Three Little Kings: Vietnam- Hoi An

Between the rainy, dirty streets in Hanoi and the developing Sapa, I was not quite feeling our trip. It was neat, but I was kind of tired & ready to head home. We were roughing it a bit more than I was expecting. Sure, we'd been to Thailand and Cambodia, but Vietnam was just different to me. One of the things I'm most grateful for in Brent is that he's an amazing trip planner. Like really, he could do this for a living. He leaves no stone unturned. And nearly 12 years in, I just go with it. I almost like to let the vacation surprise me. I don't like looking at pictures of where we're going then seeing it in person. It's like, yup, that's what I thought (case in point- the pyramids of Giza). Anyway, maybe every now and then, I should let him inform me so I can mentally prepare. However, saving this hotel and the beach for last=genius. Like I said, it's not his first rodeo. Every now and then I do feel like it's mine!

Nice place, B.

Mama & the twins loved the big bathtub. I hadn't felt clean yet (or for more than like 10 minutes) on this trip!

All clean! And probably the second time I bothered with makeup.

I seriously said, lets take a picture before we go out in the humidity!

Hoi An is famous for it's hand-made lanterns that decorate the Old Town.

Headed into Old Town for some dinner.

My boys.

Daddy was a hero and said yes to some Pokemon cards along the way. I didn't take any other pictures here, but Miss Ly's (famous for it's white rose dumplings) was very yummy as promised thanks to Brent's great research.

Strolling through Old Town. We did this every night.

The next morning we took the shuttle to the beach which was only 10 minutes away.

Our boys LOVE the beach!

Vietnamese fishing boat.

Perfect view!

We had lunch delivered to our chairs. We had some Vietnamese specialties including banana leaf wrapped fish, shrimp spring rolls & Margherita pizza.

My little cap song sinh (aka twins).

This is back at the hotel. The grounds were beautiful.

Two pools. Both used quite a bit by the King boys.

Back into Old Town for the evening. The old Japanese Covered Bridge is one of the prime attractions.

Couldn't get enough of the lanterns!. I spent each evening trying to decide which style I wanted to buy.

Boats on the canal.

One popular tourist thing to do here is to have custom clothes made and there are several tailors to pick from. Since Brent has been pretty successful in Korea, we thought we'd try for more dress shirts here. Plus, his personal ironer is ready to ditch some has-beens.

I love this pic. This is Hayden sitting through Brent's first fitting & doing his best to ignore his fan club of women working there.

This hot vacation included lots of ice cream. Let's be honest, this family would eat ice cream any time...but, this place was so neat with good coffee & ice cream.

It's actually called the CoCo Box and our little CoCo just had to buy a hat.

I thought Google had a good description for Old Town: "Hội An is a city on Vietnam’s central coast known for its well-preserved Ancient Town, cut through with canals. The former port city’s melting-pot history is reflected in its architecture, a mix of eras and styles from wooden Chinese shophouses and temples to colorful French colonial buildings, ornate Vietnamese tube houses and the iconic Japanese Covered Bridge with its pagoda". We enjoyed exploring them all!

Brent had to buy some of the incense cones.

I collect pottery from every country we visit. I loved this display of traditional patterned plates at our hotel's restaurant.

That evening, we decided to hit a different beach a little further down from the previous day. We purposely waited until there was only 1 hour of sunlight left because somebody let their kids get burned the day before. That same somebody burnt the tar out her legs, just the top six inches that were out of the water & receiving the sun's reflection.

It was so nice. Especially with no sun!

Note to self: Don't ask people who are much shorter than you to take your picture.

After the beach, we had the best dinner at Deck House.

See, I told you Colter's orange juices look like cocktails!

We promised a quick dip in the pool when we got back.

Finally (not really, can you make 6 shirts that quick?), the moment of truth...

Look at Mr. Xe. He was awesome. Quite the character. I know what you're thinking- is he that short or is Brent that tall?! Oh, and I had a pea coat made too!

And this was all our last day. We had a late flight so we had the day to enjoy.

Hayden & Grant have this bizarre goal to taste every Fanta ever. They were so excited to find a new one, but the shop keeper was so kind to tell us don't buy 2, try 1 first. She said Vietnamese like it, but tourist usually don't. And yes, it looks maybe berry flavored but tasted pretty similar to root beer. Maybe that's sassafras?