Got a photo of the helicopter landing on the yacht, like woah!

Todays sand castle ended up more of a mound. Do not be fooled by its simple appearance into thinking that it was easy to build. To amass that much sand took a very, very long time! The boys wanted to build it as tall as me but we decided it was near impossible to do. This is about an hour into the build. You will also notice we had a different crew member with us today, Sean, from Zimbabwe. It has been really interesting to hear where everyone is from and how they got involved with the boating business.

We then took a break from this exhausting work to take out the peddle boat. The wind was very strong and peddling was hard going. The kids had Sean and I working like dogs as they "helped" by kicking their feet off the back. At one point I had turned because it sounded as if there was a fight brewing and it's a good thing I had because somehow Ram had managed to drop his net off the back and without alerting us had jumped off the back to get it. He was on the verge of a breakdown and was calling out to us when I finally spotted him. We all had a good laugh though once we had fished him back onto the boat. He informed me he had yelled "man overboard" and couldn't understand why we hadn't stopped to help him. I told him he should yell louder next time he decided to leap into the sea.

Here we are nearing the finish of our day. I know it doesn't look like it grew much but we had a bit of an issue with a child thinking he could demolish it and we would happily rebuild it for him. He was sternly informed that he was out of his mind but we had already been set back by a good half a foot by the time he stopped his demolition.

Lunch, soccer, a quick shower and then off to dinner. We were just getting parked for dinner when the door was opened so the kids could file out they spotted a ferrari parked next to us. They were so excited and wanted to have a photo session with it. Tut's picture was my favorite. He got so serious cool.

I think in my previous blogs I have failed to mention that in addition to the boat we sleep, eat, and play on, there is another boat. Below you can see the boat used for zipping to different ports. The day boat if you will.

We spent most of our day on the beach. The Peddle boat was rented again and I had my first go at peddling. This may have been mistake for as soon as the kids realized that mine and Freddy's leg power combined made for fast going we were forced to zoom the entire swim area at full speed. By the end we could barely move and had to push down our legs with our hands to maintain speed. As if that weren't exhausting enough as soon as we got back to the beach it was time to play in the sand.

The humble beginnings of what is to become and epic expanse of tunnels and walls.Ram working hard creating tons of small squares to decorated the top of our barrier wall.Tut pretending to look busy while the rest of us slave away. He said at one point he was the project manager and went about ordering more tunnels and walls to be built.Nearing completion. I'm working on a volcano as the two boys discuss the various pros of having a volcano near the castle. The main perk being that all bad guys will be burned up as they try to invade.And finally the finished project! 7 holes one for each person working with tunnels connecting them and a barrier wall surrounding the whole thing. Our 7th worker bee is Marie and she is behind the camera in this one.After a long day on the beach we had lunch then decided to take out the tender. We got up close to a lot of the boats in the bay. The boat below which is called "A" is by far the largest and most impressive looking. Nobody can decide if it is aesthetically beautiful but it is definitely unique.

It is hard to tell how huge this boat is from the photos but if you can imagine that it fits close to 7 other smaller boats plus some odd jet-skis inside of it you may begin to understand.

We also saw a helicopter landing on one of the yachts today. Unfortunately I was unable to secure a photo.

Post tender ride we went land side and the boys found some italian buddies to play soccer with. Amazing how fast you become friends over a game of football.

Tut driving the boat after soccer. The ride was pretty crazy as we whipped back and forth through the water. He had a hard time going straight.And the icing on the cake was that a hotel in the bay was having a big party that ended with fireworks! It was beautiful with all the boats, a cool gentle breeze, and the fireworks reflecting off the water.

Today began wonderfully when the yacht's cook agreed to prepare us pancakes for breakfast! Even though we eat amazing food everyday you can't help missing some of the old standards.

From there we moved through the day very similar to yesterday. Hit the beach for a few hours, took out the peddle boat, and zoomed around in the tender. The only difference being we took Antony (another of the 12 crew) with us instead of Freddy.

Ram works hard at peddling while Tut is in charge of steering.

I'm not sure what Antony and Tut were looking at.... perhaps all the european women bathing on the beach? No joke while trying to get a picture of all the boys on the beach a pair of boobies walked into frame. I would post that picture but I'd like to keep my blog at a PG rating at least.

After a quick pizza party at one of the ports, we zoomed the kids home to have a movie night. Here Tut is raising his hand as we take a vote on which movie to watch.

They of course insisted we zip around the bay first, begging to go faster, and crash through waves so they could get all wet. I wasn't too keen on getting soaked but had a lot of fun especially when Freddy had the brilliant idea of using the children as a shield from the barrage of splashing. Tut ended up getting drenched but I managed to stay relatively dry!

