A Red Sea cruise aboard a three-masted vessel ; side trips led by prominent historians to the Giza pyramids , Petra and other iconic sites in Egypt and Jordan ; private audiences with experts like Zahi Hawass , the head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities ; and visits to places that Ms. Sandstrom , an executive with Sun Microsystems , had never thought of going to -- a rarely visited tomb in the Valley of the Kings , for instance , that Smithsonian Journeys , the travel program of the Smithsonian Institution , had gained access to .