Ain El Sokhna

A few pics from our trip to Egypt last week. Todd's work has a monthly staff meeting in Cairo but twice a year they go to a different location and invite families to come along. This time it was in a place called Ain El Sokhna on the Red Sea.

We spent the first day in Cairo and visited Cairo Tower. Gives you a great view of Cairo but it was windy and cold. You take a small elevator up to a certain point then you have to take a narrow stairway to get to the top. For those of you who don't know I have claustrophobia. It flares up every so often. I had a small episode at the tower. They crammed as many people as they could into the elevator. Then there were people going both up and down in this narrow stairway. It looked as if it were only built for one-way traffic because it was so small.

When we were done with the view we started down the stairs and there was a line for the elevator. So we were stuck in this stairway with people trying to get around us, people ahead of us in line, people behind us in line. I stood there for as long as I could but then I told Todd to go ahead and I'd come down when the line cleared out. I started to make my way back up to the view to get out in the open again but then the elevator line started moving so I was able to make it to a little landing area that was a little more open. I could breathe again. We made it back down ok and I lived.


This is a picture demonstrating our wait in our hotel lobby for a bus to come pick us up for the ride to El Sokhna. We waited 1 1/2 hours. Pretty standard for the ME. Nothing happens on time. The ride itself was also about 1 1/2 hours.


We stayed at a Movenpick resort. It was great. Right on the Red Sea. The weather was fantastic but the water--in both the pool and the sea--was FREEZING! Notice in the picture that the kids aren't actually submerged in the water. This was about as far in as they would get and even then they only stayed in the water for maybe a minute. One interesting fact is I was perhaps the most immodest woman poolside or on the beach. And I was wearing a one-piece swimsuit covered with a t-shirt and shorts. I did take off the t-shirt for a bit when I thought I might try the pool. But then it was discovered the pool was far too cold. I never even did take off the shorts. It definitely wasn't peak season so I'd imagine during the warmer months I'd see women in attire far more revealing than mine. As it was though, the Mormon lady--surrounded by women in hijabs, long sleeves, and pants--was a bit self-conscious about her immodesty.


The first night there his company rented a paintball arena and these bungee trampoline contraptions. Petey was the only one old enough/big enough to do the paintball but everyone had fun on the trampoline. If I can figure it how to do it, I'll post a video of T hooked up to the bungees.


While Todd was holed up in meetings during the day, we spent our time on the beach, poolside, at the playground, playing pingpong, foosball, pool, air hockey, doing crafts, and generally relaxing. We spent a considerable amount of time eating as well as all 3 meals every day were buffet all-you-can-eat. We tanked on the chocolate mousse.

It was a great vacation. We would've liked Todd to be able to enjoy it with us but he has to work so the rest of us can have fun. Thanks for the great time, hon.