Pune, India

Hi Everyone!

We made it back to India early this morning (3 a.m.) It was quite a trip, but Hannah and I thought we did better this time than the first time. The worst leg was still the car ride from Mumbai to Pune. I had 3 hours of carsickness. Not fun! The flights from Detroit to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Mumbai were both uneventful and seemed to pass quickly. Doug watched a number of movies and read a book. I played some games and watched a couple of movies. Hannah watched movies and then after pulling an "all nighter", she decided it was time to sleep. We haven't been worth much today, but we expected that.

We had a fun week with Emily and her family. Monday morning we got up early(?) and picked blueberries. Zach liked that a lot! We picked 8 pounds and Hannah and Emily made 9 pints of jam. There were still some left over, so Doug made a blueberry cobbler. We also went to the beach at Lake Michigan in their town. They are right on the Michigan side of the lake. It's quite a tourist/resort town, but nice. The beach was really nice and I liked it better than the ocean beach. We went in the evening when the sun wasn't so strong too.

We got a chance to go shopping for all the things on Hannah's list that we hadn't gotten to before. The purple suitcase with all the Indian presents needed to be filled up with American things to go back to India. We got it taken care of! That suitcase was slightly over the 50 lb. limit, so we switched around some things in the airport. Hannah was mortified that we would open a suitcase right there in front of everyone! Life goes on!

We also had a chance to go to downtown St. Joseph, MI, where they have these cute decorated cars all along the main streets. Zach loved to sit in each one and we got some cute pictures. Luckily, it was so hot we had to stop for ice cream. That was a nice treat!

Thursday night everyone went to Lake Michigan to go waterskiing/kneeboarding/tubing (except me, and I had Quinn duty). It was a beautiful evening and Matt had made arrangements with his cousin Brian to go out on the water. I hope Doug puts the great pictures of Hannah and Emily riding the tube with this letter. I think their faces are great! I understand that Hannah does a great cartwheel dismount from the tube. I wish I could have seen that! Dad was sore again -- he may be getting older, but he's not giving up yet!

We left on Friday around noon to drive to Detroit. We had a great visit with Emily and Matt and Zach and Quinn.

We have enjoyed visiting with everyone during these last three weeks. We are back in India, but it doesn't feel like we're home yet. It feels like it's where we live. Maybe where we're camping at the present time!

Thanks to everyone for hosting us and being so kind. We love you so much!
Love, Lucinda