Weekend Wanderings

Early morning moon in the rice paddy

After an active week at school and a somewhat lame lantern making excursion on Friday (where the bike tour leader showed up without a bike, proceeded to hitch a ride on one of ours, and then dragged us a couple of miles through traffic to a closed storefront before determining that he was in the wrong spot), a weekend of spontaneity and relaxation was just what the doctor ordered.
We began by renting motorbikes from our friend Ha for a quick trip to Danang. Don't get me wrong...there is NOTHING relaxing about me on a motor bike...still.  But the call of fresh baked cookies was too hard to resist, so we needed to purchase butter and chocolate.  An added bonus was a trip to the central market in Danang where we stocked up on smoked cashews, banana candy and spicy beef and deer jerky.  Did I mention that this country is all about the food? 

We made it back to Hoi An without an accident (although my entrance to Ha's alley was less than graceful as I accelerated over the curb and nearly took out her husband).  We retrieved Coconut from the house and headed for the beach for a few hours with Nolan and Brianna while Foster headed back to Danang for a bowling party (which he reports was "just like" bowling in the United States except that the electronic scoring is messed up, and the pin clearing machine comes down at random times and clears away your pins mid-turn).  You would think that our kids had grown up in California to watch them in the surf.  The rainy season waves are pretty big, but they just throw themselves into the foam with abandon and roll with the crashes.  I, on the other had, just kicked back with my cashews and a Coke and took it all in.


      

Sunday morning, with only two kids in tow, we set out for croissants and coffee in the Ancient City.  Then we decided to head south on the river for a little bike ride, and we ended up in a pottery village.  The local artisans were more than happy to welcome us, to let us use their wheels and to sell us their wares.  While a little girl kicked the pottery wheel with her foot, Brianna, Nolan and John tested their pot making skills.

    

After all of our hard work at the pottery wheel, we stopped to cool off in the shade next to the river before biking home to pick up Foster to go for a swim.  The rainy season continues to be relatively dry and hot, and we are NOT complaining.  A weekend of sunshine, swimming, good food and peanut butter cookies...Life is Good.

That's my boy!

That's NOT my boy!
Brianna has a little fun making John into a business
card holder while he sleeps at the pool.

Early morning ride in the hood (gotta love puppies)