Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay... a world famous landmark of Vietnam. Is is a bay full of over 3,000 small islands - massive rock formations that just jet out of the water. Beautiful. To come all this way around the world, and only be three hours (well, only 90 miles, but with slow traffic and bumpy roads I would have lost three days worth of meals if we'd made it if traveled @ 60 miles/hour)... well, we just had to go. Kim didn't think that taking a 18month old on a two day trip, sleeping on a boat, skipping all his naps, etc. was a good idea - I married a wise woman - because it was no place for a little one. SO kayla and her daddy [me] became world travelers:) Actually, if you read our FOODS WE'VE EATEN entry about 4 entries before, you'll see that Kayla was the bravest of us all! (Go ahead, read and see the FOODS WE'VE EATEN and ask yourself, "could I have eaten that?!")

Pics just can't capture the beauty... even if I were a world famous photographer. I do have some video but not sure if blogger (or my computer) can handle that big of a file. In the meantime, here's our fist pic... kayla was actually the artist and is the best pic during the entire trip. She and I were on the kayacking leg of our adventure - in a two man kayack and we decided to go the opposite direction of everyone else... and glad we did, got an awesome view.

This pic was captured in the morning of day #2. It was foggy both days... actually this time of year isn't the best because of the haze... but we were complaining.
Kayla and me:) We had some great bonding time together!

The only bummer of the trip was that we weren't the only ones who wanted to see the sights... all the boats were loaded with us good old tourists. There was actually a group of three German guys going on a three day trip. Once you get past the two day/one night tour, you are more free from the mass of tourists. But again, we weren't going to complain about being in one of the most beautiful places on planet earth.

One part of our trip included SWIMMING... yes it LOOKS like good weather for that... but the air temp. was high 60's in the day and the 50's at night... so can you imagine what the water temp was? Kayla was SOLD on swimming in the Pacific Ocean/South China Sea... "I've never swam in an Ocean before." (I tried to talk her out of it; "Its just like swimming in a pond back in Ohio...in the middle of MARCH" - I could have used the "O, I thought I saw a SHARK!" excuse, but all you moms would have pummelled me when I got back to America-- plus I always regretted seeing JAWS when young, being scarred for life...and didn't want even a hint of that for her) Well, how cold was the water... Cold enough that after 60 seconds in the water, I couldn't feel an inch of my skin anywhere on my body... completely numb. No lie... it took a 15-minute HOT shower, plus an hour on the top deck (sun bathing deck) with 4 layers of clothes on to finally warm me up. A DADDY'S LOVE FOR HIS DAUGHTER:) And it was worth it all... to be with Kayla and be reminded of God's Grand Creativity via Ha Long Bay.