The dates have been set, a guided tour selected, and a personal, independent itinerary roughed out. We leave on March 7th, flying from Los Angeles and arriving in Cairo on the 8th. There we decompress and catch up with jet lag for two days before joining noted British Egyptologist Barry Kemp as our guide for the "Pharaohs of the Sun" tour, a fascinating two-week journey up the Nile and back that will cover many of the sites and monuments I really want to see in Egypt. The tour operator - Ancient World Tours - is based in the UK and was strongly recommended by Lynn Bishop, president of the Orange County chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE). After the tour ends in Cairo on March 24, we will fly back to Luxor for a two weeks stay. Found a lovely hotel on the West Bank that we will use as our base of operations for day trips and other excursions. Then the flight back to Cairo, where we hope the conditions will allow us to visit the Egyptian Museum repeatedly over a period of days, as well as other sites. On April 9th, it is my wish to celebrate my birthday with a dinner in the shadows of the great Giza Pyramids, on what will be the last night of our trip in Egypt. On April 10th, we will fly back to California. At least that's the plan. Plane tickets are purchased, tour is booked and paid for, hotel rooms are reserved and an ever-growing list of 'essentials' to bring is being updated on a daily basis...