Dear Friends,You have arrived at the right place, a blog where friends have gathered in the last twelve months to rekindle and celebrate friendship. Now that the original purpose of the blog has been achieved with the most joyous reunion in Southern California last month, this blog is moving into a new territory, with a new collective administrator, Miss Couventine.
Point your browser to:
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We promise the same fun provided by an expanded authorship. Please send me an email if you have material that you would like to see posted, or if you would like to be one of the blog authors.
Miss Couventine is an unpaid IT helper who has agreed to another year of service contract, while waiting for a member of the Class of 1970 to step up into the role of our blog administrator.
- Hà
On our fifth day together, November 6, we packed up to leave Sin City after a much shortened night's sleep. Breakfast at MGM was compliment of the house (right, Boi Tran?) since Boi Tran reminded us to use her comp card. We felt like nha que moi len tinh, being the newly baptized gamblers that we were, and thought that we could use a longer stay in Vegas. To put off our departure, we took a detour to Red Rock Canyon so we could see a bit of Nature. The main attraction in that conservation area is the layers of red and gray rock formation that are best described in Wikipedia. 
We left the Vegas area around 3 pm, and didn't get back to Orange County until after nightfall. By then, we were hungry, tired, and practically running on fumes. We took leave of S. Eliane after we dropped her off at Mme Tue Thu's home in Orange, met with Hoang Anh over a bowl of rice in Little Saigon, then said good-bye to Maria Dieu Khanh and Agnes Nhung. The brush fires around Southern California had mostly been put out by then, but I could have sworn there was still quite a bit of smoke in the air, otherwise why would some of us have tears in our eyes?
The next day, we took off to do some sightseeing around LA. Annette and Catherine escorted one group to go shopping. A smaller group went to the Getty Museum. Later we met up with Hoang Anh and company at Rodeo Drive for some more window shopping and a unique look at a real Beverly Hills mansion. It was great fun to have Ha be our tour guide. 
Some of us also had the opportunity to catch Ngoc Thu at home. I wasn't part of that group, so would defer to those who were present to tell the whole story. Apparently she treated them to a tai chi demonstration that was quite artful. 
When evening came, we found ourselves at a Korean BBQ restaurant at Annette's behest. It had gotten cold, and we were huddled around two mountains of thinly sliced beef and two round Korean style BBQ pits installed inside the dining tables. We ate and drank heartily. The group with Bich Thach, Evelyne, Gisele, Hoang Anh and Kim Lieu won the eating contest that night - they finished the mountain of meat. 
We left quite content, our bellies a little rounder than when we arrived, and our clothes still redolent of Korean BBQ No. 5.
Most of us out-of-towners left that day, including the European contingent, but not before climbing up Suzanne's persimmon tree and picking some of the mouthwatering fruit. Catherine Ngoc took care of Ha and Bich Thach, and I left with Evelyne, Gisele, and Quyen. Our last ride on the van was one last time animated by the lively conversation between Gisele and Ba Nam Sa Dec, I mean Evelyne. I was glad because, on the way to the airport, I could not find the Avis parking lot to return the rental, and was panicking. We did find it at the last minute, and the rush to the airport ended with all of us arriving safely and on time. Phew! It was a close call.
