India, a land of contrast

Since I am still laid up from my accident , (talked about it in previous post) I am going to post some old photos. This is India. I went on a 3 week tour of Rajasthan India in Nov. 2010. What an amazing place. A land of many contrasts. The photo below  is outside of the Taj Mahal. We just happened to go there on a holiday so very crowded. This is the line going in. Most of the beauty of it is the outside however .

Our group at the Taj Mahal. Small group of 8 . We traveled in 2 vans with our tour guide

We spent a lot of our time in small, medieval villages. The people in the city can be a bit intimidating but in these villages they are the sweetest people I have ever met travelling. I just love how warm, welcoming and sweet they are.

Indian delivery truck.

Sometimes the locals would want to take our photos !!! We felt like celebritys. But, we tried not to let it go to our heads.  LOL. This was a family who came up  and asked if they could take photos of us and of us with them.

This is supposed to show 69 ways of having sex.

I love this photo. One night we went out for a walk from our rooms and walked thru this medieval village and we see this guy ironing with this old, heavy iron that is filled with hot coals. Jim, one of the guys on our tour said "Hey , thats my laundry the I sent out" so we stopped and chatted with this man and we all tried the iron. Let me tell you, that thing was very heavy !!!

Me in a all marble temple. No shoes allowed. Ankles and shoulders must be covered.

Pink Storks in their nest.

local women, shy but sweet as can be.

over the course of 3 weeks we where invited to 2 Indian weddings. This is inside the brides house before the wedding. Muslum wedding . This is the womens room.

This was a hindi wedding . We had met this man early in the day when we checked into our hotel and we could tell they where setting up for some kind of celebration on these beautiful lawns outside. He invited us to his wedding which was that night.

My room at this stop was this bottum floor with white area. Not bad views !!!

Hell and back !! Sunset, sunrise.

Sunset in Santa Cruz, Ca.

pre sunset

 Hi Friends. I have had a rough last 10 days. Kinda felt like I went to Hell and back. So, this is why I am posting sundown and sunrise photos. Today is  a better day !!!  Last week I had a terrible fall on the ice walking down an icey driveway with a vacum in my hand. My feet flew out from under me and I landed on my ribcage onto the vacum. Carrying a vacum outside you may ask??? I have a cleaning business and was heading to work.  I lay in the driveway for 5 minutes in extreme pain with no neighbors around to call out to. Finally managed to get in the house and call a nearby friend to take me to the hospital. What is your level of pain they asked? on 1-10. Panting, I say 10 plus. They got me in right away since I was white as a sheet and hyperventalating.  5 fractured ribs, halfway colapsed lung !!  Well, my hospital stay turned into a week from hell. They pumped me full of pain meds, stuck a tube in my chest to help the lung. That night the vomitting started and didnt stop for 7 days !! Imagine fractured ribs, nausea , vomitting. No fun. Apparently I had what is called an ileus which is a numbing in the bowel area due to surgery or trauma. Well, friends , let me tell you , at times the nausea and vomitting felt worse then the pain. Also, I do NOT do well with pain meds. Very sensitive stomach to that sort of stuff.  On night 5 I felt like I was dying or maybe just wished I would. I asked all my friends to pray for me or at least send positve thoughts to the universe as I was at my end of the rope. Guess what?? I awoke the next morning with lots of response on my facebook page. Prayers and all that and I DID feel better. Lost the grim feelings of death that I had the night before.

I am finally home !!! 8 days in the hospital of which 6 of them where pure Hell. Good way to lose weight. Dont eat for a week and if you eat just throw it up. That is how it was.
But , I have never felt so good to be home as I do today !!!!! That is the sunset !!! I have lots of pain still but the other things are clearing up.
Amazing how things can happen so quickly.

Please friends be careful on the ice!!!!


Sunrise in Santa cruz



Sunrise , a new day !!!

Sunset on the pond

Life !!

Sometimes you just have to throw your head back and laugh !!! Life is wonderful. Dont forget that.
I will admit , this is not my photo. But, I Love it.

Whats up ???

Truckee,Ca. Winter has arrived in full force.

Alpine Meadows ski area.

The view from a friends house who lives at Lake Tahoe. This is on Christmas eve. So beautiful !

The view from skiing at Norhstar . Winter has arrived full force. Lots of snow and it is only December 30th. Looks like we may have a good year after last years drought.

One of the many views from Squaw valley ski area , looking down at Lake Tahoe

Steamboat Hotsprings, Nevada

Well, I got one of those groupon deals for massage and private soak at Steamboat Hotsprings which is just outside of Reno, Nv. Went out a couple days ago and enjoyed the place so thought I would post about it. It is very old. They offer a host of wellness therapys, light therapy, Ion foot detox, Naturopathic services, facials, body wraps , and massage. The springs are natural volcanic mineral waters. Nice, little place.

 This is the hallway with all the private rooms. each are different colors , such as red, organge, blue, violet, indigo, yellow, green. Each color scheme is supposed to help with different parts of your body. I chose the violet room which is for relaxing and meditation.

 Below  is my private room in which I soaked for an hour and then went in for an hour massage. There is one outdoor hot tub , kind of small but in a nice yard. I didnt get a photo cause it was dark when I went out to it. Overall, it was a lovely afternoon. I would recomend it if you are in the area.