Pyramids, Pools, and Papyrus- Egypt 2013

I think Egypt is one of those countries that is on many people's list of places to visit.  But for several reasons (safety, distance, cost), it is just not that popular of a destination for Americans.  Here is where the Yeates family comes in.  Two things:  one- it's good that Jesy and I laugh in the face of danger and decided to book this trip to a sometimes volatile country.  (That one was for you mom).  Two- we are really lucky and Egypt is a very popular destination for Russians, so there are many cheap flights to choose from, and it is only about a five hour airplane ride.  Aaahhh, one of the perks of living in this massive metropolis.
When we left Moscow in the middle of April, it is was still a hot mess of snow, slush, and cold temperatures.  We were so happy to arrive in Egypt and not see any of that nonsense.  Our hotel was amazing, and therefore we decided to go on a day long tour of Cairo and the pyramids, but not do much else.  Our hotel had a water park, so why bother leaving.  And I mean a Wet n Wild water park for all of my Vegas friends.  A lazy river, three sets of slides, a wave pool, and two kiddie pools.  They did have some regular pools at the hotel with swim up bars, but they put them in another area and my kids were having none of that.  Jesy and Colin did go on a 4-Wheeler/Bedouin tour one afternoon, but honestly, we were just happy to swim at the pools and venture to the beach one morning.

Every day we sat in the same spot with the lazy river behind us.  Mostly we sat there because John had a love affair with that red slide in the second picture.  Seriously, he went on that thing about 75 times each day.  Colin loved the white slides the best, while the girls and I loved the blue and green slides.  When we go to water parks I usually do a few slides with my kids and then call it a day.  I am quite happy to chill out in the pool or lazy river.  Not in Egypt!  Those slides were great- I was up and down them right along with the kids.  It was so much fun.

On our third day in Egypt we went to Cairo.  We were up at the crack of dawn to catch a plane (as we were staying in Sharm El Sheik), and it was an action packed day.  We decided to do a private tour and it was fabulous.  Funny fact:  our tour guide Lily picked us up at the Cairo airport and as we were leaving we heard her say, "No, they are Australians".  This made us curious (everyone in Bali thought we were from Australia also), so we questioned Lily.  It seems that the US government has a policy that US citizens in Egypt need to have a guard with them on sightseeing tours.  Our guide felt that this makes us more of a target, and we kind of agreed.  So, we were Australians that day!
Our first stop was the Egyptian Antiquities Museum.  Unfortunately, we were only allowed to take pictures in front of the museum.  There are no cameras allowed inside.  It was amazing, though.  We saw actual mummies, which amazed my Egyptology loving kids.  And you know that mask of Tutankhamen that you always see in magazines?  It was there!  Everything was beautiful and our lovely guide provided a great history lesson for the kids.

Above is the Yeates family outside the museum.  And a building next to the museum that was burned during the Arab spring.
After the museum we went for a boat ride on the Nile.  I can so remember learning about Egypt when I was in 3rd grade.  I was blown away- we were really on the Nile!

In case you have not figured it out, the woman in the very pretty purple head scarf was our tour guide Lily (and I know head scarf is not the proper name, but bear with me.  It's been a long week).  The girls loved getting photographed on the Nile, Colin enjoyed listening to the music, and John, well John looks pretty wrecked.  Poor kid, he kept on falling asleep in the car and then we would wake him up to see something new.  And of course I had to take a photo of TGI Friday's.  They are all over the world! I love the last picture.  See how interested I am in all of this history?  Motherhood has made me lose bits of my mind, but I can still focus on a good tour.
After a quick lunch we were off to the papyrus museum.  Papyrus was the type of paper they used in ancient Egypt and at the museum they showed us how it was made.  It also was a good place to lose some money, but I have to say the wall hangings we came away with were pretty neat.  It's Jesy's summer job to find out how to hang them up.  And the whole paper making process is very interesting.  John took a little nap while at the museum, and they served us cans of Sprite.  Not a bad way to spend an hour.

Now the pictures you have been waiting for.  Why everyone comes to Egypt in the first place: the pyramids and the Great Sphinx.  This part of the trip was truly a dream come true.  To stand in front of the pyramids was just amazing.  And the Sphinx- I could have stared at it for hours.  It was mesmerizing and also quite beautiful.  And smaller than I imagined.
We went to the pyramids first and then also took a horse and cart ride up to a ridge to take pictures.  The kids liked the ride, but on the way back down John decided that he wanted to climb out of the cart.  Who climbs out of a cart while the horse is moving?  As you can imagine, John was not very happy that I would not let him leap from a moving cart, but calmed down immensely once we got to the Sphinx and we just let him play in the giant sandbox also known as the Egyptian desert.  Jesy took Colin and Amalie inside one of the smaller pyramids, but Kathleen and I opted out.  Kathleen may have inherited her mother's claustrophobia.  While Jesy and the kids explored the pyramid on the inside, Kathleen and I had a good time absorbing in the pyramids, while John threw sand all around.  Egyptians are really tolerant- especially of cute little boys who want to get dirty.

Our day in Cairo was one of my favorite days ever.  And I have to say that I felt safe the entire time we were there.  You have to do what is best for your family and world events can change at any moment, but I would not hesitate to recommend Egypt for a vacation.  Tourism is down quite a lot right now, so prices are cheaper than normal and when we were there in April there were no crowds.  It was perfect. 
Cairo was a perfect day, but it was also quite exhausting.  A 15 hour day of touring the city with 4 young kids is not for the faint hearted.  So, we decided to spend the rest of our Egyptian days at the hotel.  Of course, you cannot go to Egypt and not put your little toes in the Red Sea.  One morning we did walk over to the beach (about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to the sister hotel across the street) and visit where Moses parted the sea.  I had great fun explaining the story to the kids on the way over and we enjoyed a morning at the beach.  The Red Sea is freezing in April, though, and there was not a lot of swimming going on.  We did see some great fish, though, and Kathleen was lucky enough to get to feed some of them.

One night we did a dinner on the beach.  There was a buffet meal and then a fun show.  With my kids, you know that the fire show and the snake charmer were their favorite parts.

As I said before, Colin and Jesy had a big boys afternoon and went four wheeling.  Do you see that turtle?  Thank goodness I did not go on that tour.  You know how I feel about turtles.

The kids loved taking pictures at our hotel, especially from the lobby balcony, the giant gorilla,  and the bridges near our room.  And I had to throw in one more picture of John and his slide.  Colin was a good sport and would relieve me sometimes of my responsibility of having to catch John at the bottom of the slide.

Four years ago, Jesy and I started researching the possibility of doing a combined trip to Egypt and Israel.  It was a dream, but we looked at tour companies and it really started forming in our minds.  This was all before John and our Moscow adventure.  Imagine that in the space of less than two months, we visited both of these fabulous countries and had a heck of a good time in both.  Expat life can really treat you right.
I had to include these last two photos of my baby boy.  The Egyptians loved John, and he loved all of their attention.  All of that swimming, eating, and touring around was tough on my 18 month old!