Back home to the USA!

Well, we made it back to the USA after an interesting few weeks - Spence was gone three weeks to Dubai and Egypt, and I was gone 10 days to Egypt. We are grateful for the experience, it was culturally enriching, and very interesting... Of course, the best part of the adventure was coming home to sweet baby Lance! Here are some fun pic's of our journey...
Oh, and to clarify for a quick second - the reason for our jaunt to Egypt/Dubai (since some of you have asked) - is... because Spence goes to an international business school, one of the requirements to graduate is to go on a winterum or a summerum where you go and take classes in a foreign country. Spence chose the Dubai/Egypt Winterum and learned about doing business in the Middle East. They met with several companies in Dubai and Egypt. The rest of the time was spent sightseeing and exploring the countries. I had always wanted to see Egypt, and so I went out and met him there and hung out with the students and even tagged along to their business meetings. It was awesome.


Egypt is a very interesting country... some things that stood out...
1. They don't have any cross walks, stop signs, or street lights. If you want to cross the street you just step out in front of traffic, and we are talking like 5 lane roads. Literally every time you walk, you hope you don't get hit - it really brought a ton of meaning to the song "Walk like an Eygptian."
2. There are metal detectors everywhere you go - the hotel, offices, malls, library, etc.
3. Every car that drove into our hotel had to be sniffed down by a bomb dog.
4. The city is very dirty and polluted, by far the worst anywhere I have ever been.
5. There are armed guards with machine guns every 100 feet - I mean everywhere you look people are carrying around guns.
6. Whenever we went sightseeing we were surrounded by an armed body guard.
7. We were very surprised by how nice everyone was. The people are very genuine and kind. They are very religious and proud of their heritage and culture. We never felt scared or endangered, which was very surprising considering everyone told us before we went over how unsafe it was for Americans. We are very grateful we were protected and safe during our time there.
8. One other amazing thing we were able to do that I don't have any pictures from, because cameras weren't allowed - was the Egyptian Museum. WOW is that a sight to see. It was incredible to see the relics and especially all of the treasures from King Tut's tomb - including the famous gold mask!
9. All in all, it was an incredible experience. I am grateful that we went, however it is one of those places that once is enough.

This is me out on our hotel room balcony in Egypt. Note the Nile in the background.

Seeing the pyramids of Giza, was probably one of the coolest sites we have ever seen.

We loved going to different mosques and learning about the middle eastern culture.


We had no idea that the camel was going to stand up, it was hillarious!
This is us at the coast of Alexandria on the beach.

Here is us with some friends on a dinner cruise down the Nile.

This was the highlight of our trip... we think it will be the perfect Christmas card, especially with Lance's face superimposed on the Eygptian!

Step pyramid of Sakkarah.


Great Sphinx.
Coast of Alexandria.


Overlooking Cairo, Egypt.



SPENCER IN DUBAI!!!

Spence said he loved Dubai, however he felt like it was becoming a bit Americanized. It was insane how much growth they have and are building for. Spence also was able to meet with a ton of amazing companies, but still had time to play and see the sights.

Spence in front of the only 7 star hotel in the world. PS - this is where Tiger Woods spent his honeymoon.


This is a view of Dubai - Spencer took this from one of the windows of his company meeting.

Dubai has an inside ski resort inside one of the malls.


One night Spence went out on a four wheeling safari on the sand dunes, camel riding across the Arabian Desert and then onto a dinner with a belly dancer!
Spence and Pam in the native garb!



GREAT TIMES SHARED BY ALL!