Our first full day in Egypt

Our first full day in Egypt started bright and early. Catie decided to get up at 5 AM! Thankfully, that didn't happen for the rest of the trip. But, we got an early start after eating breakfast at the Marriott's buffet restaurant (Omar's), we headed to the Egyptian museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so here are a couple shots of the outside:

The museum was pretty overwhelming. It's amazing how many artifacts were there, and how many they have that aren't even on display. We ended up buying a video from the gift shop so that we could look at everything again. The display of King Tutankhamen's tomb artifacts was especially impressive. I stood for a few minutes just looking at the funeral mask. I've seen pictures of it a hundred times, but it was amazing seeing it in person. The babies didn't think it was that impressive; they fell asleep halfway through the museum.

After a rest and a quick lunch from the bakery, we went with a tour group to see the pyramids. Here we are:

And here is one of the guys that ruined the experience for us. Like I said before, everyone in Egypt is looking for a way to take your money. These guys just stand there and get in your photos and then expect you to give them a tip for their services. Being newbies, we had no idea what he was doing.

Here are the pyramids without us in the way:

Standing at the base of one of the pyramids looking up:

At the base of the pyramids there was another group of Bedouins trying to get your money by giving you headdresses and crappy postcards. They told Brad that he looked Egyptian because of his goatee. By the time we got back to the bus, he was ready to punch the guys who wouldn't take no for an answer, and thought that they deserved 200 Egyptian Pounds ($40) for their services.

This Bedouin boy offered 1000 camels to marry Catie. Yes, she is wearing a headdress, too.

When we got over to the Sphinx, Brad decided to stay in the van with the twins because we had such a bad experience at the pyramids and they were hot. Fortunately, they pretty much leave a woman by herself alone, so I was able to take lots of photos there.

After that, our tour took us to a papyrus factory where they showed us how papyrus paper is made. It was very interesting, and we ended up buying a papyrus with the tree of life painted on it.

It was a long, full day, and we were exhausted after the early morning wake-up, so we ordered room service for dinner and went to bed early! :)