Hop, skip, jump into our pajamas and we were ready for movie night, Home Alone. Each of the kids got their own massive bowl of popcorn .

Ram with his blanket ready incase any scary moments came in the movie.

One of the boys friends and Kim (head woman on the yacht) enjoy the movie.

I am finding it extremely difficult to be a disciplined blogger when the internet is too slow to allow for the uploading of my photos and videos. So I have decided that for this week on the boat I will blog as normal and if the photo won't load I'll write (insert p

hoto here) and do just that wants i'm on land again with reliable internets.

Lucky for you a few of the photos decided to upload, yay! Below is the private plane previously mentioned in yesterdays post, that we flew from Paris to Sardinia.

Tut kicks back and relaxes on our flight, a few minutes after this photo was taken he enjoyed a specially cooked dinner while watching The Little Rascals.

The most fun part of the travel was being loaded into two tender boats and racing to the yacht (insert video). Unfortunately, my team lost. We all got there in the end though and boarded

the yacht, by far the most beautiful I've been on in my tours as a traveling nanny.

We made up for our terrible loss in our race to yacht today by taking the fast tender out and zooming around the bay and checking out all the other ridiculously huge boats. My favorite being this one with a ginormous slide off its side. I want to go to there!

In addition to racing around on a boat and getting soaked, we spent some time on the beach which was fun. Though, it was a bit chilly and the water was freezing. We rented a peddle boat with a slide on it!

Watching the kids with their little legs attempt to bike this thing around and then convincing them to take the plunge down the slide in to freezing water proved to be quite an adventure.

Freddy (1 of 12 boat crew members) and I are waving to Marie (another nanny). The kids, on the other hand, were to busy chattering from the cold to wave.

A man, one of many, is walking the beach attempting to sell his wares. Although they are rather interesting as far as people watching goes, it is still annoying to be asked every five minutes if you want to buy a purse, watch, those funny spider like head massagers or even have your hair braided.

A surprising amount of my photos loaded and so lucky for you, as long as I am patient and don't attempt to upload any videos, my posts will continue as usual. Hope to get some photos of the inside of Yalla posted soon.

One of my favorite things everyday in Gouna was walking into the kitchen and being greeted by the cook. In this video which is intended to be more of a sound bite I have tried to capture this moment. Take note of the passable arabic I'm speaking!

(videos to be posted in the future, this is taking toooo long!)

This is Samahh, I'm not sure how she does this but i've been trying ever since she showed me. After many attempts the only thing I succeeded doing was making my fingers very sore.

We are now in a new location. One week, on a boat in Sardinia. We left Gouna last night to spend one evening with the boys uncle in Cairo. This morning we flew Cairo to Paris then Paris to Sardinia (the latter flight was on a private plane... morally I feel I should be a little opposed to this extravagance but I have to admit it was rather nice.) You'll want to check in tomorrow for the photos because this was no ordinary plane and is certainly no ordinary boat!

Yesterday, our last full day in Gouna, we took the boat to a great spot in the middle of the sea where you can tie your boat and swim with the fish. It is hard to describe, even with pictures, how awesome it is to jump in the sea and be surrounded by so many interesting fish. One in our party even saw a manta ray, sadly I missed it. I did however so a very long, very skinny, funny looking fish.He is Ram standing off the boat and floating in the sea. He was determined to pet a fish and was surprisingly successful. He was the only one able to do it though, even though the rest of us tried really hard. Those fish are fast little suckers.
My favorite of all the fish is the parrot fish. The pictures don't do justice to it's amazing array of colors. Simply breathtaking.


Today we did some final packing, said our goodbyes, and made our way to Cairo where we will spend the night before heading to Sardinia. I have a few more photos and videos to wrap up our trip in Gouna but they will have to wait for now . Tonight I'm tired and heading to my bed. G'night.

Every night as I sit at my computer a mosquito shows up to bother me. I don't see him any other time during the day and it only happens when I am all alone. These are the things I believe to be true, that it is the same mosquito every night and that he likes to fly by my ears so I glance about in alarm but that he doesn't find me gastronomically appealing.

