Love & Adventure

A little bit about us and this space...

Chris and I (Amber) live in Colorado and we travel because we love the strangeness of different places and the wonderfulness of people from various cultures around the world.

We love to eat great food and go on adventures that make us just a little uncomfortable, and to also just sit and do absolutely nothing in beautiful places.

Our travel experiences leave us feeling humbled, grateful, and joyful so we don't want to let time dilute the stories and memories from each of these trips. This site is a record and maybe a little bit of a diary. I also suspect that my future grandchildren may never pick up a photo album, but may explore a digital keepsake.

Enjoy.

Be inspired to pursue your own adventures.

This is us on our honeymoon at Machu Picchu. What a way to kick off our lifetime adventure!

Egypt

February 2023

From the time we booked this trip in 2019, we could not wait to go, but you know what happened next. (Thanks C-19!) After such a long wait, this experience did not disappoint! This is a private post and not an advertisement, but I would be remiss not to mention that our tour experience was planned and executed by Adventures by Disney (ABD.) Our deepest thanks to Liz, Mostafa and Kareem from ABD who all helped make this trip truly a once in a lifetime experience!

Cairo

Cairo is a modern and bustling city where traffic and pedestrians co-exist and intermingle in hair-raising, adrenaline-spiking ways. The people were lovely and the food was amazing.

Here is a view of Cairo Tower and the views of the Nile from the top of the same.

Egyptian Museum

There is a lot of anticipation for the Grand Egyptian Museum, aka The GEM, but it was not yet open at the time of our visit. Instead, we got the "classic" visit of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where there was a special exhibit of King Tut's artifacts including his jewels, headpiece, and sarcophagus. All of these things are copyrighted for photos, so you won't see images posted here, but it was absolutely astonishing to see the capability of these ancient people to do intricate gold and jewelry work.

King Tut's innermost sarcophagus is made of 260 pounds of gold!

Just a sample of some of the amazing things we saw at the Egyptian Museum:

Lunch at Al-Azhar park and the Great Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Private tour of the Sphinx and After-hours tour of the Great Pyramids

One of the reasons we chose Adventures By Disney was because of their ability to arrange exclusive experiences.

First, we got up close and personal with the Sphinx while other groups viewed it from a distance behind a railing. We walked around it, touched it, stood between its paws and took some funny photos. All while learning the history from our esteemed Egyptologist Kareem.

Then, when the park of the Great Pyramids closed to the public, we again got an exclusive experience to go INSIDE the largest pyramid, climb hundreds of steep steps to visit the upper tomb, then descend and crawl through tunnels to the subterranean tombs. It was an adventure and it was magical.

Khan el-Khalili Market and Scenes from Daily Life

View from the highway.

Textile storefront

Not just for tourists.

Souvenir heaven.

Most living is apartment-style.

The fruit of her labor. Egyptian fruit is delicious!

Mosques everywhere in what used to be a Christian city. (We did not know that.)

A typical street view.

Abu Simbel... the unexpected

Abu Simbel Temple

Dated to around 1200 BC and attributed to Ramses II, this temple was the unexpected treat of our trip. It is grand in scale and full of gorgeous images.

To get here, it's a 25 minute flight or a 4.5 hour drive. Worth it!

Nile Cruise aboard the M/S Tulip

The M/S Tulip

Our State Room

Enjoying the sun deck

Nile shore line

Temple of Isis at Philae and Kom Ombo Temple

Felucca Sailboats and The Old Cataract Hotel

We got to take a felucca sailboat down the nile to the Old Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile.

The crew manning the sails.

Other felucca sailboats on the water.

The wares of this captain. Beautiful craftsmanship of jewelry made of camelbone.

Resourceful boys used a paddleboard and flip flops to come alongside our slow moving boat and sing to us for tips.

The shoreline.

Comfy and happy on the colorful seat pads.

View from the dock behind the Old Cataract Hotel.

Sunset view where we enjoyed a delicious dinner of local cuisine.

The front of the hotel at night.

The gorgeous hotel lobby.

