Greener Pastures

 We had a vacation!  Our family finally took some time away from the hustle and bustle of our lives and headed for the mountains.  Here are a bunch of pictures of our experiences.  We spent several nights on a houseboat.  To get to and from the roads, markets, and restaurants, we had to take a long, covered boat.  Below was our very wonderful houseboat owner who quickly became "Uncle Rashid".

 Here are some more examples of the covered boats coming and going.

 We took a tour around the lake and the boys watched everything!

 

Abe and Jed got to help row the boat.

 Here are the gorgeous lotus flowers that bloomed everywhere and some houseboats in the background.
We also got to visit a friends' house and Jed loved climbing trees.

 After that, we headed up into a mountain village and stayed at a guest house.

 One of many rivers that run through those mountains. 

 Outside the guesthouse

 The first thing on our agenda: Play in the grass!

 We went on early morning 'hikes' every morning.  We pretended like we were taking it slow for the kids, but at 6500 ft, we were glad to only do short hikes.

 This face on Jed says it all!  Actual quote from those days: "This is my favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite, favorite place in the whole world!"

 Abe loving it, too!

We also got to go on a pony ride up into the mountains a bit.  Nothing long, just enough to say we did it.  My horse riding rear is out of shape!  Here we have the horses: Michael

and Jackson -- yep even there they know who he is!

 Jed's horse, Bhuvan.  Jed was big stuff riding his very own horse.  "Just like a real knight!"  Except real knights don't have guys who lead them around.  He'll get there.

 This grassy plateau has been in a lot of Bollywood films by what our horsemen told us.

 We also got to visit a local family that makes cheese for a gouda company.  They made us salt tea.  It is made with black tea, buffalo milk, and salt.  Then, they add some butter at the end -- probably some other stuff, too.  You eat it with flat bread.  If you plan for soup instead of tea flavor, it's really quite tasty!

 Abe got fussy during the visit -- he woke up cranky from his nap.  The Father of the home asked, "Does he need a stick?  Let's go down and get him a stick."  Yep, happy Abe after that.

 Here is Jed with one of they guys that helps run the guest house.  He made most of our meals.  He also joked a lot with Jed and Abe about eating up their food before they got to it.

 This guy also helped at the house.  Lucy took a special liking to him and she was invited into his family home twice!  I tagged along and met his parents, sisters, and wife.

 Here's another friend from the house.  They boys ended up calling all these guys 'Chacha'.  This is the word for your Dad's younger brother.  They really roughed them up, joked with them, and played with them like they were their nephews.  It was so great to watch.

 Here is the owner of the house.  He was a really great guy, too.

 Sharing the road as we headed back towards the airport.  It was migration season for the semi-nomadic people in the region.  We passed quite a few camping grounds as well as plenty of families with pack-horses and flocks and herds.  Little kids would ride and the rest were walking.

We were so thankful for this trip.  Thankful for the beautiful scenery.  Thankful for the warm people.  Thankful for the weather!  Thankful watching the kids enjoy everything so much.

Sure hope we can come back here again.  In the meantime, we've got some pretty awesome memories.  That's the point, right?