Crawfords In Cairo

Chris and I left the three cuties for the first time to go to Cairo this week. I had a really really really hard time leaving them. When we got to the airport the lines were super long for everything but Chris totally found short cuts aka. going through the EU immigration check point and the First Class Security Check point, and yes we went through both just fine. I kept thinking ohhh maybe we won't make the flight, but we did and crying I boarded the plane. I know you think I am lame but Abby is only 1 and I have not spent a night away from the kids ever, so oh well I am a baby. When we landed I literally went into culture shock. We had saved up our Marriott points so we could stay HERE and had arranged for a airport pick up. Not surprisingly since we arrived at 3:30am, no one met us. As soon as we stepped foot out the airport door Chris was MOBBED by taxi drivers. A tourist Authority guy inside had told us to go to the taxi at the front of the line and that it should be ten bucks. Line? What line? Mass chaos is exactly what it was. I loved that since I am a women I was completely ignored. Until I got ticked and shouted "Just go with that guy he is saying ten bucks" well my guy then tried to have us share a taxi, um no thank you, then put us in a van. If nothing else movies have taught me that van= kidnapped so I sat exhausted and extremely uneasy. Then the guy proceeded to pitch us all his various services until I finally said "I just want to go to our hotel, I am to tired to think about any of this" Then he proceeded to charge us 15 bucks instead of ten (he meant ten per person, silly me). On our way out of the airport security stopped the van, took down the license plate number and had us write our names legibly next to the number. Oh good, so when they find our dead body's they will know the van that took us to our doom, ha! Actually it made me feel better. I felt even better when we made it to our AMAZING hotel. While checking in the brought us glasses of super yummy strawberry juice. Bear in mind it is now 4am and we started traveling at 9:30 pm. Chris reach's for something (we still have no idea what) and knocks the goblet shattering the glass and splattering strawberry juice all over their computer and nice Armani suits. They of course hush our apologizes and bring Chris another glass to which I hiss "Don't spill anything!" We head to our room and ZONK. Chris finally drags me out of bed at 9:30 so we can make breakfast and set up our tour for the day. We first headed out to the Pyramids at Giza. I am not going to lie they are amazing and totally worth heart sick missing kids feeling, lack of sleep etc.

The hotel had set up our own personal tour guide and she was awesome. Although people kept making us do the lamb "look I am holding a pyramid between my fingers pose". She literally place us in this position. I was snorting at how very unlike us it was

You aren't allowed climb to the top-- anymore. Apparently they used to have races and everything. You can climb up a few for a picture. I could not believe how huge these blocks were. All I kept thinking was why in the world didn't people revolt against a leader who would waste lives and money on something like this, our guide informed me that you don't rebel against someone you think is a earthly embodiment of your God, valid point I suppose.

Then we got ride camels- my main desire with this entire vacation.

It was nerve wracking going from sitting to standing and then we both thought for sure we would lose a flip flop. Of course our camel guide made us do another hilarious pose:

This is more like it

The camels are all so docile and just sit there while they run into each other and sit down practically on top of each other.

I thought this guy looked like he was smiling

Once we were done fulfilling one of my bucket list items we headed down to see the Sphinx

So cool:

After the pyramids we headed to a place to learn how to make papyrus and got a few pieces for Sam to show to his class. Then on to their famous "essence" shops where we could smell all the different essences and make your own mix. I kept going back and forth between Lotus (which smells exactly like Tommy Girl but way less overwhelming) and Nefrititti which we ended up going with because it was so cool. The next day we headed to the Egyptian Antiquities museum. You are not allowed take pictures so I have none, at first I thought it was to preserve all the artifacts but after going I think it was to keep it a secret how AWFULLY done the museum is. There are artifacts just lying around everywhere and hardly anything is labeled, what is labeled looks like it was typed on a type writer in the late 70's. One of the items was labeled with a hand written scrap of paper! We had planned on spending 4 hours there (as the guide book suggests is the minimal amount ughhh) So we wandered around for a bit, stoping to have a snack at the Hard Rock. For once it was totally in our favor that it takes FOREVER to eat at restaurants abroad. Then we met up with our friend Morgan and her hubby. It was so fun. They took us to this amazing local place that was incredible! She ordered everything in her fluent Arabic and it was amazing. It really made the trip.