Holiday Greetings
Clockwise from upper left:
(click
or touch link below for larger image)
Statue of Ramses II in the lobby of the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
Linda on the Sand Creek zipline, Jordan, Minnesota.
By the tall obelisk, Heliopolis suburb of Cairo
Chef delivers special request of Bolti fish on Lake Nassar.
Christmas at the Sawyers. Terry, Amy and Akira.
Giant Bigfoot at Garmisch Inn, Lake Namakagon, WI.
Replica of Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, NC
Christmas Letter 2025
Season’s Greetings from the Sawyers
In January, we returned to Egypt for our usual break from Minnesota’s winter. We arrived in Cairo where temperatures are typically in the mid-60s during January. During our three months there each year we always manage to find some new local sites to visit and take one long trip outside of the city.
This year, our major adventure was a four-day cruise on Lake Nasser, the large reservoir formed in southern Egypt when the Aswan High Dam was created in 1958-70. in the early 1960s UNESCO led fund-raising efforts to save numerous archeological treasures from the rising waters of the Nile. Twenty-two temples along the Nile were relocated to higher ground. While the massive statues at Abu Simbel are the best known and most visited, we were able to visit eight others on this voyage.
Back in Cairo, most of the new Grand Egyptian Museum was open to the public. We visited it at some length and it truly is a big improvement over the cramped quarters of the old museum on Tahrir Square. If you go, plan on at least two half day visits to take it all in.
In early May, we drove to Norfolk, Virginia, to attend the graduation exercise of Linda’s niece who was receiving a PhD from Old Dominion University. We made stops along the route at The University of Illinois for Tom to visit their historic Illiac computer exhibit and took a side trip to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to see the Wright Brothers historic memorial.
Linda joined a new travel group which meets monthly. They celebrated summer by practicing their zip-line skills at Sand Creek Adventures in Jordan, Minnesota.
Both Tom and Linda enjoy getting together with old friends we worked with long ago. Tom attended a Pillsbury employee luncheon with computer old-timers from the 1970s and Linda hosted her annual gathering of Aetna employees from the 1980s.
Tom also took a driving trip to Montana to attend a presentation of the Stibitz-Wilson awards at the American Computer and Robotics museum in Bozeman during September. Sidelights to this trip include being trapped in a huge cattle drive in Wyoming and a visit to the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming. The latter is highly recommended!
In October, we spent three days with friends exploring the fall color in Northwest Wisconsin near Lake Namakagon, not far from our former lake cabin.
There is more to see! Click on the links below for additional photos.
This year, our major adventure was a four-day cruise on Lake Nasser, the large reservoir formed in southern Egypt when the Aswan High Dam was created in 1958-70. in the early 1960s UNESCO led fund-raising efforts to save numerous archeological treasures from the rising waters of the Nile. Twenty-two temples along the Nile were relocated to higher ground. While the massive statues at Abu Simbel are the best known and most visited, we were able to visit eight others on this voyage.
Back in Cairo, most of the new Grand Egyptian Museum was open to the public. We visited it at some length and it truly is a big improvement over the cramped quarters of the old museum on Tahrir Square. If you go, plan on at least two half day visits to take it all in.
In early May, we drove to Norfolk, Virginia, to attend the graduation exercise of Linda’s niece who was receiving a PhD from Old Dominion University. We made stops along the route at The University of Illinois for Tom to visit their historic Illiac computer exhibit and took a side trip to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to see the Wright Brothers historic memorial.
Linda joined a new travel group which meets monthly. They celebrated summer by practicing their zip-line skills at Sand Creek Adventures in Jordan, Minnesota.
Both Tom and Linda enjoy getting together with old friends we worked with long ago. Tom attended a Pillsbury employee luncheon with computer old-timers from the 1970s and Linda hosted her annual gathering of Aetna employees from the 1980s.
Tom also took a driving trip to Montana to attend a presentation of the Stibitz-Wilson awards at the American Computer and Robotics museum in Bozeman during September. Sidelights to this trip include being trapped in a huge cattle drive in Wyoming and a visit to the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming. The latter is highly recommended!
In October, we spent three days with friends exploring the fall color in Northwest Wisconsin near Lake Namakagon, not far from our former lake cabin.
There is more to see! Click on the links below for additional photos.
Previous Years' Cards
Links To Our Travel Blog
Our Travel
Blog - Egypt Posts
Our
Travel Blog - Grand Egyptian Museum Posts
Our
Travel Blog - All Posts
Links To Our Online Photos
Our numerous on-line photo
albums include:
Albums of Cuba
Albums of Canada and
Albums of Siwa Oasis and Lake Qarun
and the
Backyard Birds of Woodbridge
and
the Birds of Egypt
Our Travel Blog - Grand Egyptian Museum Posts
Our Travel Blog - All Posts
Links To Our Online Photos
Our numerous on-line photo albums include:Albums of Cuba
Albums of Canada and
Albums of Siwa Oasis and Lake Qarun
and the Backyard Birds of Woodbridge
and the Birds of Egypt