So what else has been going on?

Of course we have to say more about the last two weeks—actually, closer to three weeks—since we’ve been home. If you want to know how we spend our time, we're usually either on the playmat or out for a walk!

Peggy has been catching up with her classes at the University of Chicago, which started without her while we were in Hanoi. I’ve been at home much of each day with the babies, until Peggy comes home in the afternoon. Then I head to Saint Ignatius to coach our boys track team. The schedule works great, with the only problem on Tuesday afternoons when Peggy has class and I have to coach. We’ve been getting help from Peggy’s friend and colleague at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Maureen Schmidt, who has stayed with Maisie and Luc. She has been a lifesaver for us. Peggy's sister Eileen took an afternoon class, too!

Weekends have been lots of track meets and some shopping. On one visit to Target we used the gift card from the boys on my team to buy various baby essentials. As noted, we also splurged on a jogging stroller.

We’ve had lots of visitors, including friends Kelly and Jeff, Charlotte, Uncle Johnny and my daughter Mairead, who of course is also Maisie's and Luc's sister. When Peggy had a late afternoon meeting with one of her professors on campus, she met up with Mairead who took the babies for a stroll around campus—except the short stroll turned out to be two hours. Mairead managed well, but she got worried when the sun was going down and the babies started to get cold and a little cranky after she had already fed them with all the supplies we had given her! Peggy and I both returned in the nick of time. For Mairead it was a little like Vietnam was for us, when one woman told her that she needed to put more clothes on those babies!

We have so many thank yous to give—especially to Peggy’s Lab School colleagues who threw her a shower where they met Maisie and Luc.

So how are we doing?

We’re all adjusting well. We haven’t blogged for a while—just busy.

Part of our busy-ness: We bought a double jogging stroller! Last night we took it out for the first family walk on the lakefront. We drove downtown and parked near Northerly Island and the Planetarium.

While on Lakeshore Drive we noticed a large number of people marching around in the Soldier Field and McCormick Place parking lots. Then we noticed lots of cardboard boxes. It was a rally to protest the refugee status of children around the world, with special attention to Darfur. One of my Ignatius runners, Jim Mumford, had mentioned the rally to me the day before. The kids are all going to sleep out overnight.

After we parked, we walked back toward the rally. We parked the stroller outside the gate and surveyed the crowd. I recognized an Ignatius student, a former runner Mike Mason, standing among the boxes, and then I saw Erin Casey, Molly Hogan, Caitlin Lanigan, and Danielle LoVallo—with a bunch of other Ignatius students. We called to them and Danielle and Erin came over to say hello to Luc and Maisie.

We wanted to say thank you to the students who spent the night at the protest. Luc and Maisie, of course, are in their own way displaced children.

And we thought we were adventurous...

Things are going well here at home.

The last member of our Hanoi cohort, Marci, has also returned. Her son, Jamie, remember, had an ear infection which delayed their return.

But in the meantime, in Hanoi, Marci, Betty, and Katie kept busy. We thought we were adventurous. It seems the longer one stays in Hanoi, the more adventurous one becomes. Here's Marci's email to us about her final adventure before her return:

"Well, tonight we had a true Vietnamese experience. We went with Peter (the American guy that lives in Hanoi), his wife Mai, their son Bao, and her friend Hong to the Botanical Gardens where they play badminton. Afterwards they took us to this little restaurant just outside the Gardens gate. We were the only Western people there. When we walked up there was a little piglet roasting over this big grill (which we eventually ate). This is the kind of side of the road restaurant. We ate outside on little metal tables. They ordered all this food for us to try, and everyone else and my mom had this special beer (I don't like beer). Well, one of the dishes was dog. It was actually pretty good. If you thought it was beef it would have been excellent. They said that eating dog makes you lucky and that when people are having a rough time in their life or they are fighting with loved ones they eat dog and then they feel better. I figured we needed all the luck we could right about now. So since I ate my dog and was now full of luck I decided to try my luck on a motor bike in the streets of Hanoi. Mai's friend had her motor bike with her so she took me on a ride around the city. It was an amazing evening. It was real Vietnamese not commercial Vietnamese. Just thought I'd let you know about our night."

