Heading Home

This is my last post from our Vietnam trip, I think. :-) Took this one at the airport the night we were heading home. Our flight wasn't until 1:50 a.m., and having nothing else to do late at night in a foreign city with eight kids in tow, we arrived at the airport around 10:30 p.m. Amazingly, the girls ran into some school friends and stayed busy running around the deserted airport with them. The older kids, however, slowly succumbed to sleep on the oh-so-comfy metal airport benches. In this picture, Stacia dutifully catches up on homework with Caleb and Lance asleep on one side of her and Seth and Lucas conked out on the other side. She lasted about an hour, and then she joined the boys in a snooze until it was finally time to head to the gate.

Last Day, at the Beach

Our Vietnam trip wasn't a beach vacation, but there were certainly some beautiful beaches. Our last day, as we were finishing our motor bike adventure, we rode the bikes down to a beach that we hadn't seen yet. It was nearly empty, and it was a lovely, clear day~ both sea and sky were a beautiful blue. We didn't have swimsuits on, but we all waded and played on the beach for a golden part of an hour. Here is a snapshot of our last bit of fun on Catba Island.

Stacia and Rich walk and talk.
Seth and Lance, a pair of really good guys!
Love this shot~ all the kids watch as Caleb flings a big rock!
Buddies, Caleb and Lucas
Sue and I walk and talk!

A little long jump contest
Gwen didn't quite get the long jump idea, but she tried hard!
Lance made his jump pretty fancy.

Born to Ride

One of the things we've noticed living in Asia is that safety regulations that would be firmly in place in the US are either fuzzy or nonexistent here. This was the case on our last day in Vietnam. On that morning, our scheduled activity was to ride motorbikes around the island. We weren't sure who would get to ride their own... turns out all the kids but the little girls could... even the twelve year old boys! Since none of the kids have a driver's license, this was a definite step of faith for the parents. Gwen rode in front of Scott, Madelyn rode behind me, and Elise was with her dad. As you can see, these bikes weren't motor scooters, but smallish motorcycles. They had some power!
We had to hold the kids back from speeding off into the sunset! They were all thrilled with the speed and the freedom of "owning the road." The reports of "Mom, I got up to 110 km an hour!", when the best I could muster was 80 km, made me realize how fearless they are. Here Stacia and Seth blow by Scott, who was holding the camera. I love the wind-in-the-face look Seth has. We made a couple of stops on our ride to walk through caves. One of the caves had been converted into a hidden hospital during the Vietnam War (or the American War, as they call it in Vietnam). In this photo we are hiking up to the entrance to the cave.
Not exactly plush conditions in this hospital. We were amazed to realize the amount of work it would have taken to haul concrete up into this cave to create the structure hidden inside.
This large room in the hospital cave was used both for drilling troops and showing movies! Not sure how they pulled off the movie thing.
Our crew outside the hospital cave. Notice the small entry door.
The rest of our ride, after the cave stops, consisted of riding both through small villages and along the amazingly beautiful coastline. Here we stop for a photo op. I wish the bright sunshine hadn't washed the background so much... it is gorgeous!
I don't know what kind of face this is that Caleb is making... in case you can't see it, his mouth is wide open and his tongue is out. What a goofball! All I can say is that it must be a look of exhilaration... we didn't hear the end of how much the kids LOVED this! I am so glad they thought it was such an amazing adventure.Part of what I was so grateful for on this trip was that the kids got to take risks and did so well... and the fact that we all came home in one piece was a blessing, too. :-)

A Day on the Water

One of our favorite days in Vietnam was the day we spent on a junk boat in Halong Bay. Hundreds of karsts rise out of the aqua water in the bay, some quite small and others large. We cruised all through the bay, out to the edge looking into the Gulf of Tonkin. At several points during the day we stopped to kayak around the karsts and swim off the boat.
Passing by some local fishermen
At the beginning of the day we had several climbers with us on the boat, whom we dropped off at this island to climb for the day. At the end of the day when we went back to pick them up, the boat anchored out a ways and we swam from the boat to the beach to hang out there for a bit.
Aren't the karsts amazing? It feels otherworldly to be out among them... no one else around, more and more karsts appearing out of the mist. Beautiful!



We had so much fun jumping off the boat into the amazingly warm water!
And of course there were flips...
Gwen was her usual fearless self, jumping with ease off the top of the boat, egged on by the older kids.
We kayaked into several caves, all but one of which were not really true caves but rather low passageways through karsts that would be filled with water at high tide. One was a true cave that didn't have a way out on the other side. The boys forged ahead without listening carefully to our guide and ended up in complete darkness, not knowing which way to paddle to get out! They were stuck in the cave in the dark for only a couple of minutes, but they told the tale again and again for the next couple of days!



Heading through a karst to the beautiful green karst-ringed bay on the other side.
Gwen was not given her own paddle, but took a few turns with mine and was fairly effective paddling me around a little!
Heading back to the boat for more jumping off!
Nice dive, Seth!The fisherman who stores the kayaks we used at his floating fish farm in Halong Bay tugs them home at the end of the day.It was a wonderful day. :-)