Fall in Flagstaff

We drove to Flagstaff to see the fall leaves today. There were also two breweries/taprooms in Flagstaff on our Pubpass that were hadn't used yet. Both were dog friendly, so our dog got to come with us. Our first stop was Grand Canyon Brewing for a drink and lunch. The prickly pear beer was quite tasty.

After lunch, we drove the road to Arizona Snowball, 

and admired the aspens along the drive.

We parked in the lot for the Aspen Nature Loop trail. Parking is much easier on a Tuesday than a weekend!

This is a 1.8 mile, fairly flat, easy to walk trail, which is more of a lollipop than true loop. The only thing that makes it slightly challenging is the high elevation (9271 ft / 2825 m).

You start by walking towards the aspens near the base of the ski lifts, with the San Francisco peaks in view.

Once we reached the loop, we decided to go counter clockwise, and soon saw Sasquatch.

As we continued down the trail, we entered the aspen grove. A lot of these trees had already dropped their leaves.

After exiting that grove, we entered a prairie zone. The big white cloud in the top right section of the picture is smoke from a wild fire southwest of Flagstaff.

This gave us a great view of the valley below.

We then headed to another aspen grove.

Many of the trees here still had their leaves.

From here, it was a short walk back to the stick of the lollipop and back to the parking lot.

On the drive back down to town, we saw three elk (no pictures), then headed to Hops on Birch to use our other PubPass (the tart cherry cider was delicious).

Apache Trail drive to Tortilla Flats AZ

We took advantage of a break in the rain to drive the Apache Trail to Tortilla Flats this afternoon. 

We drove through a few giant puddles,

 saw Canyon Lake 

and even saw a few waterfalls! 

The road was closed after Tortilla Flats due to flooding 

(so was the saloon/restaurant). 

So we had an ice cream 

and turned back towards home.

Vietnam and Cambodia (September 6-22, 2025)

We decided to book a Mekong River Cruise from Siem Reap Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Because it was a long way to travel, we added a week of travel/sightseeing before the cruise started.

Here is our itinerary:

• Days 1-2: Fly from Phoenix to San Francisco, then connect in Tokyo, before flying to Hanoi.
• Day 3: Recover from jet lag and sightsee in Hanoi.
• Day 4: Book a day trip to Ninh Binh
• Days 5-7: Take a 2n/3d Halong Bay/Lan Ha Bay Cruise
• Day 8: Spend morning in Hanoi before flying to Siem Reap, Cambodia in the afternoon.
• Day 9: Visit Angkor Wat

• Day 10: Begin 7-night AmaWaterways Riches of the Mekong Cruise - Depart from Kampong Cham (about a 5 hour drive from Siem Reap).
• Day 11: Morning-visit Angkor Ban, and Afternoon- visit Oknha Tey Village (Silk Island) and local school
• Day 12: Phnom Penh - Morning- vist Royal Palace and Central Market  Afternoon- Visit S21 Detention Center and Killing Fields 
• Day 13: Phnom Penh - Visit Oudong Buddist Monastery
• Day 14: Relax on the river cruise and cross into Vietnam
• Day 15: Morning- Visit Tra Su Forest and Sanctuary
• Day 16: Morning- Visit Sa Dec local market and Lover'sHouse. Afternoon- visit Cai Be candy and rice paper workshop 
• Day 17: End of river cruise. Get transported to Ho Chi Minh City and spend day sightseeing
• Day 18: Fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo, then connect in San Francisco before flying home to Phoenix.

Days 1-3: Travel and Hanoi

Days 1-2: Travel

We had an early flight to SFO, then killed about 4 hours in a lounge, before boarding our flight to NRT. I'm glad we splurged on premium economy! The flight was comfortable except the person in the row in front of us had cabbage farts the entire flight!

Our last flight from NRT to HAN was brutal, even with extra legroom seats. It was cramped and we were tired. We landed a little after 10 pm and quickly cleared immigration and customs. We arrived at our hotel just before midnight.

Day 3: Hanoi

After a nice breakfast at the Tirant Hotel in Hanoi

we decided to see city highlights using the Hanoi Hop On Hop Off bus.

The first place we hopped off was at stop 5  - Quan Thanh Temple.

After visiting the temple, we stopped at a cafe for a coconut coffee, egg coffee, and fresh coconut.

We preferred the coconut coffee over the egg coffee.

After getting back on the bus, we hopped off at Stop 8, the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.

This stop also gave us access to the flag tower of Hanoi (stop 3). 

We stopped at another cafe for an iced coffee and cold water before getting back on the bus.

We then hopped off at stop 10, the Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton).

At this point, we were hot and tired, so returned to our starting point next to Hoàn Kiếm Lake.

After a shower and nap, we each got a 1-hr foot and leg massage at Lua Spa, which was across the street from our hotel 

Then we walked to beer street and had a beer (my strawberry beer was tasty) then found a restaurant for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, showered, and were asleep by 8 pm. I blame jet lag, and not being old!

Day 4: Ninh Binh

Day 4:

We had a fun day trip to Ninh Binh today with Hanoi Backstreet Tours.

Once we arrived in Ninh Binh, we visited the Hoa Lu Ancient Capital

and learned more about Vietnamese culture, history and traditional architecture. 

We then headed to Mua cave area. This area had caves to explore, lotus flower fields

waterfalls,

and a 500 step climb that overlooks the Tam Coc valley and Ngo Dong river. 

I started the climb but bailed early on. I chose to explore the lotus fields and waterfalls on the ground while Steve climbed to the top). 

Now that we were hot and sweaty, we headed to Tam Coc and boarded a foot-rowed boat.

The ride lasted 1.5 hours and passed through caves 

rice paddies,  and the surrounding limestone karsts.

After my very ungraceful exit from the boat, we enjoyed a huge lunch at a local restaurant that included these dishes: spring rolls, chicken, fish, goat, tofu, stir fried cabbage, and fruit.

During lunch, a thunderstorm arrived and it began pouring rain right before we started the jeep tour of the countryside, so very few pictures were taken during this part of the tour.

Steve was in his element when they let him drive and look under the hood.

Following the jeep tour, we headed back to Hanoi. We were pretty tired and weren't really hungry, so we had a cocktail and appetizer at our hotel before going to bed for the night