When my mom decided to visit us, she made it abundantly clear that she wanted to see Luxor. Twist my arm! I quickly made arrangements and booked lodging and flights. Kyle wasn’t planning on joining us, as he was supposed to chaperone a student trip to Jordan. Due to the unrest in Israel and Gaza, the trip was cancelled the night before departure. Woohoo for safety and more people on our trip!
I present, the Luxor MVP Awards.
Best Napper: Blakely Moore. The 5-year-old has gotten in the habit of sleeping through history lessons. It doesn’t help that twice now we’ve arrived to our vacation spot after midnight. In Luxor, Blake caught a snooze on the plane, in the hotel shuttle, on the golf cart to the room, in the tour van (twice), and at Karnak Temple.
Best Show of Stamina: Kannon Moore. Let’s face it. Kids don’t always appreciate ancient ruins. Especially when it’s 95 degrees, crowded and dusty. I hired an Egyptologist to organize tours in Luxor which includes transportation, bottles of cold water, and a comprehensive history lesson with each stop. Guys, Grandma Connie was with us! I had to make sure her educational needs were met! Our first tour took us to the East Bank where we stopped at Karnak and Luxor Temple. After each 15-minute block of time that passed, Kannon looked pleadingly at me with large, sad eyes and said, “MOM, are we almost done?” At one time, when Kannon was at his lowest, he shrieked, “I mean, this guy!” He pointed at Tamer, the best Luxor tour guide on the planet who was perfect and who I paid a lot of money for. Kannon continued, “We could be done but he just keeps talking! This is so dumb!” All in all, Kannon finished the 3-hour-tour without perishing and he’s definitely more cultured as a result. You’re welcome, kid.
Most Adventurous: Connie Davidson. When Kyle joined the travel party, it meant that G-Ma Connie and I could sneak away for perhaps another adventure… kid-free! We chose… drumroll please… A SUNRISE HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE! In Egypt they call it a “ball-own” (rhymes with phone), but I think that has less to do with the lack of the word “balloon” in Arabic and more to do with a thick Arabic accent. Now, newsflash. I have never been on a hot air ball-own ride and I have never navigated transportation getting to and from the hot air ball-own ride (in Luxor, in the darkness of the night). Many times throughout our morning it was imperative that my mother blindly trust me, and she did! A few times we wondered if we would ever make it… but like Kannon at Karnak Temple, we did not perish! Here is a brief summary of the transportation checkpoints we endured in order to ride the hot air ball-own.
Run to catch the resort shuttle at 4:30am > See a van parked outside hotel reception and ask, “Balloon?” to which the driver replied, “Ball-own!” Get in the van > Realize this is the wrong van and get in an SUV > Get out of the SUV at the marina, meet up with a large group of people getting off a bus, walk with them and board a boat on the Nile > get off the boat after crossing the Nile > hear all about safety procedures on the ball-own, sign our lives away, and get in another van > stop in the middle of the road at call to prayer so the male drivers and guides could pray > drive/stop in traffic/wait/drive to ball-own launching site > get out of van > follow a group of strangers to our ball-own > board ball-own > enjoy ball-own/don’t fall out of ball-own/land ball-own > get in a rinky dinky van-esque vehicle that surely looked like it would break down > get dropped off at a marina > board a boat and cross the Nile > hop in the same SUV as before > get dropped off at our resort. The whole time, Mamacita did not even flinch! At one point I’m pretty sure she thought we were never going to be seen again because our van had been stopped for 20 minutes on the side of the road and an angry woman was forcefully speaking in Arabic to our driver, and then two police cars with sirens passed us going the opposite way… but all was good. We made it there on time and back to our resort ahead of schedule. It was a cultural experience and we highly recommend the sunrise ball-own ride in Luxor!
Most Enthusiastic Vacationer: Kennedie Moore. This girl loves herself some vacay. She does not like missing out on fun, must be with her people at all times, and can be described as having zest. Kennedie gave the adults some flack when she could not attend the ball-own ride because she wasn’t old enough, and it took quite a bit of convincing for her to realize that she would rather play in the pool than go on another three-hour tour on our second day in Luxor. She’s our family hype girl, most definitely.
Most Unathletic: Kyle Moore. Ok, this one will take some explaining. The man I married is fairly athletic. It can be annoying how quickly he picks up games he’s never played before (though he still looks quite unorganized when he’s on the soccer field). He knows his way around a baseball diamond, the basketball court, a football field, and a swimming pool; and will probably beat you at pickleball, cornhole, or ping pong. Like I said, it’s a bit annoying and there have been times when I’ve stormed off/out of the court/field/room because I don’t enjoy losing to him. This weekend, however, Kyle did not look like an athlete.
Example 1: The kids were swimming; the adults were chatting under the festive palm frond umbrella. Kannon shouted, “Dad! Can you throw me my goggles!?” Being the attentive father that he is, Kyle bent down to retrieve said goggles, lined up to throw them at Kannon, fired… and hit the underside of the palm frond umbrella. The goggles dropped to the ground about two feet away in a very anticlimactic fashion.
Example 2: On day 2, Kyle thought it wise to show the twins how to do a “swimmer’s dive off the starting blocks.” Please keep in mind we were at a resort swimming pool, and so there were no “blocks” to speak of. Still, this did not deter Kyle in his quest to teach his children a very important skill. In the middle of the pool, there were small landscaped islands with trees and shrubs that served the purpose of very large planters. Twelve-inch wide tiles bordered these islands that became, in my opinion, a little slippery when wet. In Kyle’s eyes, this was the perfect spot to teach his children the ins and outs of diving off the blocks. He jumped up there, shouted at the kids to watch, and got in an impressive starting position. Suddenly his body was suspended in mid-air, but he wasn’t moving forward very much. Immediately I wondered if something went wrong, because even though I’m not a great swimmer, I’m not an idiot and something didn’t look right. He uttered a very loud, “AH!” in mid-air and belly flopped into the pool. He has never looked more un-athletic in his life. The icing on the cake was that he tweaked his hip flexor and has been in mild pain for the last 2 days.
Other MVP moments include, but are not limited to:
