We returned back home to Rasht for the last part of our trip. We stayed in Ahmad's
mother's home. Sheila had her birthday while we were there and the whole
family came to help celebrate.

The day of Sheila's birthday
we took a short drive up the canyon.
If you think all of Iran is brown and dry, look how beautiful this canyon is.
The northern partof Iran (where Ahmad is from) is green, humid and beautiful!

Our destination up the canyon was this little village called Massouleh.
It has now become a tourist attraction with many visitors. The roof of each building
is the walkway or patio of the building above!

It was fun walking through the town. They had their own small bazaar with little
shops to walk through.

The residents now take advantage of the tourism by selling their homemade
items. This woman is knitting more things to sell.

My girls liked this weird metal statue.
We think an artist lives there and makes metal sculptures.

Every day we took short day trips to different places around Rasht. We drove
along the Caspian sea and stopped at a seaside restaurant for some
kabob.

Shireen enjoyed the park that was outside.

Ahmad and I enjoyed watching the restaurant people make bread.

They throw the dough on the side of the hot oven wall.
Fresh bread is a staple. This is a flat bread.
The bread in Iran was wonderful!

We also took a trip to visit relatives who live on farms.
This is an example of a farmhouse.
The farms we saw have been improved and made larger over the years.
My feeling about the farms were that they looked and smelled
a lot like our farms in Utah!

The girls enjoyed going to the farm (as all children do!).
They are petting a calf.

They also got to hold some chicks.

As our trip was winding down, we tried to take a few pictures around Rasht.
We were fascinated with this statue that was in the center of a circle
that we drove around all the time. It looks part sea surpent and part horse!