Vietnam

Vietnam. 

The last episode of The Vietnam Documentary by Ken Burns is titled “The Weight of Memory”.  Somehow that seemed to sum up my aversion to learning much about the Vietnam war prior to my feet being on the land. I think like a lot of my generation we knew our parents and grandparents thoughts on it but I really hadn’t had the opportunity to form a solid opinion on it. 

I’m a super nerd about World War II. I kid you not I’ve read more on that topic than any other. One of my favorite books is on the economics of WWII and how money plays such a crucial role in war(Ya I know, I have no idea, I’m weird?) I had largely avoided the Vietnam war. I think I really just didn’t want to know, that somehow, even though no war story truly has a happy ending, this one would be like going to watch a depressing movie, you would leave feeling horrible. 

Let me be the first to say I still don’t know anything. I feel like it’s a topic that covers decades, generations, and is so vast a subject I would likely never be able to figure it all out. The last words from the Embassy in Saigon before it fell were from a CIA officer and they struck me as profound, he said:

"This will be final message from Saigon station.

"It has been a long and hard fight, and we have lost. This experience, unique in the history of the United States, does not signal necessarily the demise of the United States as a world power.”

"Those who fail to learn from history are forced to repeat it. Let us hope that we will not have another Vietnam experience and that we have learned our lesson."

As it’s my favorite quote to hammer into my children about history, I was slightly embarrassed for the necessary reminder for my own edification. 

I have huge respect for anyone who serves our country. I have long felt as if I came from a military family. I have expected to hang flags from my house on the 4th of July, and marveled at the silent legacy having two grandfathers who served in WWII left me. More than that I had an experience when we went to Normandy France to the the US cemetery there. I remember standing at the grave stone of a 17 year old, thinking how sad that there was likely no one who remembered him anymore as clearly he had no time to have a family or children, I then looked to the soldier buried to him, a 19 year old. Next to him a 21 year old, another 19 year old, 18,18 and so on. They were so young and they gave everything before they’d even had a chance to really live much. I felt profoundly sad and grateful at the same time. Most everything good or blessed I have in my life I owe in some part to these young people. 

I learned a lot in the last few days about the Vietnam war. Clearly Vietnam has their own take on the war. Our visit to the War Remnant Museum formerly known as the “Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes” (Clearly they were looking for a larger audience and softened the name.) It is a 4 story museum. The section I liked best was devoted to photography from the war. It had both the photos and writings of the war photographers, many of whom died there. Some of the photos I’d seen others I had not. Some were graphic and it was questionable I think if it was something for kids but I felt like it was good to see, even if it was not really possible to understand. However, the kids favorite part was the gun display. Taking turns naming off weapons they could identify;/

The photo I thought was most profound was the one that met you when you opened the doors. A picture of a GI giving mouth to mouth to his fellow soldier in a desperate attempt to save him while soldiers crouches on the ground nearby.  

The capitalist 

 

Photo from War Remnants Meuseum Vietnam 

My stern attempts to get the kids to be reverent in this somber place was failing and subsequently they spent a great deal of time there in the atrium annoying each other for entertainment. Eventually we wondered around the American military machines left behind which held more interest for them.  

It was clear there was an underlying very one sided take on the war. It left out a lot of actual history, China’s role, the government in South Vietnam, etc.  But still I felt presented some interesting displays, if anything seeing the other sides view of history can be the most informative. 

The next day we opted to go to the Mekong Delta which is about a 2 hour drive away. Our driver “Long” (this would be important because when he leaned over to ask the bus driver his name he laughed, composed himself for a moment, and then let us know that the drivers name as Gu, but in English we as Ga which apparently means penis...., it’s stupid humor but I laughed a lot over that). Anyhow after the driver met us we impatiently  waited for Todd...who’s always late, to show. “Your husband?” He asked about 5 times. Finally Todd showed up. I’d fill him in on our driver and guides names, and then laugh some more like an immature 12 year old. We drive to the jungle stoping on the way to see where they make bricks and candy. We enjoyed our time ate some crazy fried fish, rode bikes, and paddled up a river. 

