Parents Visit in Egypt

4am: wake up call; parents have arrived and we are much too excited to wait till the next morning to give lots of hugs and kisses.  We stay up talking till about 6am, take a nap for a couple of hours and wake up for some yummy breakfast.  (Oh, by the way, we're staying at the Mariott, which is a beautiful hotel in Cairo; used to be a palace.)  We can't believe my parents are awake and ready to got after 2 days of traveling and taking a small nap, but we're off to the Egyptian Museum.  Got some history before our week endeavor around Egypt with the parents.  Sooo many artifacts at this museum, some of which include:

     – Royal Mummies
     – The 1st Chess game, the 1st flat head screw driver, the 1st baby rattle (the 1st of everything)
     – King Tut's burial Mask (so much gold, that the mask alone weighs 24 pounds in solid gold; his small   coffin weighs 242 pounds)

Very cool place to cruise around, with endless artifacts to fill your mind with curiosity and question after question.  After the museum, we hopped into a taxi and head over to Khan-Al-Khali (outdoor market shopping time!)

My mom loves shopping and can go for hours.  Quite impressive actually!  (Mainly she shops for others, but she got herself a thing or 2)  I got some very, very cool lamps for our garden (which doesn't exist yet)  The 4 of us got in the taxi, on our way back to the hotel and totally pooped from the day.

Side Note: Growing up, my parents and siblings were in Vegas A LOT.  There's just something about gambling, buffets and showgirls I guess.  (We loved going and still loving going!)  This side note  makes no sense right now but just keep reading.

In the taxi, mom and dad are falling asleep.  My mom says once her head hits the pillow, she's out.  My dad comments on how there's sand in his eyes and sleep will feel so good.  We get out of the taxi and closer to our room.  My mom sprained her ankle a few days before coming to Egypt, so she's gimping, tired and excited for bed.  Parents ask what we're gonna do that night and Bren says we might check jout the casino in the hotel.  Out of nowhere, my parents look at each other and I'm pretty sure I even saw the sparkle in their eyes as they said “Casino!”  Let me just remind you they had 2 days of travel time to get to Egypt, got in at 4am, took a 3 hour nap, had a full day in Egypt, oh and ya my mom's ankle is sprained.... off we all go to the casino.  Day 1 with the parents: Too great!

In front of a Mosque

Inside the Mosque

Around the area we were in "Old Cairo" there are guys like these that ride bikes with huge amounts of bread on their head, as they try and bike through the crowd of people shopping.  I really don't understand how it's done.  This picture doesn't even show the entire bread cart on his head. 

*** We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the Egyptian Museum and the one picture my dad secretly took, I haven't seen, so you wont see our pictures, but above is a picture of the internet of the mask, so you get an idea of what I'm talking about.