Walking The Streets of Hanoi!

Today was a mother / daughter adventure!  Since it's VERY diffcult to walk along the streets with a stroller and extremely dangerous crossing the streets, mom and I decided we'd venture out while Jon stayed here with the boys!  There was a street we wanted to check out because we've driven by it several times and there are many clothing stores for children.  I also wanted to get out and about to take pictures as I'm sure you've all had enough of just Fredrick pictures!!!  So off we went with map in hand.  Things started off pretty well.  Jon had marked our route for us and it was pretty easy to follow.  I was memorizing our route just so we'd be sure to get back to the hotel!  Then we had to turn on a street and it split...this was not clear on the map!  So mom and I "guessed" it was somewhere that way!  Well we walked and walked until finally I stopped to ask someone who of course didn't speak a word of english.  He pointed back to where we started and then pointed right.  So we headed back to the main street.  However, we did find 1 kids clothing store and mom picked up an outfit for Fredrick and Aveline.  We finally found a street name that seemed to be part of our original route.  We started walking down and then suddenly a guard was whistling at us to stop.  We failed to read the sign that clearly stated NO TRESPASSING!  We had to walk on the other side of the street.  On the no trespassing side was a beautiful palace heavily guarded with guards and machine guns...hmmmmm interesting!  Then we passed the army museum and I was taking pictures of the machines and the same guard whistled at me to stop taking pictues...geesh!  I was pretrified to do anything after that!  We finally stopped and saw a "white man" and asked him for help.  He was Australian.  He told us we were on the wrong street *sigh*, but he was thrilled that I was adopting and that he himself was adopted.  Nice man.  At this point mom and I gave up.  We knew we still had a long walk ahead of us back to the hotel.  We figured we still have many days left, we can take a taxi there another day.  So off we went.  I remembered very well our route home.  It's not just going for a walk, there is a lot of stress involved. Finding streets that you think you can cross safely and then trying to actually cross them!  I did enjoy getting out and I felt like I had accomplished something great!  Finding my way home and arriving back in 1 piece!!!

As for our appointment yesterday with the dr, it went very well.  She knew right away that the spots on Fredrick's face was caused by climate changes.  She gave him a few creams and we have already noticed a big difference with 2 applications.  As for myself, she asked me if I had been doing a lot of laundry...uhhhh ya, since Saturday!  Several loads a day!  She also gave me a prescription which hasn't heped much but she also gave me an antihistamine (sp???) which is helping with the itching.  She was very pleasant and asked us to bring Fredrick back to Vietnam when he is older.  We'll try!  Maybe we'll do a trip to Vietnam and to the Philippines all in 1 vacation!!

Tomorrow we're going to go out again, but this time we're going to be smart and take a taxi!!

For those of you who are having problems posting comments...sometimes you have to hit preview comment several times before it will actually post..try that and see what happens! :-)))



This is how they water all the flowers!  How primitive is this?!?!



Obviously no electrical safety codes!

Cucumber anyone?

Justchck out all the wires!!!

Mom's new haircut!  I really like it!

Someone LOVES the water!