Over Too Soon

We are now home from our vacation in Florida, and I can honestly say that it went too fast (as always). For the better part of the week we: took our time, got up when we wanted, were beach bums, hung out with the fam, etc. Most of the time we basically stayed on the beach (besides Tuesday at Sea World for Narasimha and me). This week was super windy it seemed like, so that made it feel a little chillier, but still, I can't complain when my standard for comparison is Iowa winter (and a relatively bad one at that). Dad has a surfboard, and he and my brother tried that out a few times. A few years ago we bought a skim board, which has been a lot of fun (this year we had to buy a new one because we broke the other one). Basically to use a skim board, you wait for the very shallow water that results when the tide comes in on the beach and goes back out to sea, and then you throw the board on that ¼ inch or so deep water, and then chase the board and jump on. It's a lot tougher than it sounds - you have to get your feet on perfectly, throw it down onto the water consistently, then keep your center of gravity just right, and adjust your balance for differences in water movement and depth. Even then sometimes you wipe out, which is pretty funny to watch but it can hurt a bit (or a lot) to fall hard on wet sand (think sand paper or rough concrete). The first year we had the board we all went home with scrapes and bruises - now we are much more tentative and careful, and some of us are maybe even a little better at using it :) On the beach we also like to boogie board, play volleyball, throw the football, kick the soccer ball, play frisbee, go for (sometimes long) walks, and lay out in the sun to tan and sleep or read. You get the point - a whole lot of nothing much :)

The beach from the balcony of our condo, and one b-e-a-utiful day :)

Our beach camp from the balcony on our condo - my mom and sisters are on the lawn chairs on the left side, and my dad and brother are the ones in the shallow water (skim boarding).


My mom, 2 sisters and me, laying out.

My dad, getting his surf on :)

My dad showing off his groovy board

Narasimha and my brother playing soccer on the beach.

Narasimha on the skim board - I don't even think he fell once (he must not have been trying hard enough :)

Me, getting ready...

Me - pretty sure I "biffed it" on that one.

My sister, being the graceful lady she is :) My dad says you get extra points if your knees go down, and even more if there's blood for your effort :) I don't think she got either of those on this one.

Narasimha and me, our last 5 minutes on the beach in '08

Sea World

We decided to go to Sea World on Tuesday, and we had a lot of fun. We "did" Disney a few years ago when we were here, and of course that was a good time, but we felt that Sea World had more for the adult audience. Basically I felt like the drawing force of Sea World was the shows, and then there were 2 roller coasters (and a few others that were kid-friendly) and some animal observation things to do. We ended up going to 5 of the shows - 2 in the whale (Shamu) pool, one in the dolphin pool, one on a stage with human acrobats, and then one in the open air where 3 guys played pots and pans like a drumline. They were all pretty cool - I would watch any of them again happily. We also didn't get to see a few others that sounded cool on the program we had because we ran out of time. I felt like the whole park was also do-able in one day - quite unlike Disney with all the lines and everything. So, I would definitely go back - especially if we didn't have kids, or had very small kids that couldn't really do rides very well. There was lots to do besides the rides. All things considered it was a nice and relaxing vacation day.

The dolphin show - look carefully to see the dolphin in the air. I was surprised to see how high they could jump!

One of the trainers doing "Superman" with the dolphin - look under the water through the glass in the middle of the picture.


I don't know how big I thought dolphins were (next to humans) but this one looked pretty big to me.

Shamu doing his opening lap with jumps during the "Believe" show.

I bet the trainers get pretty close to these animals - that would be amazing to be up close and personal like that.

Wow...

Showing off :)

Surfing on the whale - quite a ride I'm sure.

The trainer goes under the water with the whale, and you can't really see them, and then all of the sudden they shoot out of the water together like it's no big deal.

The same idea as the picture above, but the whale goes faster and the trainer is actually thrown up farther than the whale, and in this picture you can see the black circle above the whale's nose is the trainer beginning his dive back into the water, after being thrown up - very cool.

The first part of the acrobat show - these girls stayed in that shell and did several acrobatic tricks together.

Sunny Florida :)

Narasimha and I came with my family this week to Florida - it has become an annual tradition. This year it's just us and my immediate family. We're staying in a condo in Daytona Beach, and we have only been here for 1 day, but it's NICE! Today was sunny and about 75 - much much improved to what we had in Iowa when we took off on Friday (although even there we're on the up-swing I think). The same people who stayed at our house with our pets when we were India for 3 weeks are there again for this week, which is nice not to have to think about what's going on there. We have plans basically to do a whole lot of nothing. The weather is supposed to be nice all week my dad said. Narasimha and I are considering going to Sea World sometime - we're not sure yet. Probably won't do much for posting 'til we get back to Iowa and back in the swing of things. Might post some pics later in the week when we have something fun to show.

India Trip 2008 - A Summary

Have you ever done something, and then after the fact looked back and said "Why?" Well, unfortunately, that describes much of our India trip this time for me. Here's my confession.

We had some good times, and it was great to see my inlaws and spend time with Narasimha away from work and enjoying himself. However, for many reasons which I won't go into here, the trip was not really all that relaxing and proved to be almost more stressful probably than just staying home. By the end of the trip I thought, "I need a vacation!"

It's disappointing for me to look back and remember how I handled many of the situations that arose. Maybe some of them were out of my control, but that's somewhat irrelevant. There were times that I was ungracious, unloving, unthankful, and the list goes on and on. I am truly sorry for the way things turned out (and think I have apologized to all of the people involved). The worst part of all of this is that I fear that any Christian influence I had in the lives of many people I care deeply about (and people who have varying relationships with Christ) is probably ruined, or at least badly tainted. I profess to love Jesus, and then I go act like that - ouch.

