Nagarkot and MORE...

Hi!  It's been a little while since I've blogged, so you can see we've been a little busy (and tired!).  What have we been up to?  Well, you'll have to wait for the next blog post for that because I don't have time now either, but I simply MUST show you this video of Nagarkot, Nepal, where we (my mom, niece, and our friend) went this past week (Ramon couldn't get away).  What did we see?  This:

(I'm not going to quit my day job to start a video business--don't worry!)

More pics and stories coming soon; HOWEVER, I must include this.  Look at this map.  Where we were in Nagarkot is the middle section of the map.

Notice the "flattish" place in the middle and then the high peak of Gauri Shankar.  Keep looking to the right and down the slope past Melungtse.  Count three mountains to Lindartsubugo.  Look at the next mountain:  MT. EVEREST!!!!!

Now, look at this picture I took early on Thursday morning, October 27, 2011:

Let's crop and enlarge:

Double click and enlarge if you want.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but according to the map, 

MOTHER AND I SAW MT. EVEREST!!!

We didn't know it until later (when we saw the sign), but we kept hearing some of the Japanese tourists talking excitedly about, "Everest, Everest, Everest!"  I just thought that they were wishing they could see it!  Then I saw the map and I realized we must have seen it but we didn't know it at the time!

We had read that on clear days you could see the tip, but we didn't know it was clear enough that day!

HOW EXCITING!

By the time we realized it, the sun was coming up and that part of the sky was hazy.

Anyway, right before the sun came up, a German tourist took our picture and if you look closely...

Well, it surely was a day to remember!  Look for more pics soon!  Have a nice day!!!

Home again, home again...

Hi from Nepal!  Yes, we are back home in Nepal again! As we flew in, we saw something peeking out above the clouds:

Beautiful!!!

Previously when we've flown in and out of Nepal, it has been too cloudy to have this amazing view so this was a nice treat!

We're so happy to be back home again, and "Vacation 2011" is now a happy memory.  Here are a few highlights:

Shopping in Ohio--

(Anyone surprised that my mom wanted to visit this store?!?!?!)

  

 (No, he didn't buy this Ohio State hat!)

Shopping in Paraguay--

Driving through Cumberland Gap, Maryland on our way to Ohio--

(No, while driving I never accidentally drove on the left side like they do here in Nepal.  However, while a passenger, I often had a moment of quiet panic when the car turned into the right lane!)

At this rest stop, 

Ramon followed me right into the Ladies' Room!  He said he'd been following me from continent to continent and it was just a habit!  :)

Playing with my sister's dogs--

and friends' dogs in Paraguay--

and my mother-in-law's cat--

Ramon preaching--

Relaxing...

Finding this picture that I love of my dad (fourth--from the left) and his high school friends--

(The one on the far left is my uncle who married my aunt!)

and this one of my grandmother when she was in high school--

Ramon loved finding this one of me when I was in elementary school--

Flying (a LOT--11 flights in all!)

Waking up mid-flight (yes, I actually slept now and then on some flights)

  to notice we were flying over Haiti--

Miami--

Love these vintage photos that are in the airport!

Delhi--

And finally--back home to Nepal! 

We've got some visitors with us who met up with us in Delhi--my mom, niece, and a friend--

We're so thankful for all of the most wonderful visits with our most wonderful family and friends!  Now we're refreshed and ready to get back to work!  Ramon has started right in and has been very busy, but I'm able to relax and acclimate since it's a holiday time.  I'm happy to report that we do not have much jet lag (unlike last year for me!) so that's a relief.  Well, until next time--have a most wonderful day!

Vacation Happenings

Hello from Paraguay!  Our vacation is winding down and we're here now

in Asuncion, Paraguay, Ramon's home town.  It's so nice to be here again!  We're doing the same things we did in the States:  visiting, eating, shopping, visiting, eating, shopping, visiting, eating, shopping!  :)  This is our vacation in a nutshell!  Of course the best part is all the wonderful visits we've had!  We feel grounded again after seeing everyone "in real life!"  Happily we were able to convince more of our loved ones to join Skype.  What a blessing that is!  Anyway, what have we noticed?  That commercials are wayyyy to long!   

Here are the places we have been:

(This is in Maryland.)

 (Hagerstown, Maryland)

(Buckeye Lake, Ohio)

(Cleveland, Ohio)

(Hershey, Pennsylvania--see previous post)

and now Paraguay.  We traveled through

where we saw this sign:

If you have traveled through Miami and lost something, I don't think you'll ever find it now!

Next stop--

--Sao Paulo at sunrise!

Just a short flight later, we were happy to find ourselves here in Paraguay, enjoying the company of family and friends and a beautiful Paraguayan Spring!

Now we're down to our last days and before we know it we'll be traveling HOME to Nepal!  Take care and enjoy your week as much as we will!

No Chocolate For You!

Hello from America!  We've had an awesome time visiting with my family!  Thanks for the lovely time and know we're already looking forward to next year's visit!  

Besides visiting, we also went to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where Ramon had an anesthesia conference. 

 

Hershey is a city with two nicknames:  "Chocolatetown, USA" and "The Sweetest Place on Earth."  It's a lovely place and we enjoyed ourselves. 

Our first night there we ate dinner in a nice restaurant near the Hershey Chocolate Factory.

When I ordered some keenly anticipated hot chocolate,

the waitress told me, "I'm sorry.  You can't have any hot chocolate.  Our machine is broken."

WHAT?!

No hot chocolate for me in "Chocolatetown, USA" that's what!

 

This is kind of funny, because something similar happened to my father once!  When my parents were in college during the "olden days" :), and there was no turnpike, they drove through Pennsylvania, right through Hershey, while traveling from home in Ohio to school in Maryland.   Once they stopped at a little cafe right across the street from the Hershey chocolate factory.

Dad ordered a chocolate sundae.

The waitress told him to please pick strawberry or caramel instead BECAUSE THEY WERE OUT OF CHOCOLATE!

Dad told her, "Are you telling me that I'm sitting here looking at the Hershey Chocolate Factory and I can't have any chocolate?"

"Yes," she said, "I'm telling you that."

Like father, like daughter!  Anyway, I think it's funny that both my dad and I had trouble getting chocolate in Hershey, PA!

Well, Hershey made up for it later when we ordered (and received!) this:

which was rather good I must say!

Speaking of hot chocolate reminds me of the rather delicious hot chocolate I had in Argentina.

Yes, it came like this and you added as much of the chocolate bar to your hot milk as you liked!

But the very, very best hot chocolate I've EVER had was in Paraguay!  (Long time readers of this blog may remember me telling about this last year.)  This adorable cafe, Sugar,

 in the Mariscal Lopez Mall in Asuncion

makes their hot chocolate with ice cream!  Amazingly wonderful!  Can't wait to have some when we are there next week!

When we get back home to Nepal, I'm looking forward to having hot chocolate again here at the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu, where I spilled mine all over the table just like I used to do when I was a child!  If you ever get a chance to go there, try it, you'll like it!  (The hot chocolate--not the spilling!)

 

There's also good hot chocolate here at the Annapurna Hotel

and at the Yak & Yeti Hotel too.

Well, I guess that's enough about hot chocolate!  Now we're just enjoying out last week in America and thankful to the Lord that the earthquake and hurricane that shook us up and got us wet this past week on the East Coast are history and that we are all fine.  We're praying for those who may still be having troubles.  Have a good week!