Cairo Egypt!

We really wanted to go to Egypt and it didn't seem like it was super safe but we'd probably be okay. Everyone said to get in and get out as quickly as possible. So here we go! We're leaving Accra, Ghana.

It took us about 5 hours to fly to Cairo and it was about 10 p.m. when we landed. Our airbnb had the coolest balcony with an awesome view of the pyramids! Unfortunately, it didn't have heat. It was kind of cold. Probably in the 50s during the day. It's quite a bit farther north than Ghana and it's still winter.

When we arrived, we asked our airbnb host if it was safe enough to go buy some water and snacks and he said it was perfectly safe. He came with us anyway. Merril bought some food from a street vendor and I stopped at a convenience store and got some yogurt and water and other snacks. It all felt very good wandering around. There were lots of people out and about.

In the wee hours of the morning, we heard a call to prayer over loudspeakers. It was probably 5 a.m. Wild! Time to go!

Our airbnb host hooked us up with a driver and guide. Our guide's name was Amina. We stopped and grabbed some quick Egyptian breakfast and then went to the pyramids! Wow! They're so freaking big like you can't even believe it! Giza plateau is super impressive!

Amina said these are cool to look at but they don't really have any hieroglyphs inside. She said she would make sure to take us to some with hieroglyphs.

We're at the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Next we drove around to a view point of the pyramids and Merril really wanted to ride a camel. That kind of surprised me but when in Egypt!

Mark and Janet rode in a horse-drawn cart.

Gram and Gramps posed and the camel wanted to eat Grandma's hair.

We had Amina jump in a picture with us.

So cool! Then we visited the Sphinx. It's smaller than I thought. It's still big but not like the pyramids.

Then we visited the Step Pyramid of Djoser and Sala de las Columnas.

Then we went to the Tomb the Mereruka. It had some of the coolest stuff. LOTS of hieroglyphs!

We had to climb down a ladder/staircase and found some cool stuff. Merril's parents were troopers! They were walking all over and climbing down the ladder stairs! I was just praying that they didn't fall and get hurt.

Danngggg! It's like I've seen replicas of hieroglyphs on Disney rides for years but now I'm here and these are the real thing!

This room was really cool!

Then we came back up and explored some rooms and these paintings still had the color on them.

There were carvings on the outside of the building too. 

Then we had lunch at this Egyptian buffet.

After lunch we went to a shop and found Gramps a coat because he was freezing. They had left their winter stuff home in St. George because Ghana is so warm. Grandpa really didn't have a warm jacket to pack for Egypt. Amina and our driver took a fun picture of the inside of the van. 

They also took us to a shop that makes papyrus.

This is my name and Merril's name that they painted on this painting of a couple. Merril wanted to buy it and bring it home.

Then we went to the new Grand Egyptian Museum. It's actually only partially open. They still need to bring King Tut from the old museum. I think we got discounted tickets but this place was HUGE! This is a statue of Statue of Ramesses II. He's 36 feet tall.

Merril liked how all the statues of the men and women were very close and looked like they supported each other.

That place was absolutely packed with cool artifacts!

I wanted a picture outside of this huge obelisk. The obelisk is suspended so you can look at the bottom and see Ramses II‘s cartridges. There was a motorcade of some dignitaries and they ran us off. I was worried about it but Amina was like, It's fine! We'll hurry! She was great! We did get yelled at by security for a hot second.

Then we boarded a Nile River Cruise with dinner. There were performers and these guys would spin in these cool costumes and were probably spinning for 8-10 minutes. It was so long. We all decided we would've been dizzy and fallen over. Then we went to the airbnb and fell asleep so that we could leave early the next morning.

We got on a plane and started to taxi and it was making some weird noises. We sat there for a long time and busses came to the side of the plane like they were going to deboard us but then drove away. They came back after a while and we deboarded and were sent to wait in an unused terminal. We waited there for a few hours and they fed us. They found another plane with no logos on it and it seemed pretty old. My seat had an ashtray. Lol. We finally made it back to Ghana.

We had a temple appointment at the Accra Temple but our flight snafu took too long so we just got ice cream and went to look at it. 

We flew out the next morning and I'm pretty excited to get back home. I felt bad leaving. I don't think I've seen Janet cry very many times but she was crying as we left. I think she misses home and her mission is pretty hard. But they'll keep at it and be home for Christmas!