Greetings from Aswan!

Sorry for the lack of posting....we haven't had internet access on the Nile. We left Monday and flew to Luxor to board our ship for a cruise down the Nile River. We stopped at several locations along the way and saw some amazing temples. In Luxor, we were fascinated with the Karnac temple as well as the famous oblisque that we all know when we think of Luxor. We are currently in Aswan, in the southern part of Egypt, and this is our final stop. The cruise has been very relaxing, however, we've all been up between 4:30am and 5:30am every day to begin our tours. Our cruise included guided tours at each stop and in order to beat the enormous crowds, our guide asked us to rise early, which we were very thankful to do. It allowed us to have a relaxing afternoon where we either layed in sun on the sun deck, played cards (Phase 10) or napped. The food on the cruise has been wonderful and we've met some great people---a family from Dubai, sisters from Oregon and another sweet family from Abu Dabai. We concluded our day with a trip to the market bazaar in Aswan. We are literally exhausted from bartering in the markets!!! There are not very many tourists here and the business owners are extremely aggressive. We head back to Cairo tomorrow to conclude our two week trip here.

It's been a great trip and a great team and we've each acquired a key talent for the team as a whole. Bob is entertainment---everything from buying $8 apricot to having underware stolen, which we think we spotted in the market today. Stephanie is our money handler---she handles all tips from our group kitty and keeps us in budget. Sarah is our resident cinamatographer and handles all staging and lighting for group photos. Her laugh is infectious! Ronnie is our team photographer and has offered to catalog all photos in a spreadsheet complete with pivot tables and sorted by temple. Peter handles all our libations and went to great lengths to smuggle beer on the ship for our team, which required riding on a motorcylcle down a dark alley with an Egyptian. Helen handled the distribution of probiotics to allow our teams digestive tracts to stay on tract during this trip. Rachael organized the trip and resident scout leader. She was also the team pharmacist, providing drugs for those ailing.

Fortunately, we all got along famoulsly and without illness or injury. It's been an amazing journey and we're all blessed to have this opportunity.