Beauty and the Beast on the Kona side of Hawaii

While we were on the main island (Hawaii) we stayed in two Bed and Breakfasts. The first one was on the Kona side close to Captain Cook. It was beautiful and especially comfortable.


Total relaxation. "However they make me take off my shoes."
As you can see the yard was huge, fantastic and very Hawaiian.

We visited a National Historical Park called Pu'uhonua Honaunau, seriously that's it! Anciently it was the home of the Royal Chiefs in the Kona District. No palace just several thatched buildings within a coconut grove on the beach. It was only to be used by royalty and staff. A common person could not look at or get close to the chief, touch his possessions or even let his shadow fall on the royal grounds. There are a couple of wooden images in the water that warn people that this is royal beach. The penalty for such contact was death.

The kinder side of the story had to do with the other half of the park. In English it is called The Place of Refuge. A massive stone wall that was built in the 1500s divides the Refuge from the Royal Grounds.

The "kapu" was a long list of restrictions and the penalty for breaking one of them was always death. If you were a person that had broken one of the rules of social behavior (the Kapu), which in addition to the no contact with the royals included things like women could not eat with men. They also couldn't prepare the food for men, how about that? The Refuge was a sanctuary that gave people a second chance. No blood could be shed within its confines. People who had broken a "Kapu," or other law if they could get to this place of refuge the priest would perform a ceremony of absolution and the offender could return home safely.



Well that is enough for today.

Escape from snow - Hawaii

Santa Claus brought a trip to Hawaii for Marvin and I for Christmas. Such a smart man!!!

We spent three days on Oahu saw the Sea Life Park (It is much like Sea World in California),


went to the Polynesian Center where we attended an authentic Luau (pig in the pit and all)


and took an excursion out on the ocean to do some snorkeling and to see whales and dolphins. We did see several whales and a large group of Spinner Dolphins that performed for us like they had been trained to dance. The snorkeling was the very best.



Beautiful sunset off the western coast of Hawaii - the Big Island our next stop.

Response to tagging from my daughter ;)

For years I have enjoyed reading about English history. That is one of the things that made the trip to England so enjoyable. Recently I have found a new book by Philippa Gregory called The Other Queen. It is the author's idea of what happened to Mary Queen of Scots. The author has a very extensive bibliography at the end and seems to have done some good research but it is admittedly fiction when history failed to share the needed information.

Page 56 "We are all growing afraid of Cecil's knowledge, of Cecil's network of intelligencers, of Cecil's growing silent power.
"This is between the two of us, I say quietly. I glance around to see that no one is in earshot. It is amazing to me that I, England's greatest earl, and Howard, England's only duke, should fear eavesdroppers. But so it is. This is what England has become in this tenth year of Elizabeth's reign: a place where a man is afraid of his own shadow. And in these last ten years, my England seems to have filled with shadows."

Does it sound very different from today?

Final two days in Cairo

This morning we flew from Luxor to Cairo. They chartered a plane for us so there was a lot less waiting around airports.
This was the first time we saw one of the pyramids. As you can see they are close in to the city. Not out in the desert as I've always imagined. They do have some desert on the other side.
My sweetheart holding the pyramid up. Below the three Pyramids of Giza plus one of the smaller ones. Cairo is just a short distance behind us as we take this picture.

The Pyramids of Giza built by the Pharaohs Cheop, Chephren and Mykerinos are almost 5000 years old.

Lou Anna and Glenn Fifield and (below) Lorne and Linda White four friends that made this trip special just by being there with us. They were so much fun and did we ever have to hustle to keep up with them.Notice at the top of the Pyramid in back of us. Originally the pyramid was covered completely with a smooth polished layer of limestone. This layer has been stripped off except for the top part that you can see.
We were told that the St. Peter's in Rome, St Paul's in London, Westminster Abbey and the Cathedrals of Florence and Milan could find room within it, were it not solid.

This picture will help you know how huge these pyramids are. Marv is standing by blocks the same size as the pyramids are made of. How did they move them? About 2.3 million blocks of stone, weighing on average 2.5 tons a piece, were used to erect this gigantic structure. They claim that "the Pyramids are so enormous that their construction would exhaust the skills and resources of today's technology almost to breaking point."


The great Sphinx is 57 meters longs and20 high. Sadly there has been intentional destruction on the face. The nose is gone and there used to be a long beard on it.


We stayed at Intercontinental Citystars Hotel. Top notch in every way.

I took this shot out the back of the hotel - a little piece of down town Cairo.

We spent a couple of interesting hours in the Egyptian Museum where we saw among other things all of the material that was taken out of King Tut's tomb. Outside the museum a group of young Egyptian girls came up and talked to us. They were attending a university and they wanted to try out their English. They wanted to take pictures of us. They wanted to share their snacks with us crackers, gum. Our regret is that we didn't have our cameras (we couldn't take them in the museum) so that we could take a picture of them.

