Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam

So in my last blog post, I was on my way to a place called Ha Long Bay which is a famous bay in Viet Nam because it is made up of about 2,000 of the islands that are shown in the picture.  

It started with a three hour bus ride and then about a forty-five minute boat ride that ended when we came to this cave.  It was made up of three different caverns that started with small and slowly progressed to the largest one.  The largest one could easily have held close to a thousand people and then some.  There were lights that illuminated the cavern so it made it a lot easier to see in the dim light that filtered through the crack at the front of the cave.

There were many rock sculptures like the ones that you can see at the 

Glenwood Caverns except that these looked like Buddha and they even had one that looked like a bear.

More islands.

After we went to the cave we went back to the boat and got to go kayaking around part of the bay.

We then returned to the boat and got to jump off of it and into freezing cold water.  It was fun except for the time I stupidly extended my arms right before I hit the water and smacked my arms bellyflop style into the water.  It hurt, to say the least.

Even more islands.  But they're cool, aren't they?

The next day we went to an island called Monkey Island where, surprise, they had monkeys.  One of the guys from our boat gave a monkey a beer and the monkey started drinking it and I actually think that the little guy was enjoying it.

After toying with the monkeys, we went on a death hike where you had to climb rickety ladders made of bamboo and semi-sharp rocks where falling would mean death.  My dad insisted he take a picture of me when I got to the top although all I wanted was to get down before I caused serious injury to myself.

After Monkey Island we spent a night on Cat Ba Island.  The resort part of the island is situated about fifteen minutes from where the boat drops you off.  The drive there looks like where King Kong lives and I personally think that it would be a good place to go to escape the zombies.  Lots of lumber to build fortresses and way out in the middle of a jungle they would be hard pressed to get to you.  Although if what my dad says is true, and zombies can get pretty much anywhere, the only safe place would be the moon.  Sorry Newt Gingrich, but it looks like all us kids will be safe from watching and learning from all those horror movies we've seen where as you'll be one of the first to lose your brains!

The reason I haven't updated the blog in so long is because of the hotel we had in Bangkok-----  NO AARON!------  didn't have a signal in the room and outside the room, the place wasn't air conditioned and the temperature was so beastly hot I thought we were going to melt.  So in the nice air-conditioned apartment we are staying in in Hong Kong I am finally catching up on all those blog posts.  Please email, comment and text me!   email:   gvemeraldwolfe@gmail.com

Hey guys, So I am not going to be available for the next six days so if you try to contact me I probably won't respond. Today we did a bit more walking around and went to the Ho chi Minh museum which is about the guy who overthrew the French in Viet Nam. We visited the site where a B52 bomber was shot down by the viatnamese. It's kind of rubbing it in our face like haha we shot down your plane! It's a sobering feeling. Not that I was drunk in the first place... Get it? Because I said so sobering, but I'm.... Never mind. How goes every thing? Email and text me please! Talk to you later!

The end of Japan and the beginning of Viet Nam So the day after we went to that place called Edo we explored these old Japanese temples that were up in the hills of Nikko. That was really cool except for the fact that it was raining and I had a horrible headache. The temples were amazing and beautiful. On one of the temples were three monkeys that are holding their hands over their mouths eyes and ears. You know, hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil. That is were it came from on a big temple in the remote hills of a Japanese village were when you are walking around in the hills you feel like Hannibal Lector is going to jump out and harvest your organs. Ain't that just dandy? After we visited the temples we went back to Tokyo for two days and just explored. There is a giant space needle there and a big huge flame except it's on it's side so how are we supposed to know it's a flame???? Who puts a flame sideways? It kid of looked like something else and Franklin I bet you'll get a kick out of it if you look it up. Also the last Sunday we were their, there was a small earthquake. Nothing to get exited about, it just rocked our hotel back and forth woke us up and scared the s*** out of us. It's all good though, nobody got hurt but it was pretty scary. After exploring Tokyo for two days we got on a plane and flew to Bangkok where we transferred to a flight to Hanoi Viet Nam. Sorry to get your hopes up Aaron. We got off the plane last night and took a taxi straight to our airport which would have been fine if we hadn't almost died at least four times. Our taxi driver had one phone in each hand and was texting and talking on them all while driving and trying to avoid the thousands of motorbikes that were swarming around us with no care if they cut right in front of us and almost hit innocent pedestrians. It was scary as crap and today was no different. Just trying to cross the street is taking your life in your hands. Hundreds of motorbikes and cars come rushing past without even bothering to stop to let you walk across the street. And even when there are stoplights some motor bikes stop and then start going again without even waiting for the light to change. It's freakin' pandemonium and yet it's completely normal for these people. It's five fifteen now and at six we are meeting a friend of one of our friends for dinner. Please comment, text me email me. My email is gvemeraldwolfe@gmail.com. Have fun in school and I'll see you all soon.