Home

We're home.

Maisie Minh Tam is maybe having a bit of an adjustment. I just set up the baby cot to give her something familiar here. She's now napping. And Luc Au Su is napping. And Peggy is napping.

And Robbie is napping.

Robbie, Marci's son, will spend the night here in Chicago. We arrived in the Chicago skies around 10:25, a bit early, and then we began to feel the telltale glide and thrust of the holding pattern. When we did finally land around 10:50, we found out why. It was a snow storm--at least a wintry mix. As we taxied it was clear that the runways had been plowed. We have since learned that the storm is worse on the other side of Lake Michigan, specifically Grand Rapids, where Robbie was heading after Chicago. Robbie's 1:20 flight was cancelled, and flights were cancelled for the rest of the day. There was a chance he could get out at 9:00 tonight on standby. We weren't exactly in a position to leave a 13-year-old in the airport all day.

So Robbie is with us tonight and we will take him back to O'Hare for an 8:05 AM flight.

What else to tell about the flight? It was long. We left the Hong Gnoc Hotel at 9:00 PM on Tuesday night in Hanoi. We arrived home today at approximately 3:00 PM Wednesday, which would be 3:00 AM Thursday in Hanoi. That's about 30 hours, door to door.

Just fitting our baggage--and the extra person--into our car at the airport was a challenge. Then we made a trip to Peggy's sister Kathy's home in La Grange Park, where Luc and Maisie met a few of their cousins, Elizabeth, Doyle, and Sean. Luc fit right in, but Maisie had some harder moments. Of course it was midnight for them, Hanoi time.

Now we're home. And everyone, as I said, is napping....

Hello from Seoul

Hey, we're in Seoul on a four hour layover.

We had an adventure at the Hanoi Airport. We're travelling with Robbie, Marci's son, and when we got to the airport, Marci discovered that the passport she had retrieved from the hotel was her daughter's passport, not Robbie's. It seems that at the time of the passport photos, Katie had short hair and Robbie's was long.

Martin called the hotel and one of the employees brought the correct passport out by taxi.

We made it through baggage and check in, then passport control.

Martin said some partings are emotional, but this one was kind of crazy.

Then our flight was delayed from 12:45 to 2:30 AM. We had plenty of time in Seoul, so there was no problem.

We flew Vietnam Air here, and then we fly out on Korean Air.

But the big excitement in Hanoi: We packed up the baby cot and despite Martin's skepticism )and my own), the oversized package made it on the plane!

Fly late Tuesday night, arrive Wednesday morning

Our travel agent has been checking all weekend, and we made another visit to Korean Air this morning.

But we cannot get to Seoul from Hanoi tonight, even if there are seats available on the Seoul to Chicago flight.

So we fly tomorrow night, so late on Tuesday at midnight that it is already Wednesday AM. Then we arrive in Seoul for a six hour layover, before the long flight--13 hours, I think--to Chicago. We will be there at 10:40 AM Wednesday, April 11.

We have at least one more blog idea--a picture tour of our favorite walking places in Hanoi. We'll see if we get to it before we leave.

What we remember about the G&R day

It seems so long ago, the days before the babies. But this is what we remember about G&R day.

We were in the van at about 6:30 on the G&R day, after taking some out the door photos in front of the Hong Ngoc--Marci, with Betty her mom, her daughter Katie, and her son Robbie, and Peggy and I. Nancy came as the World Child translator and facilitator, with Jenny along, as well. Our photos turned out pretty dark, and I guess it was dark.

The drive was a repeat of the Friday trip. We were much less interested in the scenery and the drive. We weren't really sure what the schedule would be. Orphanage first? Right to the ceremony? We also didn't really know how it would all happen. It seemed to be one of those "need to know" days.

We drove through Lang Son for a while. Nancy made a phone call, it seemed, or else she decided we were lost. We stopped for directions. Then we doubled back and eventually made our way to the Ministry of Jusice building at 9:45 or so.

