A day on the town!

Today we ventured out on the town. This morning we checked out the Hanoi Hilton (infamous prison during the Vietnam war.) It was grusome! It was first used towards the end of the 19th century by the French to imprison Vietnamase patriots and revolutionary fighters. Then, during the Vietnam war it was used to imprison American pilots whose aircraft were shot down over Hanoi. It was interesting and bothersom to see the Vietnamese communist take on both of those wars. While showing the discusting torture chambers, they talked about how humanly the American soldiers were treated. They showed pictures of them playing ping-pong and cooking. While we were there we saw Sen. John McCains flight suit and pictures of him during his detainment there. It was a sobering tour but provided an interesting history lesson.

Later in the afternoon we went for a long walk around the lake. We saw, what we think is a Vietnamese soap opera being filmed and a street vending woman took a liking to Dave. She put her rice hat on his head and her load on his shoulder and wanted me to take a picture of them together. We feel like quite the novelty here.

The highlight of our day had to be our dinner. We ate at Bobby Chinns Restaurant. Dave had Filet Mignion and Mashed potatoes. I had grilled Salmon and mashed potatoes. We ordered Sarah some mac and cheese, but no. She like my salmon. So, being the sacrificial mother that I am, I shared my meal with her. For dessert we had hot chocolate lava cake and icecream. Yes, I shared that too. Our daughter is developing quite the palate for good food. The restroom was pretty cool too. (I have never gone to the restroom with a toilet that has rose petals in it. ) Sarah thought that was pretty cool too. (A far cry from some of the other water closets we have encountered here.)