Back from Egypt!

Well, we made it to Egypt and back again already! What a fabulous vacation we just had. It was such a fun, exciting time, seeing so many things I've only seen in pictures. The various photos we took will hardly do it justice, but hey -- at least they prove we were actually there, right? I'll take a few days to finish this entry, but here's a start...
THE PYRAMIDS

This first shot (above) is in front of the Sphinx and the pyramids. It's kind of an optical illusion, because the Sphinx is nowhere near the size of the pyramids, but it looks like it's almost as large, when taken from this viewpoint. And below, you can see how MASSIVE the pyramids are up close! Each layer of stone is nearly 6 feet tall. Apparently they used to let people climb the pyramids, but they're steep enough that one or two people died each year so they stopped letting tourists climb. Smart move, I think.

Here we are, all of us in front of the pyramids. My brother, Blaine, and his wife, Lisa, joined us for the trip. They ventured inside one of the pyramids to see the inner chambers. I started to follow, but it was tight and dark and hot and I experienced my first case of claustrophobia and high-tailed it out of there in a hurry!
In this one (below), I paid 5 egyptian pounds (about $1) to sit on this camel and get my picture taken. The camel was named Moses. His owner pestered me for about an hour before I finally caved and got my photo. Thanks, Moses.
This security guard came up and picked Samantha up out of her stroller, sitting her on his knee. he then patted places beside him for me and Blaine to come have a seat, and mimed that we should take a picture. I thought it was cute of him to want a picture with us, so I had Brian take one. Immediately he mimed that he would liked payment for the picture, saying "baksheesh" which means, "I'd like a tip." I reached in my jeans and pulled out a bill I thought was 1 egyptian pound. Handed it to him and watched him smile as he pocketed it quickly. Then Brian started talking to him, and he pulled the bill out again, handing it back to me. I had accidentally handed him 100 egyptian pounds instead of 1 pound! Oops! Some kind of tip. Good thing Brian was around to help me find my way around, eh?

LUXOR

After a day in Cairo seeing the pyramids, we took the night train to Luxor. The train was nice enough, with private cabins and bunks -- dinner included. Samantha slept on the floor in her pack-n-play. We awoke as the train arrive, about 7 a.m., just in time for a full day of site-seeing in Luxor. First, the Luxor temple, pictured below. It was amazing! I'm not good at remembering which Ramses did which bit of the temples and such. So, no names or dates on these picts. Sorry. Just know, they were VERY old, and VERY well preserved, and VERY intricately carved.
Blaine had some creative photo ideas that he enthusiastically insisted upon... copy the statues! It was a bit comical to see how many people stopped to watch us pose for this one below. I bet they were just jealous they hadn't thought of it first.
And this one, below, is another of Blaine's creations. Brian and I are acting out the scene carved on the column behind us. I bet no one ever thought of that before, in all the thousands of years that carving has been there, eh?
We visited Valley of the Kings (below), where all the ancient pharoahs' tombs were. That's where they found all the mummies, so well preserved. The mummies and most of the artifacts from the tombs are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (which we saw later). But inside the tombs, the walls are intricately carved with heiroglyphics and paintings. It was incredible to see how colorful and beautiful they were. They wouldn't let us take pictures of the tombs, for preservation. But I bet you can imagine, eh?
Poor Lisa decided to investigate a small, abandonded tomb. Well, turns out it was full of animal poop of some variety, maybe camels? She was overwhelmed by the oder and didn't get past the entrance. We offered support by laughing and taking her picture in the dung-infested entrance.
This is in front of one of the tomb entrances. While we were standing in line to go in, something remarkable happened... it rained! Rain is a rarity in Egypt -- maybe once or twice every couple years! Yeah, so what if it was just a tiny shower?! We actually saw rain in Egypt.
We stopped at the temple of Hatshepsut, ancient queen of Egypt, on our way back to our hotel. We didn't go in, but it looked very fascinating the way it's built right out of the hillside.
I'm going to have to stop here for tonight... will pick up later tomorrow, I hope.