Category Travel
Hanoi – Food tour!
What happens when you hire a food guide and tell him that the only thing off the table is dog? YOU EAT WORMS!!! And frogs, and eel, and fermented pork, and a whole bunch of other delicious things we never would have found on our own — or if we had found it, never would […]
Hanoi – Streets of the Old Quarter
Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and has been continuously settled for more than a thousand years. Like any ancient city, it has its “old town” with its warrens of narrow, maze-like streets and bustling commercial activity. I was struck by how alive and, surprisingly, pretty the old city was. I loved the energy and […]
Hanoi – What we ate
In the past few weeks, as I’ve told people that I would be traveling to Vietnam, people asked me what I was going to do. My response? Eat food. Yeah, sure, there’s nature and Uncle Ho and some other stuff (like super-chaotic traffic — more on that later) but oh, the food! Each region in Vietnam is known […]
Vietnam – Getting there
Holy cow, 25 hours of travel is SUCH a long time! But I got where I needed to go (Hanoi!) with minimal hassle and stress (turns out the Koreans do air travel really well), and all those hours of travel did provide plenty of opportunities for amusement. For example, this: My friend Peggy has decided that this […]
Vietnam – It’s starting!
Okay folks, another round of international galavanting starts now! I’m off to Vietnam and Cambodia for 18 days of food, motorbikes, and other adventures. I’m flying Korean Air non-stop from Dulles to Seoul, where I’ll rendez-vous with Vanessa before continuing on to Hanoi. It’ll be my first time in Asia, and I can hardly wait […]
All packed up and ready to go!
Holy cow, it’s the last weekend before a major international vacation — I leave on Thursday for Vietnam! As you might expect, I devoted this weekend entirely to travel preparations. I made many lists: a packing list (in the form of a spreadsheet with items sorted into six columns and categories), a shopping list, a list […]
Desert wedding — El Paso and Las Cruces
I can honestly say that I never thought I’d go to El Paso, Texas. Especially not for a wedding. Double especially not for a Jewish wedding. But I did! And it was wonderful and fun. I went for the bride, Kristin, who is one of my good friends from law school. She’s originally from […]
One step closer
Look what came in the mail today! I can now legally enter Vietnam. Unfortunately things aren’t going so smoothly in Chicago. I heard from Vanessa today that the US Postal Service lost her visa, despite it’s having been sent via certified mail. We still have a month before we leave, so there should be plenty of […]
Home again
The Chicago trip ended this morning. Everyone met for one last breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then packed off into waiting black cars that would take us to our various airports — the Colorado folks flew out of Midway; the rest of us out of O’Hare. Turned out that Will and Susan (Amanda’s parents) were […]
Chicago – Stars! (both the Michelin and the Broadway kind)
There are only three cities in the US that have been graced with a Michelin guide. Chicago is one of them. Naturally, this means that Saturday night found Amanda and me seated in the swanky downtown dining room — complete with snowy tablecloths and witch-hazel stick arrangements — of the Michelin-starred and James Beard award-winning restaurant NAHA. We had […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 