Kids played a diving game endlessly with Jonathan.

The best milkshake in town for my little snorkler who conquered his fear.









3 pools Reef and Myself, Jonathan and GJ post dive. It was quite exciting to be back under again after all these years. I got a bit nervous when we were reviewing the rules etc... but once we descended it all came back quite naturally. I must say I feel my age though when it comes to carrying all that equipment!



Sandcastle in the making which turned out to be a sand turtle

Reasons to Come Visit

View from the back of our Dahab hotel










































Turlan's at Dinner

Basata Paradise

After 5 wonderful days at Dahab we have moved south to a remote location on the beach called Basata. It is run by an Egyptian/German couple who are true
environmentalist. Everything out here is hand made from local sources. They have a kitchen so you can cook for yourself (and clean up for yourself) and then at night they do a community style dinner. We are staying in cute huts facing the sea, cozier then one might imagine but hot. We will be here for 3 nights and then move onto St. Katherine (Mt. Sinai) for our last leg of the vacation. I expect my computer to run out of battery here and not be able to recharge for a few days so will likely drop out of cyber connection.

The pic of the night time skyline is Dahab's boardwalk by night.

Vaca Part two and three

Our campsite and view
After 3 fantastic nights in Sharm enjoying all the perks and pleasures of 5 star living we moved on to the other extreme of camping in utter and beautiful isolation. The scenery above the water was barren and simple and absolutely untouched and under the water an explosion of creativity on God's part; abounding in color and variety and thick with fish. We camped right on the shore and our Bedouin hosts prepared all our meals and a campfire for us every evening. The adults loved it I am not sure if the kids were as enthused or appreciative of the experience.

Next we drove about an hour and half down the coast to Dahab a left over hippie town with a totally different vibe to it than the more touristy and glitzy Sharm. The place I normally stay at here seemed to lose our reservation but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We found a MUCH nicer much better located hotel with a much better pool so everyone is happy on all counts. So far we have contented ourselves with snorkeling but tomorrow GJ and Jonathan and I will go diving. I have not dived in years so hopefully it will come back to me easily. Caleb has really gained confidence in both his swimming and snorkeling, he is working on overcoming his fear of the fish when they swim near. Everyone but me saw an octopus today.

The first pit stop on our 8 hour long journey. Kids really did great and the time went quickly. We stopped at Moses Spring and told them the story from the Bible.

Big Catch Up

Finally on VACATION and man is it good! Today is the last day of a 3 day visit to Sharm. We managed a great all inclusive package (drinks, alcohol,3 buffet meals a day, afternoon ice cream, water slides) and we are soaking up every ounce of it. We check out in a few hours and the kids are down in the pool with Jonathan for a snorkling lesson before we head to the beach to go camping for 3 days. Caleb has loved the pool, not as enthusiastic about the beach but hopefully when he learns how to snorkel he will be a bit more excited.

He has really been learning to overcome fear these last few weeks starting with a trip to a water park at the end of school. He went down a small slide and enjoyed it but wasn't willing to try a bigger one. Here at the hotel they have a bigger one and after a day of stalling he agreed and went down with me and LOVED it. He was quite proud of himself and eager to share his accomplishment with anyone willing to listen.

Sadly Sharm is very quiet as tourists have obviously made other summer plans, but I am sure if anyone is willing they can find some great deals and some beach solitude. I just heard rumor that protesters closed teh road that we had traveled here on. Glad we made it through when we did. I know big protests are planned for July 8 so keep praying that real wisdom and peace will prevail. I don't think there is any real concern for our safety but rather it is about the future of the country. I do think a positive that comes from some of these protests is that the protesters (many of them at least) are the educated and wiser voices and it is a chance for their voice to be heard by the uneducated populace which is a much greater number. The masses will follow religion if no other reasonable argument is made, protest is a form of a reasonable argument so we ought not view it as all bad I don't think.

On an interesting note we drove in right past the hospital here Mubarak is being held, it is under significant police protection, makes me wonder how an emergency victim would gain entrance.

Just finished one of my holiday books the Happiness Project. Now two more to finish and then I can start some new ones. Not sure what my internet abilities will be while camping so this may be it for a few more days.