For our last day by ourselves in Ho Chi Minh City, we had a relatively low-key day. We walked through Japan Town in the morning and met a cousin’s friend for lunch. In the evening, we met the other people who would be with our tour group and all went out to dinner.

We dodged the rain (mostly successfully) to walk through the Reunification Palace and went to the Saigon Central Post Office to buy and send a few postcards.

For our first full day in Ho Chi Minh City, we got an overview of the city, dodged rain (sometimes heavy), went to the Fine Arts Museum, and took a food tour for dinner.

A lot has been happening over the past few months. We said goodbye to my dad, celebrated Tynor and Mallory getting married, started adjusting to me being a new retiree, and did a quick road trip with Melody’s sister Celeste to Yakima and Spokane. Mere hours after Celeste left for the airport to return to New York, we were there ourselves beginning a trip to Vietnam that would last for over three weeks.