Days 17-18: Ho Chi Minh City / Fly home

Day 17: End of river cruise. 

After breakfast on the ship, we disembarked at My Tho port and we're bussed to the Sofitel Saigon Plaza.

We decided to stay at the Sofitel instead of moving to a cheaper hotel, since we were only spending one night in Saigon/HCMC.

I'm glad we did, since it was pouring rain when we arrived. Luckily, we were able to get early check in, but in a slightly lesser room. Since it was raining out, we went to the room and napped. 

A few hours later, it seemed like the rain let up, so we left the hotel to go exploring. Nope! Got to the end of the block, saw more rain coming, and made it back to the hotel as the downpour hit. 

So we decided to book massages (although there weren't any openings until early evening).

Around mid-afternoon it was only lightly sprinkling, so we went to the pool area to check out the area from above.

At this point, the rain stopped, so we headed downstairs to go for a walk in the area.

We found a busy restaurant (lots of to-go orders) and stopped for a late lunch/early dinner.

After eating, we walked a bit further before then heading back to the hotel for our massages. 

Steve had a really good massage and extended his, then needed to come back to the room for more money to pay. When I went down for mine, they treated me like a deadbeat/potential criminal and made me pay in advance. My foot/leg massage was just mediocre and disappointing, since it was the most expensive one on the trip.

Night view of the city from our hotel 

Day 18: Fly home.

Today was an early morning. We left the hotel at 4:30 am to arrive at the airport for our 8:00 flight. While it took awhile to get through check-in, immigration, and security, it was quicker than anticipated. We were past all the checks by 6:45.

Leaving Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon airport. 

We had an uneventful flight to Tokyo and enjoyed a beer in the airport 

We then had a 4-hr layover in San Francisco before flying home.

After 26 hours of travel time, we are exhausted!

Summer Roadtrip (13 days): June 12-24, 2025

One of the girls moved to Omaha earlier this year and had stored some of her furniture/boxes at our house. She was ready for her things, so we loaded up the minivan with everything that fit. Since we were making that drive, we decided to use it as a starting point for a 13-state summer road trip. (Map shows approximate route.)

We split the road trip into four sections:

Days 1-3: 

Phoenix to southern Wisconsin, including a stop in Omaha to visit/complete the move then continue to southern WI to pick up my mom.
(AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, NE, IA, WI)

Days 4-6: 

Mini road trip with my mom to Michigan's upper peninsula (counter clockwise loop).

(WI, MI)

Days 7-8: 

Spend time with mom and take a break from driving/sightseeing (WI)

Days 9-11:

Road trip to visit South Dakota attractions.

(WI, IA, MN, SD, WY)

Days 12-13:

Return home, with scenic drive through Colorado and stops in New Mexico.

(WY, CO, NM, AZ)

Summer Roadtrip Day 1: Phoenix to Tucumcari NM

The car's all packed, we are gassing up, and are ready to go.

Getting into the pine trees outside of Payson.

We intended to go directly to Holbrook from Payson but rerouted to Winslow to avoid an accident and construction delays. We saw a brewery advertised in Winslow, so that made the decision easier, since we would be there for lunch 

Unfortunatly, this was only a taphouse and they didn't brew any of their own beers.

Just down the alley from the restaurant, I saw these murals.

Just past Holbrook we stopped at a "trading post" to see the world's largest kachina. It was defunct and missing its face, so we didn't bother with a picture of that. We did get these pictures while in the area:

Around Gallup NM, the car started rattling and shaking, so we pulled over to check the tires. We saw these wild horses in the area by the gas station.

On the way towards Albuquerque, the check tires warning came on, we checked the tires, they looked "ok" and we headed onward. Then it happens about 30 miles later. We added a quick stop at Discount Tire, arriving less than 10 minutes before closing.

Three new tires later, and we were back on the road.

We arrived in Tucumcari around 10 pm, and we were tired, so I didn't take pictures of neon signs in town like I planned to do. Here's a picture of part of our room at the Roadrunner Lodge.

Summer Roadtrip Day 2: Tucumcari NM to Lincoln NE

This morning we got an early start and began our drive to Nebraska

We pulled over to see the Texas Sheriff man near Dalhart TX.

From there, we passed into OK,

where we saw the first of many oil derricks.

We stopped briefly in Hooker OK for a stretch break and to get a few snacks/water, and then we were back on the road. 

Shortly after entering Liberal KS, we had an unexpected traffic stop/delay. 

It felt like the big bear was laughing at us as we patiently waited for the police officer to finish his work.

Our next stop was to visit Dorothy's Oz house.

From there, we drove to Dodge City to see La Salsa man.

He was just down the street from the brewery where we planned to have lunch. The brewery was closed so we had lunch at the Cowboy Capital, in a historic building.

After lunch, we drove to see the world's largest Czech Egg in Wilson KS.

The town also has smaller Czech eggs by various businesses and attractions, and had a selfie mural.

The next stop was to see the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City KS.

We also checked out a few things across the road.

Steve spent a lot of time talking to the owner of the ice cream shop across the road, so we were running slightly behind schedule.

After what was supposed to be a quick stop for dinner in Strang NE (it was not quick), we decided to skip seeing the largest uncovered porch swing and drove to Lincoln NE, to spend the night.

Summer Roadtrip Day 3: Lincoln NE to New Glarus WI

Today was a light sightseeing day. We started the day by driving to Omaha to deliver one of the girls' belongings that she was unable to take with her when she moved earlier in the year. After moving boxes into her apartment, we got a tour of her place, then went to brunch with her. We dropped her off at her place around noon, then headed toward Wisconsin. 

We took a rest stop in Adair IA to see the smiling face water tower.

We then drove pretty much straight through IA until we crossed the Mississippi River into WI.

Once in Wisconsin, we stopped at the Dickeyville Grotto and Shrines.

By the time we got to Platteville, we were hungry, so stopped for dinner before heading to my mom's house. 

A few miles out of town, a big raccoon crossed the road in front of us (we did not hit it).

We arrived at mom's house around 7:30 pm and spent the night.

Summer Roadtrip Day 4: New Glarus WI to Munising MI

This morning we added mom to our adventure and headed to Fond du lac to see the lighthouse.

From there, we drove to Oshkosh to see the lighthouse at Asylum Point. As we pulled up, mom and I started laughing because it was much smaller than anticipated. 

From there we decided to have lunch at a brewery in Green Bay but they were only serving cold club sandwiches for lunch that day (the cook was off for Father's Day) and almost everything else downtown was closed. We found a breakfast place that was open, so had breakfast for lunch. 

From there we headed to Michigan's upper peninsula, stopping to take pictures of the giant crane sculpture

and mosquito sculpture (at Rapid River MI)

While standing in the grass next to the highway, a tick found me (which I later felt crawling on my leg and then threw it out the car window). 

From there we went to kitch-iti-kipi (big spring), which was really cool. We enjoyed taking the hand-cranked raft across the spring and looking through the clear water.

We then visited Manistique, where we took a pictures of Paul Bunyan

And saw a big moose statue.

We also had dinner at Flatiron brewery.

On the drive to the motel near Munising, two deer crossed the road in front of us and we saw several more along the side of the road, along with several cranes.