That's all folks....for now!

Well the most recent family visit has been an amazing six weeks. It's hard to believe it wasn't that long ago that I was planning the various itineraries, thinking about how I wanted to "present" India, how I wanted my various family members to experience it for the first time.

Speaking from my perspective, the Delaware/Nevada Meek's trip was an overwhelming success. Sure, everyone got a little sick. Some more than others. But no one got hurt, everyone got exposed to a very different set of cultures and environments than they'd ever experienced.

It was really with quite a mixed bag of emotions that I saw Jon off last night.

We have had what I would describe as an adventure of a lifetime, if we hadn't already had similarly amazing adventures in Alaska, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, and knowing this pair will have numerous more of varied sorts as time goes on. So perhaps I should say we had another adventure of a lifetime. Yes, that works much better.

But, like every great adventure, it was time to close the book on this one...at least this chapter of it. After all, with two great mustaches like these, what more could one ask for?

What more could one ask for? A wonderfully relaxing apartment, the most incredible wife (and soon-to-be mother) that a husband could be so lucky to come home to, and all sorts of do-it-yourself dad-to-be crafts (more on that soon!).

Mango Festival! (July 3rd 2011)

Most people (at least those who have never been to India)are probably like I was, and likely think that there are only one or two varieties of mangoes. Those people need to come to India. Expedite their visas, please.

This weekend was the annual mango festival in New Delhi.Jon and I had just returned home this morning on an overnight train back from Benares (more on that later).

We had seen signs for the mango festival around Delhi, but what we hadn't noticed was that the festival was not at the "normal" Dilli haat (near INA for those of you in the general Delhi know). Oh no, this Dilli haat was up at the end of the red line, another hour by metro, almost outside of the city, near Pitampura. Well, an hour and a half metro ride? Nothing I say shall keep us from an audience with the "King of Fruits" (and no, I'm not talking about myself here).

Was it a Royal Treat? Or a Royal-Let-Down? We said to each other-"Selves, as long as there are mangoes how bad can it be?" Well....there were mangoes...500+ varieties of them!

In addition, they had all sorts of mango products, like chutneys and kulfi (Indian ice cream)

Jon wasn't so sure....

What we had envisioned was some sort of no-holds-barred smorgasbord where you got to try out as many as you like, and then buy the varieties you like. I mean with 500+ varieties, who comes knowing that they want some obscure type that isn't in stores here. But no, they hadn't asked me for some reason, and so what they had was vendors ringing the Dilli haat area selling more varieties of mangoes than you could shake a stick at. Most weren't really interested in letting us taste test, but Jon and I were able to try about 10 types, using the ole "taste taste" ploy.

At first we could discern the finer points: "This mango has a fine fruity finish", "This one tastes like it has some citric acid in it", "This one likely came from a tree". Clearly, we were the fruitiest fruits there. So with the hesitant hawkers watching with bated breath we made our decision: (1) 5 kg box of Deserhi (Rs 200=less than US$ 5), and (1) 5 kg box of some unpronounceable (by me) type. The result=one pregnant woman mortified by two total fruits