Tea at the Four Seasons, faluka on the Nile, Sound & Light show

We flew back to Cairo this morning and the kids were very excited for their reunion with Mohammed. When we arrived at baggage claim Mohammed greeted us and the kids ran to him offering big hugs he returned full force. He had brought them a handmade papyrus with their names written in hieroglyphics on a beautiful hand painted backdrop. Justin told Mohammed that he had missed him and Livvy smiled and leaned in closer and said bashfully, “Well, yeah, me too actually.” I think she may have a crush.
We happily parted ways with Walid and made our way out to where Aiymen was awaiting us with a big smile, a private van and yes Purel. We were welcomed back at the Oasis like returning royalty, even the K-9 officers at the gates smiled and waved. We checked into our rooms euphorically. Justin immediately emptied both rooms of all the Occitane bath products to add to his trip collection, which is now so embarrassingly large that I must carry a fair deal of it in my suitcase or his bag will exceed the weight limit. We headed down to High Tea in the foyer and Livvy munching on a cucumber tea sandwich said, “This takes me back to Boston. Remember how good the tea was at the Four Seasons and how you kept telling them it was my birthday so they’d keep writing Happy Birthday in chocolate sauce on my plate.” (I am not making any of this up, she absolutely cracks me up. To be clear, “this takes me back to Boston” was last May for her 8th bday.)
Mohammed then fetched us for a beautiful faluka (sail boat) ride on the Nile. While waiting for our boat, a group of 10 boys between the ages of 4 and 13 were gathered around a boom box playing hip hop music as they practiced their break dancing moves. Justin and Liv couldn’t take their eyes off of the children and made sure to say hello over and over again. Then we headed back to Giza for the evening’s Sound and Light Show at the base of the Sphinx with the pyramids in the background. Everything was exactly what you’d imagine except for the lengthy pre-show bag pipe band. Seeing a group of Egyptian men clad in Scottish themed outfits (not quite kilts but plenty of tartan) and marching to bag pipes and drums is definitely unusual. “Is that even Egyptian?” asked Justin. We headed back to the Oasis and enjoyed dinner Al Fresco by the pool where Justin enjoyed his last cheeseburger of the trip. Having played the Animal game non-stop for the entire holiday, we invented a new game, the Food game. You pick a food and then we ask yes or no questions until we guess what it is, “Do you eat it at breakfast? Do you eat it with a fork? Etc.” When it was Livvy’s turn, Justin and I were stumped after a full 10 minutes of questions, and gave up only to learn that she had picked “lemon zest” as her food. Now you may wonder what would possess her to think that lemon zest is a food as opposed to an ingredient, but I kept wondering how many 8 year olds would even think of lemon zest at all? “Well you know how you sometimes use it for risotto or even cookies to give them a little tang Mom.” She is not your average 3rd grader, Livvy is much much more and I have had the greatest pleasure spending all this time alone with Livvy and Justin! So lucky to be their mom (and Chloe’s too).