Well, I just wrote to a friend that one of these days I would write a proper blog post and my lovely wife reminded me of the Baha'i quote "Truthfulness is the foundation of all virtues".  So now I've got to write a blog post.

Sapana and I spent about 3 weeks in Gujarat, which is a state in the west part of India.  Her family has an apartment in Rajkot, a city in Gujarat.  We headed over ther in the beginning of November.  Sapana's mom and my dad and stepmother Marisol arrived around the same time we did, and my dad and Marisol stayed for about a week.

When we got to Rajkot, we met Sapana's uncle's family along with her grandmother.  Her uncle and aunt have two teenage kids who are lots of fun.  They are all wonderful people who are always in a good mood and love jokes and riddles.  My dad was a hit with his riddles and other little tricks (for those of you who know the tootpicks "static electricity" bit, that one went over really well).  We had a great time with them.  Here's a picture of Sapana with her mother and grandmother:

And my dad showing a puzzle to Kishan, our cousin:

During that week we went to the city of Diu, which is on the coast.  The drive was long and the roads were pretty bad part of the way, but it was scenic and we saw cool stuff.  Camels especially are great to see, and there were plenty on the road - pulling carts, and all with the same exact expression on their face.  I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but to me it looks a little obstinate, like they're saying "what are you looking at?" while at the same time being indifferent.  I love camels, they fascinate me.  Really I love all the animals here in India.  

I didn't get a good picture of any of the camels on the way to Diu, but since I love camels, and for the sake of illustrating what I'm talking about, here's a picture taken in Rajasthan: 

Diu was a nice city.  It was interesting to see Indians on the beach.  People selling coconuts and other goods, photographers offering to take your picture and guys offering rides on a simplified version of a jet ski.  You can't actually steer the "jet ski" - the guy on the back drives the outboard motor and you hold on.  If you've never seen a more sophisticated jet ski, this ride is definitely a good time.  If you're really looking for some thrills, you can ride a board behind the jet ski.

We also saw a fort in Diu.  Diu has an interesting history.  Until the 1960s it was a Portuguese city.  It wasn't until 1961 that Diu became a part of India.  The fort and Catholic churches are part of what remains of Portuguese influence.  We went to go see the fort, here's a couple pics:

Dad and Marisol:

And a church we visited:

People love to have Americans in their picture.  Dad and Marisol joined in with these friendly folks.

I had some nice time to wander on the beach and try to take some artsy pics.  Here's a few of those:

My dad and Marisol were with us for a few days after Diu, and then headed back to Bombay and then to the USA.  Then Sapana's father and brother Ashish came for the next couple of weeks.  We went to Jamnagar, where Sapana's father is from, to Ahmedabad, where much shopping was done, and visited a lot of family and friends everywhere we went.  

One of the coolest things we saw in Rajkot was when an elephant was standing on the side of the road.  We stopped and went out to have a look, and the elephant's keepers told us we could go up and pet the elephant.  So we got to hang with the elephant (who was more interested in his food than us) for a bit and of course we took lots of pics.  Here's one of Ashish:

Right after that, we visited a cow sanctuary, which has been one of the main highlights of our trip for Sapana.  We got to pet calves, one of which had lost its mother and  sucked on our fingers hoping to extract some milk.  Sapana fell in love with them and still asks me if we can take one home.

Another fun part of Rajkot was just walking around on the streets and watching people.  One day I brought my camera and the kids on the street loved having me take their picture.  I love photographing kids here in India - they're so animated.  It also makes me wish I could speak Hindi (or Gujarati) and have a children's class in one of these neighborhoods.

Ok, well those are a few highlights from our trip to Gujarat.