Back in the US of A

Boo and I made it safely back to Michigan and are currently in her apartment in Ann Arbor. Vanessa picked us up from the airport. Despite sleeping through the alarm for our 11:15 PM airport pick-up, we got to the Cairo airport with plenty of time to spare. The flight to Paris was very nice, and we actually slept pretty well. We arrived in Paris around 6:15 AM, and promptly got on the train to go into the city for a few hours of our 8 hour layover. We spent a lovely 3 hours eating croissants and pain au chocolat and walking along the River Seine. We even went to the Louvre...to use the bathroom. We did see the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde that was given from the Luxor Temple which we saw only two days earlier in Egypt. Pretty neat. Then back to the airport for a very long flight to Detroit. At least we had individual screens in each seat for movie viewing. Now we are here and tired. Tomorrow I return to Chapel Hill via Baltimore. Lots of traveling. It is indeed hard to be a Coco Laru.

Farewell Dinner

Here we are eating our final meal as coco laru. We are munching on some of the finest italian food this side of mediterranean. Today we went to Al-Manzar, a landfill park across the highway from the City of the Dead. It was pleasant park with spectacular views of cairo. And then we went to the city of the dead which has mausoleums and a lot of squaters. We didn't stay long because we definitely felt out of place. Now we've just finished a plate full of sweets and are saying our farewells. Boo and Jo leave at 11:15pm for the airport for 2:20am flight to paris. They have a 8 hour stay in paris and then its on to Detroit. I leave tomorrow at 8:40am for london (with my box breakfest) and I arrive in beantown at 6:40pm. The Lacos leave tomorrow evening for amman where they will spend a night before heading onto chicago. Overall, it was a good trip to egypt with one lesson learned while in the doldrums of nile: "sometimes it's hard to be a lacoco." (Or maybe we knew that already.) Look for photos in the near future and keep us posted on what blogs we should be reading. Sara
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More actual stuff

I have been asked again to write about what we have been doing instead of the posts that are inexplicable to most of our readers.

Yesterday we went to the Temple at Karnak and the Luxor Temple, both in Luxor. Both were quite impressive. Karnak was a massive complex with many additions from many time periods. Luxor was especially interesting for its display of different time periods. It was built by the Pharoahs, then there were carvings of Alexander the Great as an Egyptian ruler, then there were paintings from the Roman period, then there was evidence of Christian use, and finally there was a mosque from 1290 AD built on top of the temple which had been covered by sand. Pretty amazing.

Otherwise we have been relaxing at our hotel's rooftop bar and pool and shopping in the market (souq) and eating too much.

Jim just got complimented by our waiter. The waiter said that in Egypt men are lucky to have four women, but Jim has five so he is very lucky.

That's all. -Jo
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Additions to Frank's obituary

While visiting the Valley of the Kings, we were reminded of how fantastic Frank's obituary was. However, we think it could be enhanced by a section on famous people Frank travelled with. For example, it is not commonly known that Jim argued Brown v. Board of Education. Although it is fairly well known that Jim is the decendant of two polygamous marriages, most are not aware that one of his ancestors carried the plates down for Joseph Smith.
Most know that Cathy was a "Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow", but few know that she ran Betty's test kitchen. Or that she was 'Mother of the Year" twice; once when her daughter Sara won the first Trump Prize for Landscape Architecture and once when her daughter Rebecca won the Bloomberg Prize for her public health work with Mother Theresa.
Catherine is famous for inventing the abacus. In addition, she is the keeper of the Coca Cola secret formula.
Besides the honors mentioned above, and as a direct result of the french they learned through conversations with Frank, Sara worked with Haussman laying out the streets of Paris and Rebecca worked with Paul Farmer on the public health issues of Haiti.
Frank never travelled with Jo, but only had dinner with her. But if he had he would have learned that Jo archived the charred remains of the library at Alexandria.

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More pickup lines

To Jo: Pointing to ground behind her, "You dropped something." Jo turns around and looks to the ground and sees nothing. "My heart."
To Rebecca: "Are you looking for an Egyptian husband today?"
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Another catch-up

Cathy asked me to write another catch-up blog entry to talk about what we have been doing, as opposed to the comments we have been receiving.

Abu Simbel was mentioned in passing but deserves more explanation. There are two massive temples there built by Ramses II. It is far in the southern part of Egypt near the Sudanese border. We drove through the barren desert for two and a half hours to get there. The temples were moved and reconstructed in their current location in order to avoid submersion from when they dammed the Nile. They are in the same location on the lake, only 60 meters higher.

Later that day, we walked through the market, called the 'souq' in Aswan. There were amazing stalls selling spices. We also saw a lovely park overlooking the Nile. We also went to the Nubian Museum.

The next day, we joined the convoy of tourists to drive north to Luxor. Along the way we stopped at two temples: Kom Ombo and Edfu. Both were quite impressive.

We then arrived in Luxor and found some food (more difficult than it should have been). Then we went to a fancy old school colonial British hotel that was really beautiful with wonderful gardens and amazing lounges.

Today we went to the Valley of the Kings and climbed into three tombs to see incredible paintings and carvings. Because they were not exposed to the sun, the colors were still bright and beautiful. Climbing into them was also fun. We also saw the awesome Temple of Hatshepsut (which Sara calls Hot Ketchup), a powerful queen of Egypt who depicted herself as a male king. Her son destroyed her image everywhere once he took over. Then we went to Tombs of the Nobles that showed images from daily life.

I think that's about it. Oh, a hoopoe is a bird, and son and lumiere means sound and light.

Signing off - Jo
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Femme fatale

Perhaps it is her brilliant blonde hair. Or perhaps it is the dashing red Egyptian cotton scarf she has added to her travelers khaki. But Catherine is Lacocoegypt's femme fatale. Two different waiters while delivering soup to our table flirted with her: To Cathy and Sara" Vegetable soup?". To Jim, Jo and Boo "Lentil soup?" To Catherine: "Tomato soup?" "No, onion soup!" " No, tomato soup." No onion soup" then with a flourish, Catherine is presented with onion soup. Twice.

At the son et lumiere, Catherine was seated by a guard in front of the barrier, so she could see, while everyone else had to stand. Later, the same guard held a flashlight for Catherine and whispered " Canada?" He clearly thought that Catherine was a very desireable means to a greencard. Last night, after she purchased jewelry, she was told by the jeweler that she had pretty eyes and kissed. When she and Jim walked to dinner someone told Jim "Nice mustache" and to Catherine "Lucky lady." When Jim said "my daughter," the guy said "How many camels for your daughter?"





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