YOB: Next Up... Greece and Egypt

By Lara

I am aware that it's not on the Year of the Birthday list; however, I am currently on a cruise enjoying an optional excursion in Egypt. That is correct. Egypt. I am prepared with my Egyptian tourist visa and everything.

It's actually a funny story involving one trip getting cancelled and another trip becoming available. My friend Mandi wanted to go to Athens to visit her friend Bruce. As I had no desire to impose on Bruce for an extended period of time, I agreed to go with her so long as we went on some sort of a tour.

Mandi suggested that I start looking for tours. I found my dream tour. One week in Greece. One week cruising the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Once I saw that there was an optional excursion to Egypt during which we would see the pyramids and take a river boat up the Nile, I was SOLD.

It was slightly more difficult to sell Mandi on my two week dream tour encompassing three continents. Fortunately, I have been blessed with the gift of encouragement. I encouraged Mandi to agree that this tour rocked. Soon we had booked our flights and sent in our tour reservations. Yay!

And now I'm here. In Egypt. Rest assured that I will have plenty of stories to tell when I get back. I will also have pictures. I'm excited.

YOB: #19. Have a Lord of the Rings Marathon

By Lara

As you may remember, I had surgery on my kidney stone in early October. The whole kidney stone experience is really what derailed our original concept of the Year of the Birthday. However, I think it has evolved into something bigger than what we had first anticipated.

When we still thought that we would be able to accomplish all of the items in one year, we knew that we needed to do something low key while I was recovering from my surgery. In early October, we planned to check the Lord of the Rings marathon off the list.

Beth and I both love the Lord of the Rings movies. It's really one of the few movies that lives up to the literature that it reflects. In fact, I may even like the movies just a little bit better, which never happens.

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