Japan

Hi guys!

So the last time I was at school was a Thursday, right before the Hunger Games came out.  I was there for the weekend and then drove down to Denver on Monday, spent the night at a hotel and flew to Seattle where we had a three hour layover and then flew on a ten hour flight to Narita which is an outskirt of Tokyo.  That was two days ago.  We were tired as crap and I fell asleep at the dinner table.  It sucked.  We spent one night at a hotel there in Narita then took a three hour train ride to a town called Nikko where we had to bring our suitcases up six flights of stairs because apparently they haven't heard of escalators.  We ate kidney on a kabob for lunch and it was absolutely horrible, never try it.  Its very disorienting to know that while I'm writing this in the daytime in Nikko, you guys are asleep.  And when you guys are at school, I'm asleep.  Its quite weird.
So, how is everything?  What's new?  Text me on this number: 1 (970) 368-3820 because my phone is turned off and in our car at the Denver International Airport, and this is how you can contact me.   For those of you who are reading the blog tell the people who are not reading it, my number so that they can contact me.  And no Aaron I have not yet lost my virginity to a woman with man parts.  I have not even been to Bangkok yet.  Sorry to disappoint you.
Today we went to this place called Edo which is a replica town of a real town that existed hundreds of years ago.  It is basically a renaissance festival for ninjas and samurai which is pretty cool, right?  Wrong.  Sure it was cool and all, but the website is deceiving and it could have been a heck of a lot better if I had designed it.  Just kidding, but you know its probably true.  Where it was located up in the hills was beautiful, don't get me wrong its just that the attractions could have been better.  I had high expectations and it disappointed me.  But I have been having a good time and that is all that matters.
Hope you guys are ok and are doing all right!  Please comment and text me.  Text me yes if you want to receive a text every time I update the blog and no if you don't! Thanks see you soon!

Hello again

Well when I wrote the last post it was actually Thanksgiving day but I forgot to post it so it was probably kind of weird reading it and it not being the right day... Sorry about that.  So now I am at my grandma's house in Sarasota Florida writing this blog that will tell you guys everything that happened after we left my grandpa's house.
So two days after Thanksgiving we left and went to Universal Orlando Florida...  That was really cool.  The reason we went was beacause it was basically a late birthday present.  After that we went to Legoland Florida but I'll tell more about that in a minute.  There are two parks in Universal, one is called Islands of Adventure which has Harry Potter World (which is awesome the butterbeers are great), this ancient greek and roman part, an old cartoon park that has awesome water rides, Jurassic Park which is awesome, Docter Suess land and a super hero part. 

The other part of the park, which is just called Universal Studios has a Terminator ride, a Revenge of the Mummy indoor rollar coaster which is so cool, a Jaws ride, a Men in Black ride, a Simpsons ride, a ride that shows how they made this movie called Twister which is about a tornado, a Shrek 4d ride and an insane rollar coaster that I wanted to go on but would have barfed and peed myself at the same time if I had.  There was also a street that was supposed to look like old Hollywood that was pretty cool.

After we did both those parks we went to Legoland Florida which was pretty cool.  I am always amazed at what you can make out of legos.  They had this part of the park called miniland that had all these different cities made out of legos and that was really cool.  It had four roller coasters and I went on all of them because they were pretty mellow but not boring.  I didn't throw up on any of them but my dad is a wuss and said that he was peeing and all that nasty stuff...  It was pretty funny to watch and hear him whine and for those of you who know my dad well you can probably imagine what he sounded like.

Doing all these parks took three days one for each of the parks.  After Legoland, because we did the Universal parks first, we drove to my grandma's house and went out and had dinner with her.  Yesterday we went to the beach and then went to dinner with all of her friends at a resturant called Trader Vick's.  And that brings me to where I am now, sitting on the couch writing this blog wondering what we will do today.  I think we might go to a boat parade but I'm not sure.  Well that brings us to the end of that blog...  See you guys in a couple of weeks.

P.S.  For those of you who like Lego's, there are new Ninjago lego sets and they are making dinosaur lego set which are really cool.

P.S.S.  Please comment I love to hear from you guys.  Ok bye.