To say it’s a jungle is an understatement. I was rather amazed we weren’t eaten alive by mosquitos.  

The kids loved the hotel here...it had free food so they were basically always in the lobby eating food. 

I left Vietnam profoundly grateful we’d gone there. Not just for having seen the beautiful country it is, or meetings its charming people, but for having confronted a piece of our past and done what in my mind was the main take away from our visit here which is that I am lucky. I watched my two sons walk past an old US  helicopter smiling and comparing their video game knowledge of it knowing full well that had they come to this earth 50 years sooner they could be walking past it under entirely different circumstances. Vietnam and the US will forever be linked by those events, but I was impressed with how far we’ve come in just one generation. 

Melbourne.

Having grown up in a tiny town I can remember being a kid and thinking I would never want to live in a big city, or tall building. Also I’m a pretty decent claustrophobic so elevators have never been something I enjoy. But even with all that I’m a closet city girl. So “home” for us is another sky scraper. It’s a new building with modern apartments and floor to ceiling windows with views onto Melbourne. Staying in apartments helps give us more of a sense of home. We can cook and be together easier there. Our apartment also came with two pools, one of which was located on the 67th floor of the building with an infinity edge that looked over the city. It also had a pool table, sauna, even a virtual golf driving range which we never found. Melbourne to me looks like a warm Chicago.

There is a lazy river running through its central business district flanked by restaurants and shops.

Bridges cross it and teams of crew row up and down.

We happened by chance really to be here the final week of the Australian Open. It would prove to be super advantageous as I’ve never seen a pro tennis match and we would end up getting tickets to the women’s semi finals. The tickets were expensive and that along with the fact I know you have to be quiet during the match itself made me less willing to drag the kids along. We bought the cheapest seats we could. I didn’t realize it would literally be in the last row but it turned out at least it was a good section.

We could walk to the matches so once we got there I walked up to the information booth and basically told the girl there I had no idea what we were doing. She kindly showed us what we should go see. One thing she suggested was that John McEnroe was playing in a masters match. We then grabbed some food and shade. After finding our seats we noticed they showed who I recognized as Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban on the TelePrompTer. I was thinking they had to be in the front row so I skimmed the backs of heads before finding a perfectly shaped blonde head of hair right below us, ok like 30 rows down but still. We had the perfect position to see when they came and went and could head them off. Not that the highlight for me was seeing them, or Anna Wintour who was sitting next to them, but it definitely made it more interesting. Tennis is actually super fun to watch. I always thought it looked stupid but it was pretty interesting.

It was fun to participate it what clearly is a big event with Australia and Melbourne. We walked home. The next day was(again didn’t plan for this either) Australia Day. Basically their Independence Day. They had a huge parade and again that happened to be down the street so we wandered down to watch it. Afterwards we followed the masses of people and walked over to a park where they had further festivities and food. It felt very much like 4th of Julyish with families hanging out, we grabbed some grass and food and enjoyed the air show and festivities.

A city you can run in. Melbourne is a great running city. Put a river in almost any city and you’ll have a running path. Run we did. Up and down the river. It was nice just to be outside. Teams of crew practice and team members on bikes with megaphones shout commands at them as they row.

We watched the women’s final on TV, Todd and I now vested fans as we had seen the semi finalists play. The next day, Austin who was actually more of a tennis fan to start with wanted to go watch the men’s final. As there was no way we were getting tickets(we’re not that big of fans yet....maybe next year). So we went to one of the places in town they have set up for viewing the match. The plaza was packed. People sitting on the ground cheering along as the match progressed. It was a fun night to watch the sun set over Australia and the match.

Australia 🇦🇺

Coral reefs, golf carts, and the wrong side of the road.

