On The Road

Paul Wtenberg:

Spent an hour at the Lakeland rally this past Saturday – I had to go check on my mom later that day – and here are a few photos from the rally.

I haven’t kept up with the news today and yesterday because I’ve been busy catching up on work for a client.  Help me out and let me know what’s been happening?  Good and bad, please. :-) ~WG

Open thread!

PaulWartenberg – Hands Off! – Lakeland FL (Open Thread)Post + Comments (73)

Auntie Anne

Hạ Long Bay or Halong Bay  is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name Hạ Long means “descending dragon”. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and islets in various shapes and sizes.

And it looks like nothing and nowhere I’ve ever seen before.  The day we arrived was cloudy, and the bay looked almost otherworldly in the light.  It is indescribably beautiful and mysterious.

We actually participated on an overnight cruise on Halong Bay. The cruise, well, my travel buddy says she’s never been on a cruise that packed so much in 22 hours:  three full meals, a trip to a beach on one of the islands, Happy Hour, a cooking demonstration in which we learned to make spring rolls, squid fishing after dinner, tai chi, and an outing to a cave.  It was lovely, and busy!

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Howdy,

Haven’t seen any from C. S. A. R. Or M. M. yet, so here’s a ground level shot of the crowd at the West side of the State capitol in Denver. Not the best view, so please ignore if you get better ones.

Great turnout compared to the two previous I attended. As others have noted, predominantly white and older(ish), but other demographics mixed in.

Comrade Scott calls me Steve the ultimate Lurker. (Still only lurking. Don’t want to break my record)

Comrade Scott calls me the ultimate lurker – Hands Off! – DenverPost + Comments (89)

More than a thousand people in Longmont. A MAGA rolled coal on the protesters . When he came back and did the same on the other side of the street, the police pulled him over immediately. A $100 ticket. Huge cheers from the crowd.

And since his truck carried the logo of his tattoo parlor in town, he is collecting one-star reviews.

Burrowing Owl – Hands Off! – Longmont, CO (Open Thread)Post + Comments (96)

This week we have a 5-part Auntie Anne series from Vietnam.

Albatrossity returns next Monday, as usual!

Auntie Anne

The last country we visited was Vietnam, and in particular, northern Vietnam (Hanoi and a village in the Red River Delta).

On an autobiographical note, I was born in 1961, so the Vietnam War was a background thread through my early childhood.  My parents did not expose us to much that was going on; in my childish eyes, Hanoi was definitely A Bad Place, Ho Chi Minh was somehow vaguely evil, and North Vietnam was An Enemy.  As an adult, I know better, but I think I expected Hanoi to be a colorless, drab place; it is actually a vibrant city and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.

And we asked our tour guide, Cong (age 30), what his father and grandfather thought of Americans and what happened during the Vietnam War.  His grandfather fought and died for the NVA. His father told him that Americans were led astray by their leaders – he knew, as did most north Vietnamese, that many Americans protested against the war.  He summed it up by saying, “I forgive, but cannot forget.”

The pictures in this post are taken from our trip to the countryside to Halong Bay, and within Hanoi itself.

 

 

On The Road – Auntie Anne – Southeast Asia – Country and City Scenes – Vietnam 1 of 5Post + Comments (6)