And for the grand finale & reason I chose this cruise...

Port #8 - Egypt! Kenny and I had visited Egypt for three weeks back in 2001 and it's been one of our more memorable travel experiences. This trip our ship docked in Alexandria and Cairo was a 2.5-3 hour drive from the port. I was really worried that the boys wouldn't be up for the long day that a tour to Cairo would entail. Luckily, our friend Carrie Smith had researched doing a private tour for our family and theirs. This was the best move of our whole trip. We booked through Memphis tours and had a whole van to ourselves. The kids were in heaven and our guide was amazing. His name was Ashraf, he was an Egyptologist and he held four degrees - 2 bachelors, 1 masters and 1 doctorate. He lectured at Cairo University and in his spare time he worked on excavations. To say he was passionate about his work would be an understatement. I got so much more out of this trip than our previous one and would love to return to Egypt someday. The pyramids were as amazing as the first time I saw them and I would love to return to Luxor, Aswan and Sharm-el-Sheik.