Monday

So here's a quick clip of pretty mild traffic.  Watch the people at the very end and you'll get a sense of how we spend our time navigating the streets.  We had a good day today and finally met with our agency staff who gave us the disappointing news that our G&R will not be until either Thursday or Friday.  We should know for sure which day on Wednesday.  The good news is that we continue to have a ball here and are living it up in what has become our last childless vacation, and we feel incredibly grateful actually to have time before having Beatrice with us to get our bearings and to get to know her birth country and culture a bit better.  We LOVE this place! Take the aged beauty and mystique of the Orient and toss it around with some Parisian aesthetics and tastes and you've got Hanoi. Honestly, we have already said how we can't wait to come back with her when she is older to show her around.  We headed over to a different neighborhood today where many other adoptive families are staying. We found Indochine, a fabulous restaurant that we had heard rave reviews about from Wendi and it was indeed delicious.  I had beef with onion and lemongrass along with fresh spring rolls and Anthony had chicken clay pot.  The atmosphere was beautiful.  The weather has been warm and somewhat humid with a few passing showers, but today was gorgeous, sunny and low 70's so we walked quite a bit.  We went back to the Old Quarter and was finally led by the hand by a non la saleswoman to find a baby stroller that has eluded us despite everyone's directions on where to find one.  Of course with my cocky negotiating skills I ended up arguing with a guy about his asking price in dong and offered him American dollars instead.  He accepted and I was proud until we figured out I'd given him more than his original price.  So much for dividing by 17.7!  Oh well, stroller in hand. (And a non la in hand as well.) We figure it'll be good to use as a seat if restaurants don't have one and to use during our 6 hour layover in Korea on the way home.  Tonight we ate pho at Little Hanoi, a restaurant down the street, and it was the worst pho we've ever had.  It was still good, don't get me wrong, but we have always loved any pho we have had, and this one was just okay.  We walk by a dozen or more places every day, the traditional pho stall where a crowd of people are gathered around a steaming pot on the sidewalk with plastic chairs about 8 inches off the ground, chopsticking steaming noodles into their mouth.  That's what we really want, but are afraid of having "street food" since we can't afford to get sick this trip. Tonight's pho was served with no hoisin sauce on the side, maybe that's an American thing.  We were going to ask for some, but I flashed back to asking a waiter in Paris for butter to go with my croissant.  He responded curtly "Madame, it is already in IT!"  So I didn't go there.  Tomorrow we're heading out with a bunch of other parents on a privately rented boat to Ha Long Bay, so that'll be a full day.  Hopefully the weather will be clear to offer us gorgeous views.  I'm happy to say I feel tired tonight, so I'm turning in.  Hope all is well with everyone. We think of you often.  Admittedly though, the name that comes up the most often is Sula.  We miss our girl!  I checked CT news today and saw that the men Huskies lost.  Bummer!  But the women will go all the way for sure. Good night from Hang Manh Street! Oh, the 2 photos are of the church where Anthony's grandparents were married in the 1920's, one is Anthony outside the water puppet theater, and the other is me in the must-have non la which I swore I wouldn't get.  We've  been accused of not really being here since we're not in any pictures, so here's some proof....