Vietnam Day 2

Today we learned how to cross the street. Sounds simple enough, but it is not. They are not many traffic signals I think there are 2 in all of downtown. You just go and walk at a very even pace. The moped drivers time your pace and dodge you. I have been nearly hit a couple of times. When I bring this up to the locals they say it is always nearly but never a hit. A lot of the group likes to stand next to me or Mike Wood because we are the biggest and they think the moped drivers wont hit us.

There are a lot of street vendors here in Hanoi. Americans are considered rich because the value of the dollar is strong here. The conversion rate is 17,500 Dong to every US Dollar. I converted $60 into over 1 million DONG. The street vendors are attracted to Americans so you have to politely say no. Some of the group seem to draw more than others. They are very persistent.

We ate at the nicest restraunt I have ever been to in my life tonight. It was amazing. It reminded me of Sun Valley with wood beams and really great lighting. It was about $50 US. We had fresh spring rolls, fried crab and a bunch of stuff I don’t want to know what it was it was very good so I didn’t want to ask. Guess what there wasn’t any utensils at the table just CHOPSTICKS.

Love You Guys

Dave

Day 1 Vietnam

Today was a good day. I flew from Boise to Seattle to Seoul Korea to Hanoi Vietnam. Flying Korean Air is amazing. We had our own TV that you could play games on, watch movies, TV, Shop. It was great. I watched Angels and Demons, Land of the Lost and Terminator Salvation. I also played Chess on this screen against Rick Bennett who I am traveling with this week. I learned how to play Cribbage on the flights.

Korea was interesting,I felt like I was in LA. Everything in the airport is English. Even this smoothie shop. The smoothie was good.

Not sure how much it was though.




The cab ride from the Vietnam Airport to our Hotel was an adventure. For those of you who saw the amazing race you may have an idea. I video taped a few seconds of it for you. There are no stop lights so this is what the intersection looks like.

I am hoping to give more updates soon
Love You all,

David

Thirsty?

When desperate for ice in Diet Coke, climb in the sink and get mom's.

At least this time he did not turn the water on and move the faucet onto my counters, while taking his own bath in the sink! FYI: mom was cleaning up another mess in his bedroom.

Winter in October

This morning we woke up to this:

Where is fall? Last week we were in the 80's and the trees were still green. There have been power outages today and tree limbs are all over the road. Some trees are even cut in half. We wanted cooler weather but I think this goes a little too far!

Happy Birthday AnnaLisa

We spent AnnaLisa's Birthday in Boise....We had yummy Cheescake

We went to the Boise State Game

Happy B-day!!!

Carson and Landon away from home.

Looks like Carson and Landon wasted no time finding a new friend down in Utah. They are spending the week down with their grandparents. Landon informed us that he was fine and there was no reason for us to come down this weekend and pick them up....

Thanks Mom for this great photo! I called today to ask of they made it OK and mom said to open up my email.

Have a great week and we will see you soon.

Retiring

At the end of April my dad retired from the Canyon County Police Department after 20 years of working in Patrol and later taking over as the Captain of the Forensic Lab. They surprised my dad by naming the lab after him. He specialized in fingerprinting and it is amazing what fingerprints can be taken off of. (wood, leaves, ice cubes, etc.) After years of training thru classes all around the country including the FBI accademy in VA, he became one of the top forensic scientists in Idaho and had articles published in national forensic magazines and books. We are so proud of you dad!!

The building in his honor.All the family including my sister from Indiana hid in the forensic garage and surprised my dad when he was coming in for work .
Carson did a report at school on forensic science and had my dad be a guest speaker.

The kids had fun looking at fingerprints. Carson' grandpa turned off the lights and had a red light to see the fibers that are on our clothes which proves that a criminal always leaves and takes away fibers at the crime scene.

Now what do you do after retiring? How about a two year mission to Russia! And to top it off David's parents are leaving a month after in September to Australia on a mission!! We are so happy for both of them but will miss having grandparents around!