Well, this past Thursday evening, Megan and I bought tickets to fly to Cairo, Egypt next February. In less than a month, Megan’s sister Jill is moving over there for at least a year or two, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see such a different part of the world. As of right now, a majority of their family is going, with at least 6 of us going and possibly more. I say the more the merry, but we’ll see what happens with expanding the tour group.

I must confess, the whole process of shopping for plane tickets happened much faster than I would have liked. It all took place within about 24 hours; definitely not my style of doing most things. But it was good for me, because that means I’ve already accepted that I’m not really going to be in the driver seat at any point in the planning of this. I’m just along for the ride… er, flight. All the same, we have the tickets now, and that’s extremely exciting. A trip to see the pyramids, the Sphinx and all the other ancient history and art located in that region has been on my list of “things to do” for quite some time. And having a “local” tour guide (Jill, and, more likely, her boyfriend Ali) for most of it will make it all the more enjoyable and flexible. Jill is already shopping for cruise ship tours that run down the Nile River to see the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and the like.

With a trip such as this, the plane tickets are usually the largest expense. However, my frugal mind is already tallying the other costs that are sure to incur. And, actually, I’ve already made the next purchase towards the trip: a small but hefty book on Egyptian art and architecture. Additionally, I’ve also begun researching new digital cameras, since we’ll certainly need to replace our now long outdated Canon PowerShot S40 before going. If I can effectively use my powers of negotiation, there might even be two cameras in our future. But that might be as likely as the Sphinx asking me a riddle while we’re over there.