We had known when we decided to go to Australia that we had to see the coral reef. There are a few ways to get there. Most people go to Carins which is a large city, I wanted to do something more exotic...cuz you know I don’t like doing things the easy way. So I just googled some stuff like “Taylor Swift Australia” (that’s for Sierra) and found the Sunday’s Islands? Then there was this place called Hamilton Island there, then we realized there were only a few rentals left (and the main resort there doesn’t allow kids :/) so we opted to haggle with a huge fancy house that literally had a pool in the middle of it. We got the best last minute deal ever. This house was completely out of our budget but I managed to “negotiate”(possibly annoy) this guy into getting it down into our budget. It was totally awesome. Plus it came with a golf cart(normally there’s 2 but I conceded we could make do with one-cuz there’s no cars on the island.) So suffice it to say a combination of kids being scared of box jellyfish and a magazine worthy house and pool meant we stayed at the house a lot. It helped that it was basically a live zoo which we realized when the kids exclaimed that there was a kangaroo in the backyard. “Whatever? It’s probably a dog.” I replied until I walked into the yard to realize “Holy crap, it’s a kangaroo!” I was remembering Austin sharing his research on the top deadliest animals, (apparently kangaroos make that list) as this guy just sort of looked at me like “what was I doing in HIS backyard” I left the way I came. The next zoo moment was when I got out of the shower, stepped out to take in the epic view we had to discover a pair of cockatoo who were sitting on the deck as if waiting for me to come out. Hello! The “don’t feed the birds” sign now made sense. Then one night while eating burgers we’d bbqed something huge was clearly thrashing in the tree by the deck. We’d assumed it was one of the thousands of huge(think 12+inches) fox or fruit bats we’d see every night darkening the sky. I was proud of the fact that although clearly it was the mission of whatever creature it was to get onto the deck none of us even moved but rather continued our dinner waiting to see what it was. Finally arriving was what some google research let me know was a black possum. He landed on the deck, looked around and climbed back into the darkness...we all went on eating.

 

We did leave for groceries at the one market on the island, and ice cream, but if it hadn’t been for the fact you got to the beach via your own golf cart I find it hard to believe we would have left at all.

Wonder of the world. I remember planning to go to see the Grand Canyon and feeling like meh I’ve seen it in pictures....until I stepped out of the car and walked to the edge.

The reef was like that. Every couple minutes its appearance changes. The colors lighten and deepen with the sun and depth of the waves. The water current was extremely strong. When we got there. We all donned stinger suits and the normal snorkel gear. Todd and I can scuba dive but a combination of forgetting contacts and having 4 kids we couldn’t really leave/trust with a world treasure made us decide we’d all snorkel.

Getting in the water you instantly realized why they have rope lines set up....the current will literally drag you off in moments. It was rough at first but then we began to see the wonder 
beneath us. Big fish, small fish, every color of coral you can imagine and sea anemones the size of a large pizza. The edge of the reef to me was the most spectacular part. Years and years of giant pieces of coral trying to outgrow the one below them creates this wall that disappears into the depths with beautiful shelves and arching coral. We drank a lot of sea water trying to manage the waves and tide, eventually going back to regroup.

There was a large permanent “pontoon” that this company has anchored near the reef so there was room to spread out and hang. A crew member on the boat told me it was about to be low tide. He said the current would be less then. So we headed back. There were far fewer people in the water and it was even more impressive than before. Jackson, who’d bailed on the first swim, was coaxed back out by Austin. The two of them eventually exploring together until it was time to go.

We went running on the island though it was....an island, and a hill-covered one at that so not terribly satisfying but it counted as running. I let Austin practice his driving with the golf cart. Also on the wrong side of the road so it was interesting, I think I had to remind him less about staying on the right side of the road here.

We’d basically be island people for a week until we were forced to leave. We had a wonderful time.

Bryan Hawkesworth, owner

The  

7115 E Mercer Lane

Scottsdale, AZ 

602-565-382

www.thedrummersden.co