We moved quickly into the building and up the stairs to the second floor, where we were ushered into a meeting room. We carried a lot of stuff to the back of the room--bags with various gifts. In the meeting room there was a statue of Ho Chi Minh and slogan banners hung from the walls, with a big meeting table. Along the walls were chairs. In some of the chairs sat small groups of Vietnamese. In whispers, Jenny told us that these might actually be the birth families. Nancy had disappeared. We asked about taking video or photos; Jenny suggested we wait. When Nancy returned and Jenny asked her, we were told no--no cameras right now, it is a solemn occasion.

It seemed that more families had arrived.

Nancy eventually called Marci out of the room, and she disappeared for a period--between 15 and 30 minutes, perhaps.

We watched the families. Perhaps the babies and caregivers arrived. It was two weeks ago, now, and I sort of forget. Plus, emotions had begun to build at that point.

A few moments after Marci returned, Peggy and I were called. We entered a small office near the meeting room. Ms. Trieu, as I think her name is spelled, sat at a desk. With her was one of the women who had been waiting with a family--Au Su Nghiep's mother.

With all of us gathered around the desk closely, Ms. Trieu went through a series of questions with her. Nancy translated for us. Then Ms. Trieu asked questions of us--names and birth dates of the babies, our own information.

Through Nancy, we spoke to Ms. Trieu. Then we spoke to Au Su Nghiep's mother. That conversation, it seems, should be private.

Then Nguyen Minh Tam Thi's mother arrived. There was a similar drill with her.

Ms. Trieu spoke to all of us directly and clearly at one point, as Nancy translated: This adoption is not for the benefit of the birth mothers, or the adopting parents. The adoption has been approved because of the best interests of the babies.

As the interviews took place, Ms. Trieu's phone rang several time. She answered quickly and efficiently. She also had a cell phone that rang several times; she handled that in a similar way. She had a tape recorder that she turned on and off during the interviews. She also took notes. In front of her was a complete file on the babies. Handwritten notes seemed to document their cases and the "difficult situation" of the birth mothers. That was what we were told. Au Su Nghiep's mother had chosen to give him up for adoption because she faced a "difficult situation." Nguyen Minh Tam Thi's mother also found herself with a "difficult situation."

Ms. Trieu also had what we recognized as copies and translations of documents we had completed months ago at home in Chicago--perhaps even including our home study and dossier.

I've been factual here about the interview. It wasn't as easy or efficient on our end or for the birth mothers as it sounds here. Ms. Trieu was all business and extremely professional in what, as you can imagine, was an emotional situation.

Once the interview was complete, we returned to the meeting room. The babies had arrived at this point and the caregivers were there. The orphanage director arrived.

Ms. Trieu, I think it was, made a statement about the events that would take place--adoptions of four babies whose mothers faced "difficult situations." The orphanage director made a statement--and also a province official, I believe. Then I had to give a speech. Nancy had told me that there was a meeting to follow for the officials, and I should speak briefly. It had been an emotional morning already. But I think I was pretty coherent.

What I said, I believe, was along these lines: These babies would show the people of the United States the love and hearts of the people of the Vietnam. There was clearly a feeling of loss in the room, for the mothers. Peggy and I had known such a loss, because we had lost a baby once, too. We promise to educate the babies, teach them to be good people, and teach them about Vietnam. We thanked the people who had done so much work to care for the babies and make the adoptions possible. The babies would fill a hole in our hearts. We hoped that for the mothers and those who experienced loss today that life would bring them a joy in the future like the one they had made possible for us.

At least that is what I think I said. I am not sure whether that was brief, or not.

The birth mothers were invited to speak. Au Su Nghiep's mother asked us to care for him and to bring him back to visit Vietnam in the future.

The ceremony itself involved us signing papers and a book. Then we stood with Au Su Nghiep's family, and his mother handed him to us. Both groups--on the birth family side and on our side--took photos. We repeated that process with Nguyen Minh Tam Thi's mother. Again, there were many photographs.

