Sunday, December 27

We were up early for a two-day trip north to Alexandria. We hired a van and driver because that’s the best way to get around. The drive ended up being a lot longer than the two hours I thought it would be, but it was still enjoyable. Along the way we stopped at the Baramous Coptic monastery and were given a tour by a real monk. It was cool to see this ancient, still functioning monastery out in the middle of the desert.

Twelve Apostles clock

Alexandria is on the west side of the mouth of the Nile River delta and is right on the Mediterrean Sea. Our travel agent booked us rooms in the Hotel Nobel overlooking the ocean. He said it was a three-star hotel, but there’s no way it was even close to three stars. We managed to suffer through our one night there, and just enjoyed the sights of Alexandria. The Mediterrean is absolutely gorgeous!

Reid and Miriam

view from hotel room

view from hotel room

Saturday, December 26

We spent the entire afternoon touring around Islamic Cairo, the area of the city containing some of the oldest mosques there are. Since Andrew is studying Middle East history, he’s the best guide to have.

Bab Zweila mosque

view of Cairo from roof of Bab Zweila

view of the Citadel from Bab Zweila

view of Cairo from Bab Zweila

Andrew and Jacob near the top of Bab Zweila minaret (on the left)

sign over top of gate at Bab Zweila

After a tiring day, we left Nancy at home with the girls (they were all exhausted) and had dinner at Lucille’s, once touted as the best hamburgers in the world by someone at Time Magazine. They are delicious, I’m told, but I don’t know if they’re the best in the world!

Perfect ending to a wonderful day – Grandpa and Miriam

Friday, December 25

Merry Christmas! What a wonderful way to spend our Christmas: in Egypt with Andrew & Nancy and our two granddaughters. Rachel was so very excited to see all the presents and also to see what everyone else received. She wasn’t too thrilled to leave it all behind to go to church, but she managed to survive.

Reid and Miriam

Reid and Rachel

After church we headed up to Coptic Cairo, a very Christian area of the city with many churches and crypts. Two of them claim to have been refuges for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus while they were in Egypt.

Mosaic at the Hanging Church

Hanging Church

Coptic Christian/Greek/Egyptian cemetery

Waiting for the metro

Thursday, December 24

Both Andrew and Nancy had so much to do today that I decided to take Reid and Jacob out sightseeing by myself. Now that’s pretty brave for someone who really doesn’t know her way around Cairo. But I did go on the metro downtown to the Egyptian Museum last year with Nancy, so I figured I’d be able to remember the way. With help from Andrew’s directions, we took the metro, got off on the correct stop, and made it to the museum just fine. No photos are allowed in the museum, so I didn’t even bother to take my camera. The museum is jam-packed with stuff, so after a couple of hours we were all overwhelmed and headed back to Andrew & Nancy’s. To quote Sesame Street’s Grover: “I am very proud of me!”

Wednesday, December 23

Since we didn’t get home until early this morning, we took the opportunity to sleep in – finally! Life is much easier when we don’t have to awaken Rachel (or Grandma, for that matter) to go on a tour. We took our time getting out of the house and going for another excursion to Road 9. For our evening activity, Nancy stayed home with the girls while I went with Reid, Andrew, and Jacob to see the Tanoura Troupe of Sufi dancers in downtown Cairo. The music and dancing were quite interesting, and it’s fun to soak in all that culture.

Jacob, Andrew, and Reid

beautiful old hostel-type building

I especially enjoyed the guy with the finger cymbals

one of the twirling dancers

What Are We Going to Talk About?

One of the many endearing things Rachel has done over the past two months is come into my room right after she wakes up and climb in bed with me. She gives me a hug, lays down on my pillow, looks into my eyes and says, “What are we going to talk about?” We then discuss all kinds of things: Mommy, Daddy, Miriam, Grandpa, America, flying on an airplane, nursery, her friends, Cinderella, etc., etc., etc. I’m going to miss our special Rachel & Grandma time.

(Written 1-1-2010)

Say What?

Reid has been struggling with his hearing for a few years now, and I love to tease him about the misinterpretations of what gets said to him.

This morning Andrew said the family prayer before we headed out to church. I heard a line that confused me a bit: “We thank thee for the funny thing we had last night.” I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what he was talking about! It took me a while to understand that he said “We thank thee for the fun evening we had last night.” So when the prayer was over, I laughed at my hearing “misinterpretation” and Reid confessed that he had heard exactly the same thing! I guess I’m going to have to be careful about teasing Reid because it looks like I’m heading down the same path!

(Written 1-1-2010)