-
Story by Nicole For the last weekend in April, we went to my Dad’s new house in Mesquite, Nevada (about an hour east of Las Vegas, and close to the Arizona and Utah borders). If you’d like to visit Nevada and look at all the pretty rocks, but don’t want to endure ridiculous heat, April…
-
We spent our last two days in Vietnam wandering around Hanoi, the capital city. Our hotel was located about a mile from the Old Quarter, which, as the name suggests, is where the original city was located. We spent most of Saturday on a tour with Dang around the city. In contrast to the south,…
-
On Thursday, we flew to Hanoi and drove to Hạ Long. While we were on the bus (it was almost a 4-hour drive from Hanoi to Hạ Long), Dang started telling us about the attitude toward Americans in the north. He told us a story about a tour group he had last year that included…
-
As I sat on a bicycle and was towed up a hill in the Hué countryside by a Vietnamese woman on a moped, it occurred to me that even if we had just been scammed out of $12, this experience was probably worth it. We started the morning with a quiet walk to the Citadel.…
-
On Monday morning, 17 of us (a much more manageable number) took a boat ride on the Thu Bồn River to the Kim Bồng traditional carpentry village. It was lovely and cool with a nice breeze. Along the way, we learned a little more about Dang and he taught us about traditional ways of life…
-
On Sunday morning, I spent sunrise walking along the Saigon River. This was a brilliant idea I had at 5 in the morning when I couldn’t go back to sleep. It was slightly less hot and humid, and there was less traffic, which helped with crossing the busy streets to get to the dock. The…
-
When we told people that we were vacationing in Vietnam, we inevitably got one of two answers: an excited “wow, that’s awesome!” Or a confused and slightly alarmed “why?” The probability of getting each answer had a generational skew; people who had solid memories of the Vietnam war were much more likely to question our…
-
When we told people that we were vacationing in Vietnam, we inevitably got one of two answers: an excited “wow, that’s awesome!” Or a confused and slightly alarmed “why?” The probability of getting each answer had a generational skew; people who had solid memories of the Vietnam war were much more likely to question our…
-
For the first time in three years, we did not go to the Pacific Northwest for the 4th of July. Instead, we went to Gunnison to see Nicole’s family. Jason had never been to Gunnison for on-season, and he found the crowds rather surprising. On the morning of the 4th of July, we (Nicole, Jason,…
-
On May 15th, we took the day off of work. We spent the morning walking around the Denver Botanic Gardens with Nicole’s grandparents, and then we all drove up to Gunnison in the afternoon. Maia’s graduation was not until Sunday, so we planned to have her graduation dinner and party on Saturday night, and then…