Friday Five - trip to India

Wow, this week has flown by and it's been pretty busy catching up at work after being out of the office for more than 2 weeks.  I am so happy that it's Friday and am definitely looking forward to the weekend.  But first, it's time for the Friday Five link up with Cynthia, Mar and Courtney.

 Since I haven't had a chance to write about my trip yet, I thought I'd take the Friday Five to do just that.  So here are 5 things that stand out about my trip.

1.  Time hanging out with family - I have a lot of family in India and since this trip was for a wedding, it was a great opportunity to have time to catch up with everyone.  Almost all my cousins were in one place at one time, which is a rare thing.  I also got the chance to meet some spouses and fiancees that I hadn't met before.  Lots of fun ensured including multiple late nights staying up talking and playing games.

And of course, lot of selfies being taken :)

2. Bonding with kids - I also had the opportunity to spend time with several of my cousins' kids.  I really enjoyed this time bonding with the next generation!

3.  Great food - So much amazing food everywhere!  At one point my brother mentioned that he felt like we were eating every hour and he wasn't necessarily wrong.  There was a lot of amazing food associated with the wedding but then we also went out to a lot of really great restaurants.  And the food at the hotel in Goa on the beach was amazing!  The executive chef introduced himself to us the first evening and sent out special vegetarian food made for us every evening.

4.  Wedding festivities - weddings in India are multi-day events and it was so much fun to be a part of that.  I haven't been to a wedding in India since I was a kid so it was fun taking part as an adult.  Here are some photos of wedding fun.

 

Me and my brother waiting for the wedding to start

 

 

The groom in his horse drawn carriage, with a glimpse of me across from him

 

My mom and I showing off our henna

 

Pre-wedding dancing

 

Male cousins posing during the wedding

 

 

My cousin, my brother and I at the reception

 

The bride and groom walking into the reception

And I even had 15 seconds of fame with my photo ending up in the newspaper! That's me in the pink and green.

5.  Relaxing at the beach - As fun as the wedding was, it was really hectic.  It was a lot of late nights and early mornings.  So it was great to go with some cousins to Goa after the wedding.  Goa is mostly known for the beach and this was a relaxing vacation.  Carnival was going on while we were there so we also took some time to go see the carnival parade but other than that, it was mostly hanging out at the pool, the beach, and the spa.  There was a lot of drinking local wine, local beer, and indulging in the aforementioned food.

So that's a glimpse into my time away.  I'm excited for this weekend coming up since I'm trying aerial yoga for the first time tomorrow (!) and doing my first double race on Sunday, a 5k and 10k themed for St. Patrick's Day. Hopefully both will be fun.  I hope all of you have a great weekend too!