Then Marci went through the same process to adopt her two babies.

After the ceremony, it was a bit emotional. There was a hurried collection and sorting out of the gifts we had brought--for the orphanage, officials, and caregivers. We also had gifts for the mothers. We were concerned that one mother had left without a gift. There was some informal contact between the families as we left the room--and a few last kisses from family members.

Nancy ushered us down the stairs quickly. Peggy and I climbed into the van with two babies in our arms. Marci's family delayed a bit. They wanted to take more pictures outside the ministry. I think I remember a street vendor or two approaching the van, even. The scene had gotten a bit crazy. Nancy became a bit insistent, and we left somewhat abruptly. We headed directly out of the city--no visit to the orphanage.

Jenny explained later that the ministry officials had been anxious--even insistent--to have us leave. It had been a bit "thick," emotionally.

When I apologized to Nancy that my own tears or words had contributed to the emotion, she just smiled back at me.

She had done this many times, I told her. Was it any easier for her, the emotions of the G&R? I asked.

She shook her head.

Easter Sunday

This entry will make Grandmother Joyce happy!

It is Easter Sunday. We woke up refreshed after an early night. The babies were down by 7:30 and we were down by 8:30. Luc Au Su was up at 7:30, bathed and fed by 8:00 or so. Maisie Minh Tam slept late. But we were downstairs at breakfast by 9:00 or so. Then we had a short nap upstairs, and at 10:30 we went out for the day.

Marci and her family were at breakfast, and they gave us the mass schedule at the Cathedral: 5 AM, 7, 9, and 11. If we are going to mass, it will be the 11!

Marci had visited the church the night before, in the dark, and caught the mass schedule on a sign. But the square had been full, she said, of people watching a movie projected on the side of the church, on white sheets: The Passion of Christ.

We headed to the Cathedral. At 10:35 it was a massive snarl of motorbike and pedestrian traffic as the earlier mass exited. Then it was gone. At 11 the church wasn't even full, and most of the people there were Westerners, like us. The mass, it turns out, was in French. We sat in the back. Luc took a bottle early, then conked out. Maisie went a little while later. They woke up toward the end of the mass, and they just watched the event with interest.

As we sat and stood, we looked around, too. Late in the mass I noticed the window across the aisle on the opposite wall: St. Ignace de Loyola.

Sorry, we forget that some of you don't know the significance of this. Peggy graduated from Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, and I teach there now.

For dinner tonight, Marci and her family invited us to the Easter dinner. Marci bought several packages of ham steaks, which she had the kitchen here prepare. We had Vietnamese style stir fry vegetables, with mashed potatoes and cucumber and tomato salad. Probably not the meal we would have had at home, but it was an Easter dinner.

Thank you Marci and Betty--and Robbie, Katie, Mylie, and Jamie!

Good Friday

We have had several inquiries about how the Vietnamese celebrate Easter. Well, most of them don't know much about it. Even Martin had to be reminded about the weekend and what he knew about it--"Bunny," he said and nodded. But our hotel is two blocks from the Cathedral. We discovered it our first evening in Hanoi, a Sunday, when we went out to dinner and discovered Sunday mass was being broadcast outdoors and hundreds of people seemed to be celebrating mass in the square outside the church. The French were here a long time.

Now we walk past the Cathedral several times a day. Earlier today we walked by and photographed the Easter weekend banners that had been unfurled. There is a school nearby, as well, and the children play in the square today.

But later, in the evening at 5:30, we walked by to discover an entirely different scene. The photos below retell the old story as it was reenacted.

Meanwhile, as the passion played out, motorbikes, cars, taxis, and minibuses whizzed by, and pedestrians milled about. Most of the city just went about its business.

The call!

Luc and I have been up since 7:00. We tried to take a bath, but there was no hot water.

We did eat and take some medicine. When we went downstairs, just the boys, to breakfast, we found out why the hot water was gone. The place was packed. I sat at the bar with Luc in his stroller.

When we got back upstairs, Peggy was finally stirring. I went downstairs to bring her up some coffee.