Our final adventure was a boat ride on the Nile. From the boat we saw a lot of Cairo. The modern, the poor and down trodden, and many beautiful mosques. Several of the guides made the boat ride especially fun dancing for us to Egyptian music. Before they were through they had most of us up and joining them.
We also ended by doing some shopping at the Mall behind the hotel. Looked like the malls back home. People in a hurry just like here.

What a life changing thing this whole trip has been. I am so grateful for the entire trip. It will only take me a few weeks to regain my energy :) but the memories will last forever and they will enrich all I see and learn about in the future.

To Luxor and a different adventure

From Taba we flew to Luxor. On our way to the Valley of the Kings we crossed what we thought was the Nile River


Minutes later we crossed the real Nile River. Much more impressive. The other was one of many small canals.
All along the road we would saw a mixture of nice apartment buildings and a lot of the poorest of shacks.


This is a picture of the entrances of some of the tombs in Valley of the Kings.

Valley of the Kings is an area where there are sixty two tombs. Not all of those buried here are royalty but most are. Buried with the bodies were funerary objects they would need for the next life however these items have all been removed. We were allowed to see only three of these tombs. Only a few are open each day. They rotate which ones are opened. We were able to see King Tut's. We don't have any pictures to share of the insides because they would not allow us to take cameras in. What you see inside are walls that are completely covered with hieroglyphics, and pictures drawn with amazing colors and of course you see the sarcophagus. In King Tut's tomb they had his mummified remains on display. Something that has not been done before.

On our way to the next site we stopped at an alabaster factory. We bought a beautiful alabaster vase. A lot of work and energy goes into turning a rock into a vase when all you use is muscle and a few crude tools.

Our next stop was on the West side of the Nile (That is the side for tombs, funerary temples and graves. The East side of the Nile is the " living side of the river"). According to the pamphlet "The rock temple of Abu Simbel who was Ramses II is among the grandest monuments in Egypt." We really did especially enjoy this one.

The front of the temple. You can see how huge it is. The picture below is the main hall that goes directly through the whole building. Waving to us for the picture is a friendly native, his own idea.


The walls are covered with engraven hyroglyphics. There were ever so many rows of huge columns like this one. Can you find Marvin?

In many of the rooms we found murals in surprisingly bright colors. Remember how old everything is. This temple, as near as I can guess-ta-mate was built in the first century B.C.
Our manual says "Painting has been a part of Egyptian life since the first daubs were applied to the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara in the 24th century B.C. But it was the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom who were especially keen on adorning the interiors of their tombs with vivid images of the after world and resurrection."



This is all that is left of the funerary temple of Amenhottep III. These two enormous statues stood on either side of the entrance. They are called Colossi of Memnon.

Our last stop for the day was the Temple of Karnak.

The tall obelisk is a distinctive feature of the Karnak temple.

These two statues are of the Pharaoh and the Queen. He is carved out of sandstone and she is out of granite.


A couple of the finishing touches we saw there.The entrance to this temple has an avenue of ram headed sphinxes. It was a very long avenue originally however there are still many left.



Close up of one of the ram headed sphinxes.

Now to Sofitel Karnak luxury hotel. Weary bones are sooooo ready for this.

A Respite on the Red Sea

The next two days were rest days in a most delightful place. The Marriott Hotel in Taba Egypt. It is located right on the Red Sea and is beautiful and very comfortable. We started out by sleeping in until 9:00a.m. I didn't know that I could still do that, but we did and it was delicious. When I woke up and looked out the window of our room it took my breath away. The sun was shining and the Red Sea was right there in front of us.

After a quick breakfast we went swimming in the Red Sea. It isn't red but very very blue and warm enough to be comfortable. The bottom is very rocky and made walking in the water difficult. The temperature stayed around high 70's to low 80's perfect!

That afternoon we signed up for a ride on a glass bottom boat. The Red Sea has a wide variety of vibrant colored fish but we saw some fantastic ones but we didn't see as many different ones as expected. The coral made up for it though; a lot of very unusual ones and some really enormous ones.

The next day we spent most all of our time at the beach and at the wonderful pools. It was wonderfully relaxing and just what the doctor ordered. :)







This evening Dr. Michael King gave a lecture about Egypt. Dr. King was involved in producing a television program for Discovery Channel about the death of King Tut. They did a lot of forensic research and came up with the conclusion that he was murdered by his prime minister. The program won a Tony award and was very interesting. His involvement with this program gave him a wealth of background knowledge especially about the tombs that we will see.