:20 Bonnies phone started buzzing. She had set a wake-up alarm but she did not hear it. I turned it off and about 5 minutes later rousted her out. I was the first to go to bed last evening and after I turned in it was decided to take all of the luggage to Sokhna instead of just what was needed for the trip. Secret plans are in the making and we have no idea what they are. Bonnie finished getting everything repacked. We had a quick breakfast and then began packing the luggage in the vehicles.

Megan and Ephraim with additional help got all of the luggage out to the cars and began the process of fitting them all in the trunks. It was certainly a Tetris game to make it all happen. They did get the bags for four people traveling internationally and two locals in the trunks with no luggage in the back seats of the vehicles. It was an amazing feat.

With the luggage all in we were off to Ain El Sokhna. I was told it was an hour and a half drive but then I forgot that Egyptians don’t really know how to tell time. Three hours later we pulled into The Coral Sea Beach. It was 100+ degrees on our arrival. We got the luggage out of the cars and it was carried in for us. Then for some reason everyone wanted to stand around in the heat to wait for the drivers to park the cars. 70 degree temperatures were only a few feet away and we were standing in the heat. I suggested we go inside and finally we did.

Ezzat began the checkin process and it turns out that check in time is 2:00 PM. We arrived at about 12:30. While we were waiting for our rooms to be prepared the check in process was completed. I asked about internet access and it is not included in the room price. it’s 50 Egyptian pounds per day per device. That’s roughly $7 a day. It certainly is in line with costs in the U.S. but I think it should be included. So we sat around and roamed around to kill the hour and a half we had to wait.

Once we got our room assignments we spent most of the afternoon napping, reading, watching TV, or playing Words with Friends. Much more napping was done than anything else.

We got together for the evening meal at 7 PM. By 7:30 everyone had arrived. We did not wait for everyone before we got into the “buffet” line. There was an incredible amount and variety of food. There were way too many choices and everything that I had was very tasty. The meal was excellent and so was the company.

Forty-five minutes after the evening meal we all got together in Ephraim and Kaja’s room for a kind of gift opening. Melanie and Megan gave Nana and Ehab our card and the card from the people at church. She was very appreciated both very much. Kaja gave Nana and Ehab the gift from her parents. It was a nice fondue set. Nana and Ehab had no idea what it was or how to use it but they like it just the same. Then Kaja gave Bonnie and Susan some natural body cleansing solution for showing that was made by one of the people she knows in Poland. It was very thoughtful of her. Then Ezzat and Susan got a special photo album from Ephraim and Kaja that they just loved.

Everyone had a great time. There was much laughter, hugging, and talk. We found out that for an Egyptian couple to spend the night in an Egyptian hotel in they same room they must be able to present a marriage certificate before they will be permitted to share a room. It make no difference of age or if one person is a foreign national. If a man and a woman want to share a room in an Egyptian hotel and one of them is Egyptian they must be able to prove they are married. If you are both foreigners it’s not a problem. Bonnie and I didn’t have to show proof but Ephraim and Kaja did as well as Ezzat and Susan. A strange but true fact from Egypt.

A good time was had by all and now off to bed.