"Guess what?" she said when I returned. "Martin called. We have a 1:30 appointment at the embassy."

We will try to get the Monday night flight now, but worst case, we fly on Tuesday night, pretty much for sure now.

I guess we can be a little less grumpy now. Today's agenda, then: We will take Luc back to the SOS clinic for a follow up. He is doing much better. Then it will be a day of our usual rounds.....

Delayed Once More

After waiting all day, hoping for the call from the US Embassy that our last visa interview would be today, we heard from Martin that there was no news. We'd already found the Korean Air office within walking distance from our hotel earlier in the day (but arrived during the lunch break form 12:00-1:30), so we walked back in the afternoon.

Flights are booked tight, but we did get on a flight out of Hanoi Tuesday at midnight that stops in Seoul (early Wednesday morning), where we catch a flight that arrives in Chicago around 10:00 in the morning on Wednesday. Flights are so tight that we'll have to take Vietnam Air to Seoul, and this caused us some worry about the baggage limits since Korean Air is more generous than Vietnam Air, but our bags will be checked though Korean Air, so we are all right.

Marci just made it to the office in time after our call to come quick to book her family, and she also is on our flight, with the last four tickets that were available. Lisa leaves tonight on the flight that all three of our families had hoped to be on together.

On the walk back from Korean Air we stopped at our local Hanoi "Walmart" to pick up some formula, a bottle opener and baby nail clippers. Marci also found chocolate bunnies on sticks, giant gold-foil wrapped chocolate eggs and smaller ones as well. She plans to do Easter here, and even found an English speaking Church that we could all attend on Sunday. The Church is Catholic, and Marci and her family are Lutheran, but she said it was close enough.

Before Lisa, Cindy and Tiann left, we had a baby cousin photo shot on our big bed. They were all obliging for the paparazzi, but Luc didn't like being on his tummy too much!

Now we wait again to hear something tomorrow from the Embassy. Even though it is Good Friday, we do think they are working. At least we hope so.

We need a call from the embassy on Friday or Monday to have visas for the babies by Tuesday, so we can fly.

A man behind a glass window

We continue to promise a blog about the G&R, especially for those of you going to Lang Son and who will likely meet birth parents there.

But we missed another step, the first embassy interview with Mr. Adamson, the man behind the glass window. We blogged about Wednesday before we told you about Tuesday.

The US embassy is in the upscale western business office side of the city. There is a covered driveway leading up to a big office building. You step inside and walk up a tall flight of stairs to the second floor where the consular visa section is located. You go through a metal detector. They take a driver's license and keep it while you are there for identification. If you carry a cell phone or camera, they check it for you, but you are not supposed to bring electronic devices. They sell a few US embassy Hanoi items, like hats and t-shirts there.

In the consular section, there are a bunch of service windows and chairs set up in a waiting room. It wasn't clear to me if Martin alerted them to our presence or if they were expecting us. But he ushered Marci and I to a window where we each had to pay an additional fee for our second baby and therefore a second I600 application. If you are adopting families members, more than one child, this extra fee does not apply, but our babies aren't real twins. I tried to pay the $540 with cash, but a machine kept spitting out the perfectly clean and crisp $100 bills we had brought and carefully stored for this purpose. So we used Visa.

Then we waited a few minutes. There is a water cooler in the reception area, and the water was really cold on a hot day outside. People keep telling us, remember to keep hydrated! Marci's name was called, I don't remember how, and she and her babies went through a door. They reemerged fiften or twenty minutes later.

When they came out, we saw a man behind a glass window, and he invited us in. I realized that it was a small room, actually almost a closet, maybe four feet by six feet even, with two folding chairs. We barely fit in there with our stroller and two babies. Mr. Adamson sat behind a glass window, like the kind they have in Chicago at Harold's Chicken or at the gas stations in inner city neighborhoods.

