Pretty in Pink

Two things that are considered challenging in the world of travel are being on the road with kids, and being on the road with a group.  Last weekend we did both, and it totally worked out in our favor.  Fourteen newbies took advantage of the long weekend and headed southwest to Jaipur.  With a population just under 3 million (compared to Delhi's fourteen), Jaipur offers a more manageable environment to explore Indian culture. Jaipur is also known as the Pink City and this turned out to be quite telling as there was one person in our group with raging pink eye and several others ingesting multiple doses of Pepto each day.  Deciding to test the limits, Jonah ate street food and lived to tell the tale.  Supposedly the best samosas in the world.

Anyway, Asa and Liam - who were among the healthy! - were the only young ones on the trip so it was immensely helpful to have ten additional sets of hands to help out and provide entertainment as needed. We had two school vans and hired two school drivers which gave us great flexibility around who did what and when.  For example, Jonah and a few others were able to visit the Monkey Temple while the more sane members of our group relaxed by the hotel pool.

Jaipur is a fantastic shopping destination.  If you visit, I promise to take you there.  Here are my favorite purchases:

Shoes (or are they slippers?) made with camel leather:

Vase from THE blue pottery shop:

And this dude, who will go somewhere once all the walls in the apartment are painted:

We also covered several of the major historic sites in the city, concluding with Amber Fort on our way out of town Sunday morning.  While Jonah and I were on the fence about whether to take the elephant ride to the top or to walk, the boys had made a clear decision -- get in line for the elephant.  In a word, it was wonky.

So, click here to see our favorite photos from Jaipur, with captions that tell a bit more about our weekend away.