The breakfast here is fantastic -- even better than the hotel in Luxor – it’s our favorite on our Egypt tour. We went snorkeling after breakfast, but not until Avery joined his friend (there was one other little boy his age) at Club Penguin. The four of us snorkeled up and down the reef in front of the hotel and saw really amazing fish. Big fish, small fish and of all colors and varieties. I don’t really know what they’re all called but it was a lot of fun. There are also a lot of sea urchins on the reef and several clams (the enormous ones with wavy lips). Again, the sauna was on the program after snorkeling, and then a little beach time. We picked Avery up from the kid’s club just before lunch on the beach. Afterwards, he and Josh took a nap and Charlotte trained a little bit. I promised the girls ice-cream after Charlotte’s workout – Olivia certainly got the better end of this deal.
At 4pm a beach volleyball game ensued. The resort has activities planned throughout the day. Some for a fee (like snorkeling trips and yoga) and some free like the pick-up volleyball game. Charlotte was right in there for the volleyball and even tried to get Olivia to join in. But mostly, Olivia and I just watched. Later, when Josh was up, he was cajoled into joining the game too. That might have been a mistake because this game was very “church-league.” Josh is too competitive for a church-league game and as soon as I realized where things were headed. I took over babysitting for Avery’s nap on the terrace of our room.
We decided to take advantage of the beachside bar happy hour. The girls were happy to play on the computer and watch TV in the room, so we had Avery all to ourselves in the lounge. He had a virgin Pina Colada. I enjoyed my first real drink of the vacation – a Gin Fizz that wasn’t too bad. Josh ordered a Tom Collins. We explained to Avery that we were going home to Rome tomorrow, and that the next day he’d get to see his teacher, AnnaMaria and his friends at RIS. His response was that he’d get to see his blanket tomorrow. “Tomorrow I’m sleeping with my blanket!” We laughed. We had intentionally left it behind for this trip. I thought it would be a good opportunity to wean him from his blanket habit. We explained to Avery when we were leaving Rome that we had a limited amount of space in our luggage for this trip and we could only take a few bags so we didn’t have room for the blanket. He wasn’t bothered the whole trip by not having it so it was really funny that the last night he mentioned that he was looking forward to having it back. Oh well. I guess we’ll live with the blanket for a little while longer.
The plan was to get an earlier start getting into town so we’d have some time to pick up souvenirs after dinner. But the evenings at the hotel are so pleasant, and we all enjoy relaxing in the room during the hours between 6 and 7 that we never seem to make it out too early. Tonight we went to a fun restaurant called Same Same but Different. The name reminded Josh and I of our time in Thailand and Laos where everyone says “same same” all the time. This place, though, was Moroccan inspired, and so there were cushions and pillows strewn all over the floor and couched from which to sit and eat. Avery immediately lay down on a cushion and just looked around at all the people coming and going. Too bad my fish was overcooked. Anyways, it’s not fine cuisine in Egypt. We did go walking and shopping after dinner and we ran in to the Tasmanian couple that we’d met on the cruise. Small world. We knew they were coming to Dahab because they’d mentioned it to us on the boat, but they were taking a bus – an 18 hour ride. They are really a lovely couple and tomorrow, they are headed to Amman and then on to visit Petra.
We went on to take a shuttle back to the hotel. It was too late for packing. We’d have to tackle that in the morning.
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