ah, long weekend... Egypt!

Spent the long weekend in Egypt on the Red Sea. Was a nice time, staying in a really nice hotel on the beach. Getting there was a bit of a hassle, though. There aren't any flights from Israel to Egypt because... well, politics, really. So we flew to Eilat, which is near the border and took a cab to the border, then walked across. Of course, it's not that simple. Had to go through one set of border control to get out of Israel, and then another to get into Egypt... checked our passports eight times (I counted). And the fact that we didn't have visas for Egypt made for a hassle, too (we didn't need them. Just a special stamp for where we were going.) And then having Diplomatic passports threw the people off--I guess they don't see too many of them.

But once we got there, it was a good time. Slept a lot, and read a bunch. Went down to the pool in the mornings, then came in for the afternoon. It was wayyy too hot to be out at that point, like 110+. Not that it stopped some of the other people at the hotel. But then, they sat out there all day and turned bright red, so I figure they'll be horribly uncomfortable and probably get melanoma later, too. God bless SPF 30.

ooh! and I saw lionfish! From about five feet away. Didn't want to get too much closer, all things considered though. We Had a little one in our aquarium in Jakarta. And I talked my parents into going to the underwater observatory in Eilat on our way back today, which was fun.

Oh yeah... happy Independence Day, too. I nearly forgot.