Search for the Big Ball of Yarn: February 25

Hello!

We are in Cairo! Rather jet lagged but we are doing really well. Our time with our New Jersey family was so nice. We love being at Mike’s home with all the good times. Lisa and Frankie came over Friday and brought us lunch and spent the rest of the day with us. It’s such fun to spend time with everyone.

After Friday taco night we took pictures so you can see our lovely family. Bob with Lisa and Mike. Mike made us a fabulous dinner!

Sydney and Samantha have grown into lovely young women. We loved chatting with them when they came home from school. Both girls are so talented, smart and beautiful!

Lisa and her new love, Frankie!

Mike took us to the local pick up point for our shuttle to JFK from Marlton. Our buddy Abdul Parnelli got us to JFK in record time. We’ve taken this shuttle before and it’s always an E coupon ride. We even get bumps that lift us out of our seats while speeding up the New Jersey turnpike. We had a wonderful flight from JFK to Frankfurt. The business class seats were a dream and the food excellent. We waited around in the airline business class lounge from 6 am to 1 pm, then literally carried all our bags up and down stairs and onto busses to our next flight to Cairo. We both slept on and off and missed the meal, but I think that was a good decision. Business class across the Atlantic is very different than business class across Europe. When we got to our hotel I thought it was Saturday evening. Nope. Sunday evening. Our journey began in Marlton at 8:50 am Saturday and ended at 9:30 pm Sunday night.

After deplaning we found Isaac who Bob had had hired to assist us through customs and get us to our hotel. Talk about money well spent! Isaac moved us along bypassing lines and got us checked in with new stamps in our passports. He then took us outside where we waited for our driver. Mr. Driver didn’t speak very much English, but that was fine. Whenever we have landed after a long airline trip, especially at night, it’s always rather surreal. It’s dark, strange looking roads, people racing around honking, it’s crazy. Last night was no different. Mr. Driver got lost a couple of times and even pulled up into what we later learned was a mosque and kept honking to get someone to come out and let us in. The guard came out and told him that the Sheraton was down the street. When he found the hotel he pulled up and two guards, one with a dog sniffer came and checked out our vehicle before we could get into the hotel area.

Here is a photo from last night. We were so tired and jet lagged we didn’t know if we were swimming or winding our watch. So we headed to a restaurant that was quiet, ordered caprese and smoked salmon with a bottle of Egyptian Syrah. It was delicious! I know what you are thinking. You flew all the way to Cairo to eat Italian? Yup. We were beyond investigating new foods. By the way, that’s the Nile River in the background.