Home for Christmas, lucky trip to NYC

I had a nice visit home to the US and saw family and friends. My Mom's 80th birthday celebration was at my brother's house in Florence, SC during the middle of my visit. Here is a picture of 2 of my boys (Benjamin was in Tampa at a Drum Corp tryout) and three of my nephews at the party.

And a picture of Mom, Dad and two of my nephews:

I spent most of the rest of the time driving I-95 between Florida and Carolina, and seeing the boys in Gainesville, Florida. It was great to see everyone and thanks to Trish, Steph, & Mom for providing excellent accommodations during my visit.

I have driven from Hinesville, Georgia to Gainesville, Florida countless times, and I often pass a sign for "The Smallest Church in America." It is right off Hwy 17 about 30 miles south of Savannah. Follow the link for more details. It is one of those places that I always think "I've got to stop and see that someday" and I finally made time for it. Not much to see (as you can tell by the name) but it was a quaint stop, and I took some pictures.

I was supposed to fly out of NYC on Friday, Jan 21 direct to Cairo. The plane was overbooked, however, so I volunteered to give up my seat and come home the next evening. This meant I got to spend time with my always gracious and entertaining hosts Jen & Jesse, who now live in Manhattan. Jen & Jesse used to live in Gainesville and would often put me up at their place during one of my visits to see the boys. They are coming to Cairo early summer (en shallah) and I certainly am due to return the favor.

I left my hotel in the early in the morning (10 AM) and took a train to the Penn station in Manhattan, and Jen & Jesse met me there. I didn't have a lot of time since I had to catch a flight to Cairo leaving at 6PM, but we walked around, had a terrific lunch in Chinatown, and I got to see the Stature of Liberty, albeit at a distance, for the first time in my life. A really nice day.

Here is a picture of Jen & Jesse that morning:

A picture of the finance professor with the market bull!

And some random shots in the city:

It was rather cold. In fact, it was too damn cold my whole trip! I was in Florida and the temperature was only 35 deg F (that's about 1.5 Celsius) which is downright ridiculous! Anyway, Jesse was generous enough to lend me a hat and gloves, which made the day much more enjoyable.

I got back to Cairo at about noon, and spent the next 2 hours trying to find my luggage that was on the flight I volunteered to get off of. It was eventually located and I took a taxi to Maadi. To fight the jet lag, I did my best to stay awake all afternoon, and I met my friend Scott for dinner.

Scott is a political science professor here and always has interesting comments on both current political events and political history. He has written a soon to be published book about the influence of religion on politics in the US, Middle East and India. As part of his research for the book, he spent time in India, Morocco and Egypt.

We ate at Lucille's, which is a popular restaurant in Maadi that serves American cuisine. Here is an article from Time magazine about Lucille's: Time, July 3, 2007.

As you can see from the article, the burgers are famous, but I still haven't tried them yet. I go to Lucille's a lot for an American egg & pancake breakfast, and I also get the grilled cheese. I eat a lot of Egyptian food, but sometimes it is great to go to a place that serves burgers, grilled cheese, Tex-Mex and has country music on the radio!