Day 1, 2, 3 Tampa, Florida to Toronto, Canada to Paris, France, to Barcelona, Spain. 4 flights out of 12 flown so far! Our departure from our home in Plant City, Florida on Tuesday was fairly uneventful. Our wonderful neighbour Ray rode with us to the airport, to drop us off, so he could bring our trusty old Mazda MPV back to our garage to await our return. Traffic was horrible going into TPA but we leave lots of time so we do not stress when we travel. We thought we would

Today starts another big adventure! We have been planning this 5+ week vacation for over 2 years and we are finally going to embark on another trip of a lifetime! 2026 is the “Year of Ruth” as Richard is calling it. I turn 65 this month on March 20th and I wanted to be somewhere special for my BIG BIRTHDAY! One of the places I have always wanted to visit happens to be where we will be on my Birthday! Our adventure begins from Tampa, Florida where we have spent the winter

#avalonsaigon #vietnam #avalonwaterways #hochiminh #checkthisoffourbucketlist #saigon Day 1 of our land portion in Ho Chi Minh or Saigon…it seems no one can give me a straight answer on whether we should say Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently the city was renamed in 1976 after the Vietnam War but locals with a sentimental connection to the city pre 1976 still call it Saigon. We left our luggage outside our cabin this morning at 6:45am and headed to the buffet on the Aval

Day 7 Avalon Saigon River Cruise on the Mekong Delta #avalonsaigon #avalonwaterways #checkthisoffourbucketlist #snakes #poprice #vinhlong This morning we had our last Sampan ride of the cruise. Our early morning excursion brought us to Vinh Long to a workshop. We got to experience some traditional Vietnamese foods and drink at this ‘one stop shop’ on the Mekong River. We disembarked at what look like a covered open air building which had various stations set up inside. Our