26 hours on planes and in airports, but we made it! Aside from a sneezing fit from the passenger behind us on the last flight, and a “hair situation” from the passenger in front of Dayne, we’ve made it unscathed. The 40 or so minute drive from the airport to our hotel was a paltry 18 bucks in a private SUV the hotel sent, making transport easy peasy.

Since it was near midnight, raining, and everything was closed, we drank a beer from the minibar (a dear $1.50 each) and fell into comas after being up for 30 hours. Dayne rambled around at the crack of dawn, settling on our lovely balcony, while I, in half slumber continued to remind him not to drink the water, while he tried to drink the water.

We practiced our vietnamese on the hotel waitress, but we are both struggling from a syndrome called “being old.” This affliction assures that no matter how much you memorize something, you will forget it instantly. Therefore we’ve looked up hello and goodbye exactly 467 times in the last few hours. Sin chow???

Heading out to explore the lake area and drink the crazy good coffee. Tam Bee Et. (that’s goodbye, which I just had to look up again and also still spelled wrong.)

8:15 flight to Minneapolis is the first leg of the journey. Already delayed. To add insult to injury, Dayne has discovered he has a stain on his shirt. 19 hours in a plane, pretty sure nobody will care. But he will spend the remainder of the wait time wondering if he should change. No.

We said goodbye to the babies, who, while surely well-cared for by the house sitter, really stress when mommy is gone. And because I’m an empath, I too overly stress about their well-being. I will worry the entire trip.

In other news, my suitcase made the 50lb limit by 5lbs. That, my friends is a success! One must have outfits for every scenario, as well as a minimum of four pairs of shoes. Conversely, Dayne has his flip flops that look like fake grass and a pair of sneakers. He’s already gotten one compliment on the flips at TSA. It eases the sting of the stain on his shirt.

The planning is done. Nine months of planning to be exact. We booked the flights back in February. Asia called, we answered. After the journey we took to Japan two years ago, we wanted more. We decided on Bali, Thailand and Vietnam. Which became Thailand and Vietnam. Bali was just too darn far for this trip. But Vietnam, well that was never on my radar. Or, it was, but not as a place I ever wanted to go. It was synonymous with war. An awful war. But that guy. The one in the photo above. He was our travel spirit animal. He loved Vietnam. More than anywhere. His description was as far from battlefields, bombs, or death, as you could get. What he described was a place so beautiful it brought tears to your eyes. A place so welcoming you never wanted to leave. A place that Dayne badly wanted to visit, and slowly, so did I. As we planned, we grew more excited about what we will see on this adventure. The landscapes are jaw dropping. The prices ridiculously low. The food, well, it’s a lot of noodles. Nobody is hating on that. We both now wish we were going to be in Vietnam longer. Thailand, the once main attraction, is an afterthought. Vietnam is the star of this show, or so we hope. Wheels up tomorrow. Thanks, Tony.

We got married in 2010. In a brewery. We have a shared wanderlust and a life that prioritizes travel. We are fortunate to be able to take one “big” vacation of two weeks, per year. Plus one single week trip. Quiet Aussies…that’s big to us!

We wanted to share our photos, we wanted to share our journeys, we wanted you to see this amazing IPA we are drinking. We needed a blog. For years Dayne has kept a “diary” of our trips, it’s time for us to go prime time!

Why do this?

• To share. Never to boast. We want you to see this!

There have been so many times in our travels where time has stood still and we wanted everyone to experience what we were experiencing. Like the time we sat in a bar in Japan and Coldplay came on. Suddenly a college student across the bar (who didn’t speak english) started singing together with Dayne. Or when a group of men in Bamberg, Germany who had gotten together every year since grade school (they were in the 60’s) for a reunion, invited us to join them for beer, laughter and the occasional language barrier. Prized memories. We want to share them. We want you to see what we see. The world is big, but the small moments are everything.