LIFE LATELY

An American breakfast in Hong Kong

A picture from my brother saying "hello" from Sonoma:)

The temple I walk by everyday on my way to work

View from our amazing pool day at the American Club

Love

Somebody got a new mixer!

Taco night

ORANGE COUNTY WEDDING WEEKEND

Have I mentioned that M and I have been traveling like crazy lately? Seriously, we have been all over the map...

Our friends Joanna and Mark got married earlier this month in Dana Point, California and we were so fortunate to attend their wedding. Joanna is a great friend from my childhood. We used to spend hours sitting in her kitchen eating doritos and drinking kool-aid and talking about our future - our future jobs, our future husbands, our future homes, our future weddings... typical middle school girls, right?! Needless to say, it was extra special to see Joanna get married.

My parents were invited to the wedding as well and made the trip from Chicago! We stayed with our good family friends and got to spend the weekend with them and their daughter's awesome dog (they were babysitting!). It was such a great trip, but way too short. Here are some photos.

Meet Harrison!

My parents used to live in Balboa Beach, so we spent one afternoon visiting their of their favorite spots from the '70's! We stopped by one of their favorite restaurants...

And by the beach they used to live on...

Their beach

And by their old post office...

Which was across the street from a candy/ice cream shop where we tried chocolate covered bananas, a Balboa Beach must!

 

We stopped by J+M's wedding picnic and I introduced my dad to cornhole!

We also enjoyed a special dinner with a view...

And a wonderful hike with our family friends and Harrison, of course.

We indulged in In and Out "animal style" fries for the first time (so good!).

And we made a trip to Marshall's where we bought 8 pairs of shoes and a duffel bag for $300!  Okay, I must confess. M only bought 1 of the 8 pairs... Sorry, no pictures of our loot.

The wedding sight was at an incredible park with views overlooking the ocean.

And I have never seen Joanna look more beautiful.

I got a shot of my favorite baby bumps.

It was so great to be reunited with some of my favorite people.

 

 

We danced the night away...

HANOI, VIETNAM

Hanoi is a great city if you are looking for a quick, cultural getaway. It's super close to Hong Kong (~1.5 hour flight). We traveled there for a weekend earlier this month, arriving late Friday night and returning to HK late Sunday night.

We stayed at the Sofitel Metropole hotel, a famous french-colonial hotel located in the heart of Hanoi. Everything about the hotel was perfect, from the beautiful rooms to the poolside service. It was such a nice reprieve from the bustling city.

On Saturday morning, we took a tuk tuk to the Old Quarter to check out Pho Gia Truyen (address: 49 P Bat Dan), a pho noodle restaurant featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (love that show!). The ambiance was pretty terrible, but the soup was just as good as he described. It was by far and away the best pho we had all weekend.

Believe it or not, but Pho is a breakfast food in Vietnam. We are so happy we arrived early, as the restaurant was literally shutting down just as we finished our soup (it closes at 11am).

After our breakfast, we spent some time exploring the Old Quarter which is filled with small local restaurants, shops and art galleries. It's the perfect place to spend an afternoon wandering the small side streets.

The only downside to visiting Hanoi in August is the weather. I have never been to a hotter and more humid place in my life, so we had to take several breaks throughout the day. We stopped by the cutest cafe near Hoan Kiem lake called Cafe Pho Co (address: 11 P Hang Gai) for an iced tea. The top floor has great views of the lake.

Feeling cooler and refreshed, we took a taxi from the Old Quarter to the Temple of Literature. It was built in 1070 by an Emperor and later became Vietnam's first national university.

The entrance to the temple

Beautiful gardens

Each of the stelae (stones), one built for each graduating class, honored the students who successfully passed the royal exams

M loved all of the cool trees:)

After the Temple of Literature, we headed back to Hoan Kiem Lake to explore the Ngoc Son Temple, which held the embalmed remains of the famous gigantic tortoise that once inhabited the lake. Tortoises hold a special meaning in Vietnam, as a symbol of wisdom.

There is a mythical story about the famous tortoise and a magical sword that you will learn about if you visit the temple

The embalmed tortoise

After our walk around Hoan Kiem lake and our visit to Ngoc Son Temple, we walked to St. Joseph Cathedral, a beautiful cathedral built in 1906. We stopped by an Italian restaurant nearby to cool down and enjoy some lunch.

We had to take a picture of all the locals sitting on the little plastic stools, which fill the sidewalks of Hanoi

On our way back to the hotel, we quickly stopped by the Opera House before hitting up our hotel pool for the afternoon.

That evening, we went to a wonderful French Vietnamese restaurant called the Ly Club (address: 4 Le Phung Hieu) located in a french colonial mansion near our hotel. If you go, definitely try the banana leaf special appetizer shown below - the mixture of lime, ginger, shrimp, peanuts and a special sauce was so tasty and refreshing.

On Sunday, we headed to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex. If you are traveling there for the first time, there is a ton of sights to see and I highly recommend arranging a tour guide with your hotel. M and I tried to do it on our own and navigating the complex was quite confusing.

After spending an hour lost wandering around the huge grounds, we finally got to the Mausoleum at 10:00am just before it closed. It was too late to check our bags and they are not allowed inside, so M went to see the body while I stayed behind. At least one of us could see it!

We spent the rest of the morning enjoying the complex.

One Pillar Pagoda

Ho Chi Minh's Estate

And his cars...

And his house on stilts

We went to launch at Quan An Ngon (address: 15 P Phan Boi Chau), a Vietnamese restaurant with an extensive menu. There's an option for everyone. The restaurant came highly recommended by Lonely Planet and a friend in Hong Kong and the meal certainly didn't disappoint. We enjoyed samosas, beef pho and Vietnamese noodle wraps.

After lunch we headed back to the Old Quarter to check out modern Vietnamese art at the local art galleries. Our favorite galleries were the Thang Long Gallery (41 Hang Gai Street) and Apricot Gallery (40B Hang Bong St) where I fell in love with a painting by a local artist named Nyuyen Thanh Binh.

Our last stop before heading back to Hong Kong was to Thang Long Water Puppet Theater to see their famous water puppet show. Water puppetry is a tradition that dates back to the 11th century in Vietnam, where puppet shows were put on in the water flooded rice patties. The hour long show is fun entertainment for adults and kids and is definitely worth the cheap ticket price (~US$5).

And before we knew it, we were racing back to our hotel to quickly shower before heading to the airport. The weekend certainly left us wanted to explore more of Vietnam. There is so much to see in this beautiful country (Halong Bay, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City and Hue just to name a few places). We will be back.