There were good times, as you can see by the pictures I added. And, luckily, my memory of the bad times is fading, and as I look at all of the pictures of the trip, I remember mostly good things because we are smiling in all of the pictures.

So, as hazy as this post is, after a week and a half of thinking and processing the events that took place, I just wanted to report that I screwed up, and I fear more dire consequences than a wasted vacation.

I heard this song by Michael W. Smith the other day on the radio (I have heard it many times before as well) and it really hit home in light of many things that happened during the month of January thousands of miles away from where I sit right now.

Never Been Unloved
I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful

I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I have been undesirable

And sometimes I have been unwise
I've been undone by what I'm unsure of
But because of You
And all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved

I have been unbroken
I have been unmended
I have been uneasy
And I have been unapproachable

I've been unemotional
I've been unexceptional
I've been undecided
And I have been unqualified

Unaware
I have been unfair
I've been unfit for blessings from above
But even I can see
The sacrifice You made for me
To show that I have never been unloved

It's because of You
And all that You went through
I know that I have never been unloved

How true the words of this song are, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say everyone who reads this post has felt this way at some point. It makes me feel better to know, especially right now, that God doesn't love me for who I am or what I do, but when God sees me, He sees Jesus as my intercessor. This has been a truly humbling experience.

More Pictures - Hyderabad

Some fun from our time in Hyderabad.

The first day we were there. We brought the kids markers as gifts, so my sister and I colored with them.

Me learning how to ride the motor bike, with my brother-in-law and nephew and niece trying to keep up and make sure I don't crash (which I almost did :)

All of us on a boat, in a lake in Hyderabad called Hussein Sagar. We were going by boat out to the middle of the lake to see a giant Buddha statue.

All of us, in front of the giant Buddha statue. This is the largest monolithic (single-stone) Buddha in the whole world.

Shopping for pottery at an open-air market.

3 girls, at Golconda Fort.

Some of Hyderabad from the top of Golconda Fort.

Narasimha and his brother at Golconda Fort.

One of Hyderabad's most famous structures. It's called Charminar, and is in the Muslim part of town. It looks nice lit up at night.

More Pictures - Hyderabad, Part 2

Continued...

In the part of town by Charminar - we are at a small (and fairly dirty) food shop, and Narasimha wanted to try his luck at not getting sick and eat a real, authentic Hyderabadi lassi. After this, he had another because it was so good. And he hasn't died yet :)

The night we went out to eat at our reception place - the Indians (Narasimha's dad and mom, his brother, him, and his brother's kids).

A few hours before we left - Narasimha playing with our niece.

And what good is it without someone to race? Now 2 brothers with 2 kids.

My mother-in-law :) She's so sweet and a lot of fun to be with, especially when we can understand each other.

We girls decided to each buy rings to commemorate our time in India. Mine is on the bottom - it's silver and blue topaz, and I got it in Northern India. My sister's is top right, and hers is silver with many small stones of different colors - also from North India. Her friend bought hers in Hyderabad, and is silver with something navy or deep purple.

Gifts I got from my inlaws while there. My mother-in-law gave me the saree. My father-in-law gave me money, and I bought a ring (see below). My brother in law gave me money also, and I picked a nice string of pearls and a white pashmina shawl.

My ring, from my father-in-law. It is white gold and diamonds.

Our souvenirs (not including the gifts we bought for others - wouldn't want to ruin the surprise :)

More Pictures - North India

I can't seem to narrow down the pics as far as I'd like, so I will just post a lot :) North India will come today, and I'll do some extras from our time in Hyderabad tomorrow. Enjoy :)

Narasimha and I riding in the back of an auto rickshaw ("auto") - I had to sit on him because the girls were with us and it was tight :)

An open-air fish shop that we walked by in Delhi

Three girls from the top of a minna (or tower) at a mosque in Delhi - we were probably 10-15 stories up, and you can kinda see out in the background.

Narasimha and I enjoying a lassi (yogurt drink) at a restaurant in Delhi - these are the greatest!

3 girls in our open-air jeep, going toward our lodge in the tiger sanctuary. It was only probably 50 degrees (F) - and with the open top and movement, that feels chilly

A paw print of a REAL tiger - though we didn't see the tiger, we knew where it was from the warning calls of all the animals around us. We came close to seeing 3 tigers during our day or so in the sanctuary (yikes!).

Us getting on our elephant the morning of our safari - her (the elephant's) name was Lakshma.

The dense forest we saw and trekked through during our elephant safari. It was really cool.

The watchtower we stayed on for 2 hours out all by ourselves in the forest (or jungle, or whatever it was). It was probably 4 stories high, and when our driver left, he said to come down before he came back "at our own risk." We were technically looking for tigers, which we didn't see, but we did see wild boars, like a million birds, crocodiles and alligators, deer, and monkeys. Actually, one monkey climbed the tower and tried to steal my purse (not kidding).

More Pictures - North India, Part 2

Continued...

The view from the top of the watchtower (see last picture of previous post).

Narasimha and I looking at an astronomy and astrology thing in Jaipur - there were some pretty cool things here.

I was going to wave to the girls from this hallway so they could take a pic. Turns out the wall was higher than I thought, but we still made the shot (and then my sister's friend came over to take a pic of how we got the shot :) - at a fort in Jaipur.

Me walking through a very small doorway at a castle in Jaipur.

Some snake charmers (and real snakes) on the street in Jaipur.

Girls shopping in Jaipur - my sister went a little pillowcase crazy on this trip, and this store was where the frenzy started.

Have you ever been in a traffic jam, not in a zoo, and looked over and saw an elephant beside you? :)

Narasimha and I on the "Diana Bench" - named for Princess Diana - at the Taj Mahal.

The final resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, in Delhi.