My evening the other night consisted of one adventure upon another. We were wrapping it up for the day, about to scoot the kids off to bed, when we are informed that a pipe in the house has been broken, the front walkway is flooded, and they are cutting the water in the house. And who is the only person in the house who hasn't showered yet? Yours truly, thank you very much. Just as we are processing this, the power cuts off. We grab the kids and the cell phones and shuffle through house to get to the couches until we can get some candles lit. After a while we decided to take advantage of the situation and do some star gazing. I saw a shooting star and no, you may not know what I wished for. I could have watched all night but of course the kids got bored and that was the end of that. Thankfully not too much later the power returned! At this point Nefretiti came to me and said "Missy, the water is being turned on for 10 minutes starting now." No sooner the words had left her mouth I was up the stairs and in the shower, a little turned off at first as thick red brown water came out of the spout but thankfully it cleared. Unfortunately the pressure was nil and what was suppose to be a shower turned into a sit under the faucet and make do. I was managing and just taking the first stroke to shave my legs, when the power went out again. Now sitting in the dark, in my sit shower, I had a decision to make continue or not to continue. I continued and am proud to say my legs came out rather smooth for being a blind shave. Thankfully the power returned as I was finishing up and no further mis-adventures plagued the evening.... until the next morning, still sans water, and you ask yourself "will this toilet flush if I use it?"

Today on the other hand was low-key as well as being the chosen day for Ram's birthday celebration. Most of it was spent poolside and the other part was spent stuffing our faces with delicious food and dessert. The deserts alone included chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, Kunafa (as previously described in a prior post), and little homemade doughnut hole like things covered in a sticky sweet syrup that i believe are called Zein Beladi? but i'll have to double check that tomorrow.

My favorite was the Zein Beladi made fresh today by Mohammed as seen below.

Homemade chocolate pudding contributed by Nefretiti's neighbor and friend. Delish!

I'd like to dedicate this post to my dear friend Will. He specifically requested some pics of the delicious things I get to eat, so here goes.

Kunafa is a scrumptious dessert that is a sweet cheese or sometimes cream filled pastry. Then covered with a sugar syrup. Served warm
Here is Mohammed, on the right, genius behind the delicious food!
We ate these chickens for lunch today. I'm not sure what he does to them but the brown sauce they are bathing in is to die for and especially yummy to dip Mohammed's homemade fries into.
We had this fish a couple days ago, delish but a little time consuming to eat due to the de-boning process. Here they also leave in the egg sac because they consider it a delicacy... I'm not the biggest fan.
And last but certainly not least is the drink of the summer. The best lime-ade I've ever had. Their secret, you put the entire lime into the blender instead of just the juice.

I finally got to go kitesurfing today! YAy! I was very nervous on the drive there because it has been a very looong year since I went . To calm myself I ran over every little thing I could remember from my beginner course last year. Turns out all the worry was for nothing, Kitesurfing is just like riding a bike once you got it you got it. I had a wonderful instructor, Dominic, to help jog my memory and make sure i was comfortable in the water. My only regret is I still haven't figured out how to get a photo of it. Picture standing in the middle of clear blue skies and water to match it. A constant wind holds the 9 ft. kite in the air and I hold it to the ground thirty meters below. A board similar to one you would use snowboarding strapped to your feet. Dip the kite into the wind, get pulled to a stand and suddenly you're somewhere between flying and and sailing.

I know that the egyptian have good intentions as far as keep tabs on all the boat activity but some of their policies just seem silly. For example today we were about to head to an island on a very large yacht when we were told we had too many people on board and 4 had to get off. This boat could have easily held twice the amount we had aboard. Earlier this week Tut and I had gone out to go tubing with some of his older cousins near the end of our fun we were hailed by the police and the boarded our boat and checked all our papers.... as if we were going to flee the country with a huge raft tied to the back. Nefretiti and Ram drove up shortly after and were also checked. As seen in the photo below.
In spite of our rough start we did have a great day and there is no better way to end a fun time on the boat then with a sighting of dolphins! Today it was extra special because the dolphins were super playful and performed lots of tricks. Tail slaps and jumping out of the water. Super exciting stuff! I only wish it was easier to anticipate where in the water they would pop up so I could have caught all of their tricks on video.

We had this for lunch the other day and it was delicious! We have the best ever in house cook, Mohamed, who has been cooking for the family for over 50 years! Mohamed nimerah wahid! I'm going to try to remember to take pictures of all the yummy food I get to eat but usually by the time i remember to take one I've devoured all of my food.

We don't wear shirts in Egypt but we still need a place to put our stickers!

Here is a Sea cucumber but we all decided it looks more like a Sea Terd. We were going to tell the boys grandmother that Ram had taken a big poop in the sea.

The days haul from our trip to the island. It's amazing what nature can accomplish.
Here is the theater that I so enjoyed last night. The best part was the weather and the big cushions for lounging.
Here is the theater during Intermission. That's right I said intermission. That was a really strange experience for me but apparently totally the norm in egypt.