It will come as no surprise to learn that the largest items on my bucket list while in Egypt were the pyramids. They did not disappoint. Larger than I ever imagined, they rose majestically from the desert sands, where they have been standing since approximately 1000 years before the time of Moses.
After a 28 hour day of flying from Cairo to Heathrow to Chicago to Fort Wayne we arrived home at 12:10am this morning. It is great to be home but we did have a wonderful trip.
Visiting Egypt was an amazing once-in-a-lifetime experience, and Viking is definitely the way to travel. Over the next week I will share some of our favorite experiences, not necessarily in chronological order.
First, the balloon ride: we had to be up and out by 4:00am for this excursion. Let me mention here that a tour of Egypt is not for wimps. Lots and lots of historic temples and tombs reached by long walks in hot weather, but we did it!
My wonder spouse and I are embarking tomorrow on our great adventure. We are going to spend two weeks in Egypt. During that time I probably won't be blogging regularly, but, when I can, I will send pictures.
I'll start with this one. This is my trusty suitcase that I will be using for my checked luggage. It has travelled with me to five continents. Africa will be the sixth. You might say it has a 'checkered' past (pun intended).
Happy trails to us....
PS My wonder spouse's suitcase is charcoal gray but it's ok. We always know that when mine comes through, his can't be far behind.
One of the less fun things about getting ready to travel is contacting credit card companies. One card was easy, they don't care where we're going, we can use their card anywhere without letting them know in advance.
I've spent more time than I want to admit trying to get my second card approved. I want to take one visa card and one master card. I figure that should cover all my credit card needs. Our BP visa card was the easy one.
I happen to have two master cards, neither one of which seems to have a good system for dealing with travel requests. The last one put me on hold until a real live person could talk to me after the machine couldn't understand the word travel, and then hung up on me.
It's late and I'm tired so I will try again tomorrow, maybe. Or maybe I'll just take my chances, and if the card doesn't work I'll tell myself that I really didn't need pyramid, sphinx, and King Tut Christmas tree ornaments and magnets.
I'm writing this blog while waiting for little goblins and princesses to come to our door. This is a short experimental blog to make sure I can blog while we are on our trip.
I'm told I won't be able to blog every day but that's ok. If I can touch base every once in a while and maybe send pictures of camels or pyramids I'll be satisfied.
Meanwhile, happy Halloween everyone.
My west coast brother has informed me that today is "Checklist Day," "Buy a Donut Day," "Pumpkin Bread Day," "National Candy Corn Day" and, last but nor least, "Sugar Addiction Awareness Day." You will notice that the middle three 'days' listed all involve some amount of sugar ingestion, which makes me think that perhaps SAAD should come well before the Halloween candy eating spree begins, or after, to allow us to kick the habit.
My spouse and I have quite a bit of self control but we both admit to having snitched a few little candy bars from the Halloween bucket in the foyer. Thank goodness it will all be gone by tomorrow evening.
On the other hand "Checklist Day" is very appropriate since we have spent almost all day packing and checking things off our lists in preparation for our trip. We did take a little time out to get our RSV shots. One thing off our list.
But while it works for me, I am also wondering about the timing of this special day. We all know who 'makes a list and checks it twice' so why aren't we celebrating "Checklist Day" in December?
Although now that I think about it, I have recently seen Christmas decorations in some local stores.
Start making your lists.
My spouse and I have been working hard to have everything packed, and all necessary tasks done before we leave on our vacation next Monday. We don't want to put anything off until the last minute.
We have made our lists, decided what goes in which suitcases, tried to focus on things that really need to be done. As mentioned yesterday, we have all the money issues figured out. The laundry is done. We have had our flu shots and tomorrow we are getting our RSV shots. I have finished paperwork for a church committee and will sign a related paper on Sunday. We are both getting haircuts tomorrow and I have a mani/pedi scheduled for Friday.
We have made arrangements for my daughter to take us to the airport for our departing flight and for my son to pick us up when we return. My wonder spouse has spent lots and lots of computer time making sure our tickets and other paperwork is in order.
I wish I could wiggle my nose like Samantha the witch and all of my clothes would fold themselves and hop into the suitcase. Alas, I don't have that power, but slowly and surely, the clothes I plan to take are getting into the suitcase. The same for my spouse's packing.
And, possibly most important for our peace of mind we have, by working on it every day for an hour or so, finished the worst, most fiendish puzzle ever, with vast numbers of similarly colored and shaped pieces that almost but not quite fit.
