During the fall of 2006, my friend, Connie*, and I started talking about our desire to see Vietnam.  It had nothing to do with being witness to the history of the Vietnam war for either of us but everything to do with the architecture, countryside, culture, religion, people, food and drink. The more we talked about it the more excited we got.  I bought the Lonely Planet's guide to Vietnam and Connie bought Fodor's guide and we were not getting much of anything done but studying up on our planned trip.  We talked about when would be the best time to go and for how long and would we share a hotel room or not (not) and what airline to take.  

Both of us talked about the fact that we needed to renew our passports and how expensive that had gotten and we scoured our guides to see if we needed preventive shots and what we would need to take and what we wouldn't need to take.  

At what point we discussed how we thought we were going to finance our trip, I don't know but I do know it took the wind right out of our sails.  Connie had two jobs (and still does) so she was in a lot better financial shape than I was.  I was giving up my "career" as a headhunter and going into my next career on a wing and a prayer and whatever coins I could shake out of my piggy bank.

With much sighing and sadness, our trip was put on a back burner and we went back to living our everyday lives.

Christmas of 2006, my daughter gave me a Maple tree as a present.  She and I had been talking for years and years about how our front yard needed a tree in it.  She remedied that at Christmas.  I was so excited when the nursery guy showed up on December 27th with the tree and planted it right there in the middle (kinda') of the front yard.

My first phone call was to Connie.

"Guess what I got for Christmas?"

" I can't."

"I got a dong tree!"

"You're kidding," Connie said, "That is wonderful!  Make it grow fast so we can go to Vietnam!"

The very first word that we had learned in Vietnamese was "dong" which is the word for the Vietnamese currency.  Of course, we found that terminology hilarious and used it at every fitting opportunity.  Connie knew immediately that I had gotten what I chose to believe was a "money tree" for Christmas.

So, since Christmas of 2006, Connie and I have been following my dong tree's progress as we can't wait for it to finally produce the jackpot we need to make our trip.

It is spring again and I took a picture last week of my dong tree...

and I took another picture this morning...

I am thinking that it might be getting close to the time for Connie and me to get out our suitcases.  We both renewed our passports so we are ready to go anywhere at any time ....as soon as the dongs flow freely. 

* Connie is the one who named my blog!  I was at a loss and she came up with "To be continued..." Thanks, Connie.