Arrival in Vietnam with Nana
We departed Minneapolis/St. Paul Interational Airport on July 26 with Nana in tow. We lucked out big time with an upgrade to First Class, thanks to the help of my mom's cousin's wife who changed her work schedule so she'd be working at the Delta counter on the day of our departure. The 12 hour plane ride wasn't that bad from those seats!
We spent the first week in the LanLan 2 Hotel, courtesy of the American International School and were thrilled to move into our new Sky Garden apartment in the Phu My Hung neighborhood of District 7. Nana immediately noticed how nice and quiet the neighborhood is compared to the chaos and honking of District 1.
We spent the two weeks apartment hunting, settling in, shopping, finding a nanny, registering Sienna for preschool and doing a little bit of sight seeing to balance things out. We Everything went smoother than expected and although we were very sad to see Nana go, we were all set to begin our new life in Saigon.
Living large in Delta's First Class Cabin
Eating ice cream at Bach Dang
Video of the crazy traffic and Sienna's funny response.
Delicious food walking distance from out hotel
Reunification Palace - this is the site of the famous tank crashing through the gates.
Just outside the famous gates of Reunification Palace
Everything and anything is sold on the back of bikes and scooters
Wedding outside of Notre Dame
So nice to see security people without guns
Fruit lady with bags of stuff hanging off her scooter
Break/Snack Time
Pretty Propaganda
On your marks, get set, go!
No problem sleeping through this chaos
Amazing, the things they carry!
Ben Thanh Market in District 1
Mariamman Temple where the people loved seeing Sienna
bow in prayer and put her lit incense stick in the sand as an offering.
A park down the street from our hotel where we took Sienna several times
Sienna's favorite play area in Lotte Mart
Nana teaching Sienna how to ride her birthday present from Nana and Papa
Learning to ride a bike
Another birthday gift from Nana and Papa
Settling into our new apartment
View from the living room
Time to relax at the pool