Lotus! Oh, Lotus!

This is my shout out to the Lotus. You know who you are.

Okay. So the other day I went to the pyramids with the group from Houston. The pyramids are incredible. To give perspective to my visit, I had the opportunity to see Niagara Falls on my drive home this spring. I had high expectations for the Falls. I thought it was going to be a deafeningly large, overwhelmingly grand waterfall. Like the can't-hear-yourself-think-or-your-neighbor-talk type of loud waterfall. Do not get me wrong. Niagara Falls is beautiful but it it was not quite all I expected.

The pyramids, on the other hand, are amazing. They are so huge. From a distance they are huge and up close, well, surprise, they're even bigger. I had no idea how insanely massive they are. Not only are they huge but their corners are perfectly aligned with the cardinal directions and the top of the pyramid is directly in the center of the square base. So well done. I have tried stacking sugar packets at dinner and frankly the results are not as impressive.

For our visit to the pyramids, our group had a tour guide. He was quite friendly and a very good tour guide. Before we began our tour, he introduced himself, asked us questions about ourselves, and finally asked if we wanted a group name. The idea behind a group name is to help us stay together during the tour Our group was pretty tired so no one was that interested in team names. Our tour leader recognized our apathy, took the reins, and began suggesting name ideas. We should have said something. Fearlessly and shamelessly, our tour guide choose the name "Lotus." Thus, for the next hour and a half, when ever we moved to a new site, our tour guide would call, "Lotus! Oh, Lotus!" It was painful but I could not stop laughing.

Sadly, Cairo has expanded so far that the pyramids are more a suburb of the city rather than an exotic, isolated wonder of the world. City building are beginning to encroach on the land around the pyramids and the city is easily seen from the pyramid park. A road runs between two of the pyramids. Boo development.

When you visit the pyramids, you have the opportunity to ride a camel. Good deal, huh? The ancient pyramids of Giza, exotic desert animal, and a warm Coke. Yummy.

I chose to not ride the camel and I wish to share why: Camels are ornery, ornery creatures. Perhaps they are so ornery because foreigners ride them all day long. They spit too. Ornery I say. Ornery.

My friends who did ride told me the camels were named funny names like Michael Jackson and 007. Ha.

On an bright note, everyone should try rice pudding with ice cream, fruit, and nuts. Wow. Perhaps everyone else has had that before but it was the first time for me. So amazing.

Building blocks, sand castles, and way too much good food,