the anniversary trip.

When we decided to travel to North Africa together this summer, David promised me that a 15-year anniversary getaway would be included.

He asked a friend from Phillip’s team for recommendations, and she pointed us to a tourist destination town on Red Sea, and even booked flights and a resort for us.

We took a taxi straight from the team retreat to the airport for the one-hour flight to the coast. We arrived, were picked up by the resort’s shuttle service, which looked nice enough, but honestly had no idea what to expect from our hotel. Our friend told us it was a five-star, all-inclusive resort, but the price we paid indicated that it may not be “American five-star.”

We laugh now, admitting that as the shuttle rounded each curve of the town at 8:30 at night, passing gaudy hotels with flashing neon lights, we mentally prepared ourselves at each one, “Okay, this is probably it. We can do this!”

But finally we turned off the main strip onto a shady, tree-lined drive with twinkling lights that felt very hopeful.

And then we reached our resort. It was spectacular. Nicer than we hoped for. And yes, that was the legit price in US dollars. From the moment we stepped inside the hotel, we were in a wonderland of cleanliness, beauty, and people waiting on us hand and foot.

Prepare yourself:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was truly a dream come true.

We even got cute towel creations in our room each day:

 

 

Everything was so deliciously, wonderfully clean. That’s what I kept thinking. I have no idea what it takes to keep a resort like this in the desert immaculate and dust-free, but they manage it.

Here’s the view from our balcony:

 

 

That’s the Red Sea!

It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.

Everything was made better by the Arab hospitality of the staff. Now, I know. They’re paid to be delightful to us. But there’s just something so genuine about Arab customer service. We made lots of friends.

When the concierge greeted us on the front steps Friday night, he said, “Ahh, this is now your second home.”

 

 

 

 

 

You guys, it was hot during the day. Like 115 degrees F hot. You can’t step on the pavement with bare feet or you’ll get burned.

But the nice thing about dry, desert heat, is as soon as the sun goes down, the air becomes pleasant. We ate our dinners out on the patio.

 

 

 

The only downside of our three lovely days was that David got food poisoning on the first night. We’d traveled around the country and eaten lots of different food, and he got food poisoning at our five-star hotel! Go figure.

But he was a champ about it and feeling better in about 24 hours.

 

 

I got to live my longtime dream of ordering a fruity cocktail at a poolside bar.

We also had some pretty epic evening entertainment at the poolside stage, and lots of laughs over it.

The resort was maybe half full while we were there, and we were the only Americans until our last day, when an American group checked in (we know that because when we’d give our room number after ordering things, the staff would sometimes chime, “Oh, the American room!”).

Other guests were about half Middle Eastern and half Russian/Ukrainian and Italian. We were amazed that the staff could speak Arabic, English, Russian, and Italian. And amused to see everything at the poolside from full burkas to very skimpy bikinis. This seemed very normal to everyone there.

I decided to take the middle road and felt free and comfortable getting to wear shorts and dresses for the first time on our trip.

 

 

 

One of our favorite things about our resort was the snorkeling. We snorkeled off the dock in the above picture, and you can’t tell, but the water is crystal clear, and the reef stretches all along the coastline.

I’ve snorkeled in Barbados and Malaysia, but this was by far the best. We saw more varieties of fish than we could count, and marveled at God’s creativity. David called it our daily “underwater worship service.” Snorkeling was when I missed our kids the most; they would’ve absolutely loved it.

 

 

We learned the all-inclusive drill, that there are going to be people around the resort offering different packages for excursions or  spa services, but they weren’t obnoxious about it.

On our first day, we decided to sign up for a day-long boat cruise on the Red Sea the next day, complete with lunch, snorkeling, and diving. I’ll tell you all about it in the next post.