Today, our second day in Hanoi, we walked for miles! For some reason, I am fascinated by the utility lines- an exposed  bramble of wire that lines street after street--with a variety of signage, products and services- very narrow shops/homes that seem to retreat forever. Apparently there was a time when property taxes were calculated using the width (not the length) of store frontage, which explains the narrow frontage. We walked by Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum ( Eric took this picture for you, Dad), the one pole pagoda (pagoda's everywhere-like churches in the US), the botanical gardens, the presidential palace, etc. Halfway home it started to pour and a guard invited us into his little shelter house to wait out the rain. We haven't been food shopping yet (we are clueless about food shopping-another thing to discover later this week). The next 3 days we will be at a Fulbright orientation. Another good day.