Can It Get Any Better????????

Day 9 July 23rd Monday
Written and submitted July 24 at 5:00pm

Gracie awoke about 3:00am ready for her bottle and a diaper change. I made a bottle while Becky freshened Gracie up a little. She is so happy after she wakes up. Becky sat in the front room so not to wake Logan in the bedroom. Gracie likes her thumb so you have to pull her thumb out of her mouth and quickly put the bottle in or else she will have her thumb back in her mouth in a heartbeat. Several minutes passed and Gracie got about half the bottle down when Gracie started coughing. It sounded more like a hacking cough as though she was trying to get something out of her throat. Becky yelled to me so I rushed to the front room. Gracie was breathing but she just couldn’t stop hacking. Then Becky said we must not have rinsed the nipples well enough so she had soap in her mouth. Poor Gracie, can’t even speak words yet, let alone bad words, and we have already put soap in her mouth. We quickly rinsed the nipple more thoroughly and Gracie was able to finish her bottle and go back to bed where she didn’t wake until about 7:00am.

Early morning exercises down at the lake

I had heard that many of the local people meet early in the morning at the nearby lake to exercise, so I got out of bed around 5:30 and headed for the lake. Logan would like the streets of Hanoi during this time because the shops are not open and the streets are very empty. There were people walking in the same direction as I was. I figured they must be going to the lake for their morning workouts. The lake is only a few blocks away so I made the trip within 10 minutes. The lake was alive with people. There is a park-like walkway around the lake and it was full of people. The first group of people I saw was about 30 or so older folks that were doing some form of Tai Chi with a boom box playing some traditional music. This group of people was doing the same motions together. They formed four lines of about ten persons then at one point they all changed formation to stand in a single file line and gave each other back massages. While they were performing this exercise, many people walked by them on their way around the lake. The lake area was filled with thousands of people, young and old, walking around the lake. I took a walk half way around the lake in order to get some pictures and film. I ran into several other groups that were performing the same type of exercise, but I also saw other people doing several other activities. There were some men lifting weights, doing pull-ups, and sit-ups. I might see if I can join them later in the week. I’ll ask Mr. Tong at our hotel if the local people don’t mind foreigners joining them. There were a couple of groups playing badminton without a net on the same path as the walkers. The walkway is about 25 feet wide so there is a little room but very crowded with the walkers. Another area had a couple of men playing a game that looked a cross between badminton, soccer, and hacky sack. They used a larger birdie than badminton and the net was about waist high. They would use their feet only to kick the birdie over the net. It was fun to watch. It didn’t matter where you looked around the lake, you could see people doing some form of activity. And it was not only a place to workout before the busy workday, but it seemed to be a social event. There were some younger people walking with the elderly folks. It was my guess that the grandkids were walking with their grand folks. Sometimes we in America might think we have it better because our quality of life is better, but these people seem to have some things figured out. They seem to care first about their mind, body, and family before their work. I have yet to see an overweight person here.

The time was about 7:00 and I thought the family might be getting up so I headed for the hotel. At this time in the morning, I could already feel that the heat and humidity was going to be elevated. I didn’t do anything except walk half way around the lake and I had a pretty good sweat on.

Life at the Hotel

Becky and the crew were starting to rise when I got back from the lake. We got the kids ready and headed for the chow line. We sat at the front table by the big picture window so we could watch the local people getting ready for the day. We happen to notice a small tree outside the window was a banana tree. Here among all this traffic and people was a banana tree growing on the side of the building. It had about 15 small green bananas on it. It doesn’t take much to excite us nowadays. We saw some of our friends and got caught up on how they were doing. This was another day with no scheduled events so we settled in for another day of playing with Gracie.

After breakfast, Logan wanted to buy a new video game from the store down the street. They’re pretty cheap here so we told him it would be all right. We went upstairs to get ready for our day. Logan and I were going to the video game store, so I asked Becky which street it was on and before she could start with her directions, Logan said he knew where it was so not to tell us. Logan and I headed for the street. It’s funny that Logan doesn’t like walking anywhere except when he wants a game boy game. We left the hotel and turned left with Logan in the lead. We snaked our way through scooters and people to the end of the street. Logan made a right turn then walked about forty feet and then stopped and turned around. He spun a 180 and headed in the opposite direction. He walked another forty feet then stopped and spun back around. This is when I saw the look of confusion on his face. I told him not to worry because it all looks the same so it’s easy to get confused. We then decided to head back to the hotel room and get the directions from Becky. Logan had the look of defeat. Becky told me that her and Gracie would go with us so we all headed to the street once again. We crossed the street and walked about thirty feet and there was this very narrow store with video games for sale. Logan and I had walked right by it previously and didn’t even see it. The people at the store let Logan play with the game for a while to see if the game worked. He seemed satisfied so we bought the game and went back to the hotel room.

We just hung around the room all afternoon. We get a little tired of sitting in the room but this is precious time spent getting to know Gracie. She seems to be adjusting to us more every day and all the face time with her is great. She seems to be getting used to Logan’s crazy antics. He loves to get in her face all day long. Logan was getting hungry so I ordered some French fries from the kitchen. I didn’t have any luck getting through to the first person I spoke to so he put on another fellow. This guy seemed to know what I wanted but after about 45 minutes it was apparent that the lunch order didn’t get translated. Becky called the kitchen and ordered the fries this time and it arrived about 15 minutes later. Lost in translation.

Dinner Date with the Gang

All the adoptive parents from both hotels had planned on meeting at Al Fresca’s at 5:00 for dinner. We met some of the people from our hotel at the lobby and loaded into cabs for the restaurant. We arrived at the place a little earlier than the folks from the Melia so we took a long table on the second floor. Becky, Logan, and I had already eaten here so we knew Logan would be eating pizza again. I’m trying to stay mainly vegetarian for personal plumbing reasons. I haven’t experienced anything bad but I don’t want to take any chances. I tried the vegetarian lasagna and Becky had a club sandwich (I know the girls at the gym like to hear my take on the menu items). The lasagna was a little bland so I had to add a lot of pepper on it. I would like to put hot sauce on it but that’s like putting gasoline on a fire so I opted for pepper. Becky seemed to like her sandwich and Logan devoured his whole pizza so I’m sure we will be back again before we leave Hanoi. We had about 12 people at dinner so it was great to hear what everyone has been doing. It was nice to hear many had been in their rooms just like us. After dinner, the four of us went across the street to the indoor mall to get some formula for Gracie. We can’t wait to get her home and get her started on cereal. Logan was happy we were taking a cab back to the hotel. The cabby said 3 dollars and I told him it only cost 2 dollars to get here so we agreed on 2 dollars. I don’t blame them for trying to get what they can.

It was getting late so we gave Gracie her bath and put her to bed. Logan and I started watch Speed II on the TV but I couldn’t keep my eyes open so we shut off the TV and went to sleep.