May 9, 2007

Happy birthday Mike! Today he was able to do one of his favorite things—go on a hot air balloon ride. The only other time he did that was over frozen Lindstrom in January, this time it was sunrise over Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. Kait went up with him—and about 6 other passengers. They had a good trip with a soft landing. I went to the boat roof top to watch it all from the other side of the Nile, there were about 11 balloons up. Later in the morning we went to Valley of the Kings—63 tombs(you are allowed to visit 3), another temple(I’m starting to lose track of them) and an alabaster factory—sales pitch. Back to the boat to eat, swim, rest, cool off. Late afternoon was the Karnak temples and another swim. Mike went with our tour guide to the Luxor markets for some shopping—bartering really, doesn’t resemble our shopping at all.

Supper tonight included a rousing song in Arabic and dance by the staff—ala Applebee’s—for the birthday boy and one of the German passengers. They grabbed them both and included them in the dance, then had a cake decorated with “Happy Birthday Josef and Micheal”