Karnak Temple Complex and After-hours tour of Luxor

Another Disney exclusive... a nighttime tour of Luxor... just our group without thousands of other people exploring this space.

Valley of the Kings!

King Tutankhamun's Tomb was intact when found.

This is why King Tut is so popular, even though he didn't reign very long and died at the age of 19, likely from Aphrodite's disease.

The fact that this tomb was found intact and didn't see the light of day accounts for why the paintings on the walls are still so vivid. Nothing has been restored - it's all original...

The tombs of Ramses III and Merenptah

The Beauty of Sharm El Sheikh & Red Sea Snorkeling

Sharm El Sheikh, an Egyptian city on the continent of Asia, came at the end of our trip and offered an oasis next to the Red Sea.

We stayed at the Coral Sea Imperial Sensatori Resort which was modern and very westernized.

Snorkeling in the Red Sea was an epic experience even though the water was very cold this time of year.

The many delicious foods of Egypt!

Room Service at The Ritz Cairo

Our first dinner

Buffet at Mena House Hotel

Salad at Naguib Mahfouz restaurant

Falafel at Naguib Mahfouz restaurant

Stuffed pigeon at Naguib Mahfouz restaurant

Beef and Okra Stew at Naguib Mahfouz restaurant

Chicken in Cream Sauce at Naguib Mahfouz restaurant

Koushary on the Nile Cruise Boat

Buffet on the Nile Cruise Boat

Dessert on the Nile Cruise Boat

Our Guides, Belly Dancing as an Art, Galibaya Party, Whirling Dervish, Partners in Crime

Thank you Egypt for sharing your secrets with us.

And we'd like to thank our fellow ABD tour group members who also helped to make this trip memorable and fun, and with whom we shared laughs and experiences that we will always remember.

As is typical for long-haul international flights, we left late at night to catch our 2:00 am flight and begin the journey home. This is one last view of the Nile from the Ritz Carlton Cairo.

BELIZE

November 2022

Chris and I spent another Thanksgiving in paradise as I successfully avoided the weeklong stress of planning, shopping, and cooking a holiday meal that would be over in less than 20 minutes and leave me exhausted.

We stayed at the Alaia Belize in San Pedro. It was beautiful and had a boutique feel with a great beach. The pool was the perfect temperature. Nearby on the beach there is an indepedent massage therapist that does a great job and saves you lots of $$ compared to the hotel spa.

We went cave tubing and it was great! There's about a mile-long easy hike with your tube to reach the start, but it was worth it. More pics in the carousel.

Yes, that howler monkey is holding his hand. We got up close and personal with a little family on a tour that would NEVER happen in the USA due to liability reasons. It was cool and a little nerve-racking to be so interactive with these beautiful but wild creatures.

Not so Secret Beach! We went early to get ahead of the crowds and thought we would love the fact that you could sit at a table in the ocean to enjoy your food and drinks. But, it was clear really quickly that this is a party beach. Unless your aim is to mingle and drink and eat and drink and then drink some more, there is not much else to do out here.

More Belize Pictures

Hoi Chan Reserve was the highlight of our trip!

In addition to above, we visited Caye Caulker and did an epic snorkeling adventure through the Hoi Chan Reserve. Seriously the best snorkeling with the most diverse ocean life either of us have ever seen - and we have done Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef.

So many good things...

This is us at the little Italian restaurant hidden away in a corner of the airport in Belize City. At this time, it's the only place where you can sit down to eat and drink and watch a television. We took this selfie as we waited for our flight and you san see how happy (and tan) we were at the end of this trip. The blue orb in my hair is a bonus. It's not an earring or a berry. It's just there. An inexplicable extra. But we take it to mean very, very good things, because after all, look at those smiles!

Thank you to the people of Belize in San Pedro and Caye Caulker and Belize City. We are grateful for our experience and for your hospitality!

Special thanks to Jefferson, our cave tubing and howler monkey tour guide, the owner at Frenchy's who made sure I had the most deliciously unexpected French meal in San Pedro, and to our week-long personal driver Rigoberto Patt who helped us get from place to place safely, confidently, and on-time, and who shared stories of his life with us. We are eternally grateful.