He spent a lot of time spelling out the procedure. This interview was to evaluate that our adoption had been conducted properly. Adopting in Vietnam, he wanted us to know, is not the same as adopting from China, for example, where adoption procedures are programmatic and institutionalized; in Vietnam, each case is different. He did not want to alarm us, but there had been cases, for example, where it had been discovered that a child's mother had not, in fact, agreed to an adoption of her child, and the adoption had been stopped.

At that point I told Mr. Adamson that we had met with birth mothers of our babies; they had publicly given their babies to us. Is it possible that these were not the real mothers of the babies, I asked? We also could have told him how careful, professional, and thorough Ms. Thiuy, the Lang Son official at the Ministry of Justice, had been. I don't really remember his answer--but he kind of skipped on with his presentation, which laid out the timeline. After this interview, the file would be reviewed in Ho Chi Minh City and in three to five days we would hear back from the embassy to return for a second visa appointment--assuming that the review was satisfactory. We have a flight on Thursday night, we told him--any chance we will get out by then? The process, he told us, would be three to five days--assuming no power outages. A power outage might cause a delay.

He proceeded to ask us questions about fees we paid, whether any special fees had been requested or added during our visit, and how long the drive was to Lang Son. He wanted us to describe the orphanage and give our impressions of the care there. He does not get to all the orphanages, he told us. We told him the orphanage had about 100 children, from what we understand, of different ages; it has a soccer field, even.

He then asked us some questions mainly about Au Su Nghiep. Again we mentioned that we had also met the birth mothers and visited the ministry of justice for a Giving and Receiving. Marci, it turns out, had told him about meeting both the mothers of her babies; he seemed surprised, she thought. He seemed almost suprised again that we had met the birth mothers--but that might not be fair because he seemed to want to keep a very straight attitude.

The one glitch in the interview was when he said the fingerprints on our I171H had expired. It turned out that he had a old copy of the I171H produced before we updated our fingerprints. The new one had been cabled to Ho Chi Minh City and the US consulate there, so he should have it. He had the one our agency must have submitted in its original dossier that was submitted to the Vietnamese province. But we simply gave him a copy of the new one with the updated fingerprint information, which we had with us. He copied it for his records.

The end of the meeting was kind of anticlimactic. It just seemed that time was up and he told us again we should wait for a call in three to five days.

We left the little room, with Mr. Adamson still sitting behind the window. Then we all left the embassy.

Next stop was for Marci and I to pick up the Vietnamese passports for the children at the "police station." The taxi ride was awful, because the driver did not turn on his AC--or else it didn't work. But the AC was on at the police station, and our stay was very quick, which was good because Marci and I each carried a baby. We had a reciept from the previous visit telling us to return at 3 PM that day, Monday. We went to a new window, presented the reciept, and waited a couple minutes. They called our names, looked at our passports. Then they had us sign the receipt, and they gave us the passports for the babies. Martin had asked us to check the names, birth dates, and gender on the passports. We did so, then he did so again.

Meanwhile, Peggy with a baby, Marci's daughter Katie with a baby, and the new World Child staffer Kenny went on ahead to a photo shop to get passport photos take of our babies for their US visa applications. We arrived to get the two babies we carried with us photographed. It turns out to have been at the same shop where we had had pictures produced the previous week.

Peggy and I and the babies told Martin we would walk home, and we went to the Vinaconex, our Walmart, for some supplies, and later walked back to the hotel.

Just so you know how out of control we all have become, Marci and Katie took a cyclo with the babies!

SOS Day

Today was our SOS clinic day--physical exams for the babies to get their visas. We went with Marci--and her two. So we monopolized the clinic intake room for quite a while.

The clinic sits on the ground floor of the the United Kingdom embassy building, about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, but we took a taxi with Martin and a new WC staffer, Kenny. The intake, where they weighed and measured the babies, is on one side. Then you walk outside, through the main entrance, to the other side of the clinic, where the docs work.

We arrived at 8:30, and we were home by 11:30. So it did take some time.

Maisie is doing well--13+ pounds, doing well developmentally, alert and healthy, with some congestion and cold.

