Playgroup and the French Quarter

Sunday, September 9th, we built around Lilly's first playgroup with us -- 4 adoptive families from our group got together for an afternoon playdate. We brought Eli as well, and we all got together in the suite of one of the families at the Hilton. The Hilton is at the center of the French Quarter, the epicenter of french colonial life. It sits across the street from the Opera House. The entire neighborhood could have been taken right out of Paris, except of course the road is full of "cyclos" -- bicycle rickshaws.

The playgroup was nice, fun to catch up with the other adoptive families. Most of the babies slept. Lilly loves to watch other children, especially watch her big brother Eli. Eli chomped down potato chips, and played with a toy someone nicely gave him. (Thanks Tara!)

We walked around the neighborhood for a little while after the playgroup. Pam unfortunately accidentally deleted the pictures of the Opera House. We also walked by the former Residence of the Governor of Tonkin (see photo), from the colonial days. We walked by the Sofitel Hotel, the haven for famous visitors to Hanoi. Most recently, Angelina Jolie stayed there for her adoption. More infamously, Jane Fonda stayed there during her visit. We got the kids a couple of tourist t-shirts. As always, the heat and humidity was too much, especially melting Eli. So we grabbed a taxi and headed back.