Tuesday, July 24th

Well, today is the day we've been waiting for. Actually, tomorrow is the REAL day we've been waiting for but this will be my last blog posting from Vietnam. We're leaving for the airport tomorrow evening at 8:30 and our flight for Tokyo is scheduled to leave at 11:30pm.

Today we again had the buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then we got a couple taxis and went to the "Old Quarter." It was very busy with people everywhere. The street vendors are a bit more aggressive here in Hanoi than they were in HCMC (not to say that they were passive in HCMC!). It's not a scary situation at all, there are just a ton of people trying to sell you caps, hand-held fans, fruit or postcards. We made our way to a nice lake area where there weren't many street vendors and kind of just strolled around the lake. There was an island in the middle, connected by a bridge and we went there to look around. It contained some sort of temple along with a building that housed a huge dead turtle. No idea of the significance of the turtle or what, really, the temple was for but it was interesting none the less.

It was H-O-T while we were walking. I checked weather.com before we left and the high for today was expected to be 95 with a heat index of 105 and we were feeling every one of those degrees. We found a restaurant called Bobby Chinn and went inside for some air conditioning and to have a little lunch. It was a very nice place and the food was fine. The air conditioning was fantastic! Then we were off again. We did a little more shopping and then headed back to the hotel to wait for Mr. Binh. He was bringing the babies' passports and Visas at 4:00. We waited for him in the lobby and we were all thrilled when he brought everything to us. Basically, the kids are all ours now and we can head home! We ate an average dinner at the hotel's restaurant this evening and called it a day.

We've had a great time here in Vietnam but we're ready to come home! This has been an amazing experience. It's been eye-opening to see how people on the other side of the world live. It's been humbling at times to be completely out of your element, not being able to communicate and just relying on strangers to help you get where or what you need. I think it would be good for all Americans to have a similar adventure in a country where English is not the first language. I have a new appreciation for the good ol' U.S. of A. We have our faults, no doubt, but I've come away from this trip realizing that we are very lucky to be Americans. We have anything we need at our fingertips. We go where we want, when we want. We take our blessings for granted I think and it took traveling thousands miles to be reminded of that.

If everything goes as scheduled we'll be back in Pittsburgh at 4:00pm on Thursday. Thank you to everyone who left comments on the blog, sent emails or just thought good thoughts for us. You've all been so amazingly supportive of us and we're very grateful. We've got the best family and friends imaginable and we can't wait to see you all and to have you meet little Logan. He's a really great kid and I know you're going to fall in love with him the way we have. Good night everyone. See you soon!

Oh, by the way, hope you like the picture of Logan. :-) We took it today near the lake. He loves to sleep in his stroller while we're walking. Can't wait for him to see his HUGE stroller waiting for him at his new home in PA.