We had some concerns about Luc's immediate health, and the appointment came at a good time. He's been coughing at night for two nights, and he is very congested. His German doctor, with a pony tail and goatee, found some congestion in the lungs, and he was somewhat concerned. He's calling it bronchiitis, but Luc is getting an anti-streptoccal in case it is heading toward pneumonia. We got a puffer/asthma inhaler, and a chamber to administer it (the chamber was the big expense $60). And then he got a heavy duty decongestant. With the physical ($65), the total was $180. We think our insurance might cover some of it for us.

The doctor also noted, as we have, that there might be some other developmental issues for Luc, but we will follow up on those when we get home.

We returned home on hotel arrest--which is a good thing. Martin says that the embassy could call now at any time. We need a second interview today, though, if we are to get the visa tomorrow and fly tomorrow night.

If not, it gets complicated. Todd Gallinek, our travel agent, tells us that there are seats available on Sunday night, but not Saturday. We could switch our tickets to Sunday. But then we are on watch for tomorrow for the embassy interview. If we don't get it tomorrow, then we can't get the visa until Monday. So we would have to change flights again. We could just change tickets tomorrow for later next week to be safe.

But we want to go home now.

Maybe the gods will be kind and we'll get a phone call this afternoon.

How long is the Ha Long boat trip?

Like some other World Child groups before us, yesterday our group of five families--with eight babies total--made the trip by minibus to Ha Long Bay. Three and a half hour drive each way; the first hour follows the route to Lang Son, but the second two hours are on a bumpy highway. We were in the back row, and it was really bouncy--like seasick bouncy. We held on to the babies carefully.








The boat ride--on a tourist "junk"--was 6 hours; we had been told it would be five. Four would be about right. Cost was $30 per person--adults. We arrived at the dock at noon. Tables were set for us, and a half hour into the trip lunch was served--and served and served and served. They kept bringing more plates. The seafood included crabs, shrimps, and a big fish. I must have been busy eating, because I forgot to photograph the table when all the food had arrived. After I took the first picture, I kept thinking, I better take another. I never did.

As we arrived to our first stop, I made a joke to our server and our guide that I couldn't get off the boat because I was still eating. The guide seemed hurt. "You must go to the cave!" she insisted. She went and talked to the food staff.






All the babies and families walked up the steps of an island mountain and into a cave. Peggy said that it made her think right away of Flo Vaughan -- she would have loved this cave. The signs, we figured out, were asking us not to leave grafitti or carve our initials into the rocks. It was an amazing walk, but Luc got tired and we hurried through.

When we got back on the boat, all the tables had been cleared, except for ours. My half eaten fish--fish head intact--was still there. Peggy told me to stop making jokes, especially ones that involve irony, that no one in Vietnam will understand. But when I explained to Martin what had happened, he explained to the guide. Everyone laughed. But Peggy is probably right.










The boat took us past a floating village--supported by the government, as our guide explained. She also pointed out another cave, an opening visible from a distance, which she said was the setting for a James Bond movie, perhaps the first one with Sean Connery? It made sense to me...








The final stop was TipTop Island, where Ho Chi Minh met with the Soviet delegation to seal their alliance. That alliance founded Vietnam as a Soviet-style socialist country; the gold and scarlet and hammer and sickle of the international socialist revolution are still everywhere here. It was also the basis of the famous "domino theory"that justified the Vietnam War.













We were invited to climb to the top of the mountain island; there is a beach at the bottom. Peggy and I had a plan that one of us would quickly climb and return, then the other one. But Luc got really cranky, crying and crying. Maisie wasn't doing so well, either. Peggy never even got off the boat; I carried Luc off, then returned, and walked around on the top deck for the next hour and a half because it was the only way to keep him from screaming.





Remember the two days for a bowel movement issue? It had been three days. Don't worry we dealt with it today, and we think we have that one under control.

The three and a half hour ride home went better than might have been expected. I had to find a position that Luc liked, or else he cried. We did all right. Five of the other eight babies did their share of crying, as well.

It was a relief to get home. We were all exhausted.

The trip was worth it. But don't ask us to do it again tomorrow...