To quote Mark Twain.....

"In India "cold weather" is merely a conversational phrase and has come into use through the necessity of having someway to distinguish between weather which will melt a brass door knob and weather which will only make it mushy." Mark Twain said this of India during his trip around the equator. It was true then, true now and most likely be true until the end of the world.

At four o'clock this afternoon we went to view The Agra Fort, one of the finest Mughal forts in India. The Agra Fort (a.k.a.: Red Fort) is massive and constructed of red sandstone. The fort was originally constructed as a military fort, turned into a palace and eventually the gilded prison which Shah Jahan spent the last eight year's of his life , after he was deposed and imprisoned by his son Aurangzeb. I think I failed to mentioned that after Shah Jahan's death his son did allow his body to be buried next to his beloved wife in the Taj Mahal.

Enough of my new found and limited knowledge of Indian Mughal history.....THE HEAT, oh my gosh, I can't believe how hot is was outside. Kristin walked (or I should say "tried to walk" she was surrounded by Indian's wanting their picture taken with her, wanting their children to be photographed next to her or just wanting to talk to her.....she was more popular than a Bollywood star) with an umbrella shading her and DFO gave me his hat to wear as we toured the fort. Doug, again, was our guide (for those of you who don't know, DFO studied a lot of Indian history in graduate school and he has brought his Rustic Pathway student's here for several years) and provided us with a good history lesson. The problem with getting there at four was that the fort closed as sunset, that fact, coupled with the intense heat made it impossible for us to see more than a quarter of this massive structure.

Speaking of the heat again......D and K are at the pool enjoying the last full day at the Taj. Tomorrow morning we are going back to Delhi and then unfortunately I leave on the midnight flight back to Chicago. We are having the driver drop us off at the hotel where D&K will spend the night before taking a train back to MG. It has been a dream come true as far as I'm concerned....India remains on my bucketlist.....there is just too much to see in one visit.