Everything else up until now... Brace yourself

Hopefully this will be the last post that is catching you guys up until now and then everything afterwards will be current events. So after we left the Outer Banks, we drove to St. Augistine, Florida and went to a fort that the Spanish established in the 1500s. We looked around the fort and walked through this little town that looked like it would have back then so kind of like a Renassaince Festival. That was cool because there was a knife and sword store and I'm very into that kind of thing. There was also a leather worker. He makes clothes and scabbards for swords and belts and stuff like that. 
We only spent the afternoon there and then we drove for about two hours or so until we stopped at my grandpa's house in Melbourne, Florida. We had dinner and spent the night. The next day we visited my grandpa at his jewelry store and we came home and I met his girlfriend's daughter. She spent the night as did we again and then today we started preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and a Peruvian dish because my grandpa's girlfriend is Peruvian. My grandpa's girlfriend's mom and aunt and brother came and we had a great time. Then while the grown ups talked I watched tv for a while and then we were going to play charades and we still might.   But now I'm hungry and tired so I'm going to end the blog and the next time I do the blog, it will not be what had happened in the last month but what happened in the last few days. Goodbye I miss you and hopefully I'll be back soon.

Almost everything since the last post.....

Hello again! After my dad had the run in with the mailbox, we then proceeded to Ohio where we got it fixed(it had been held together with duct tape. That stuff can fix anything!). While we were there we stayed with my grandma, visited my mom's friends(she's from ohio) and, visited my great grandpa who is 98 years old I think... Anyway while we were there my dad got a hold of some power tools and cut a steel bar that is supposed to help support my bed over the cab. It works surprisingly. My Grandma Ruth, my great grandpa's wife (we call her grandma because she's our step grandma), made a delicious dinner and we ate it ravenously.

After staying there two days, we left and continued on our way. I cant tell you how many truck stops we stayed at, (actually I can it was one but it felt like more than that) or how many hours a day we drove but I can assure you it was a lot. After all that driving we finally got to Gettysburg where one of the battles of the civil war took place and where President Abraham Lincoln gave his famed Gettysburg Address. We stayed there four days and did a ghost walk on one of the nights. How many of you believe in ghosts? I swear I heard somebody walking and laughing but they say it was just my imagination or that it was outside... I don't believe them. During the day we went around and looked at the battle sites and guided tours with park rangers. You should go there it is really cool.

After we left Gettysburg, we drove a couple hours to a town called York where there was a Harley Davidson factory. We took a tour and saw how they were made and painted the bikes. After that we drove another couple hours to a town called Hershey. Can you guess what they make there? Yep, Hershey chocolate bars and the other assorted chocolates. Did you know that the town smells like chocolate? So we took the tour there, explored the town and continued on our way. After we left Hershey we went to what they call Amish Country. This, as the name suggests, is where Amish people live. They travel in horse and buggy and do not have electricity in their houses. That means no tv, sorry Blake! While there we went to this town called Intercourse. There is a market plaza where you can buy delicious jams and jellies and anything your heart desires. While we were there my mom ran into an Amish lady who was quite small and said that didn't she have such a hard time crossing the street with everybody crowding around? The woman laughed and said yes. She said that the reason that there were so many people was because they were shopping for Halloween. Then the lady said that she heard that it was a big thing with our people... Just goes to show how different two religions can be.

After we left Intercourse we went to a small amusement park type thing with a corn maze and stuff like you would see in a fair. We promptly got lost in the corn maze, probably because it was dark and we decided to quit because we couldnt find the way out so we just took one of the easy ways out which was a trail that led you to the exit. After we left that we went to our friends house in Pennsylvania near New Jersey. We stayed with them for a week and a half because we kept having troubles with the rv much like we did before this trip even started in Utah. But we had fun and I got to ride on our friends' horses and got to play with their cats. We also spent Halloween there and I went trick-or-treating with the daughters of some friends of our friends. I dressed up as Neo from the Matrix, complete with wooden Uzies and trench coat. What were you guys for Halloween?

A couple days after that we left our friends' house and drove to Washington D.C. We spent a week there and went to the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Captiol, the Washington Monument and even got to see the White House. Unfortunately we did not get to go inside the White House because you book the tickets in advance but by then they are usually sold out so they recommend booking them at least a year in advance. On the fourth or fifth day we were there my dad had the rv worked on again because when we were in Pennsylvania the tire needed to be fixed and the rv was leaking antifreeze. So we had that worked on and got it fixed, or so we thought. By the time we were in D.C., the tire had leaked air again, so instead of leaving to go to D.C. at ten o'clock, we didn't leave until about one or two. The next day we had dinner at a strangers' house. (Not really my mom knows the mom's mom but we still didn't know them, but I got to play on their son's xbox so all was good.)

We had a nice dinner and the next day we left Washington and went to Mt. Vernon where George Washington lived. We spent two days there and then went to Williamsburg which is a historic town in Virginia. We watched live historic demonstrations about what would have happened at the time of the Revolutionary War. We spent two days there also. We then left and started driving down the coast where we went to the Outer Banks. This was just a couple days ago. While at the Outer Banks, we went to the Roanoke Island where the first colony was but then disappeared. We went to a pier where we saw dolphins and watched a guy catch a stingray while fishing. I'm going to end the post here and then tell you guys later about what we did after the Outer Banks.