Hanoi, Vietnam

welcome to Hanoi, Vietnam! With a population of around 6.5 million it is the 2nd largest city in Vietnam. Several of these pictures were taken in front of the famous Red Bridge over Hoan Kiem lake. Hanoi has also been the capital for over 1000 years The building in the background is Thap Rua, or "Tortoise Tower", a 3 storey pagoda which was built in the 1800s. As you can see the streets of Hanoi are bustling with scooters and street food. Popular dishes include Bún, a noodle dish, and phở, a flat noodle soup. Hanoi is twinned with several cities around the world, including Toulouse, France, and Ankara, Turkey.


Many thanks to Ailie Brown for taking these photos!


Next stop - Hungary!

South Korea - August 2010

Welcome to Seoul, South Korea. A city with a population of over 12 million, Its one of the largest in the world. Almost half of South Koreas total population lives in the Seoul metropolitan area. Seoul is in the northwest of South Korea and Seoul proper comprises 605.25 km², with a radius of approximately 15km, roughly bisected into northern and southern halves by the Han River. The Han River and its surrounding area played an important role in Korean history. Seoul proper is noted for its population density, which is almost twice as concentrated as New York and eight times greater than Rome, though slightly less than that of Paris. The cartoon character was the mascot for the seoul 1988 olympics.

August 2010 - Tokyo, Japan

The Flat Stanleys have made it to Japan! They went on a tour of Tokyo. Tokyo is the largest city, and capital of Japan. Tokyo is also one of Japan's 47 prefectures, but is called a metropolis (to) rather than a prefecture (ken). The metropolis of Tokyo consists of 23 city wards (ku), 26 cities, 5 towns and 8 villages, including the Izu and Ogasawara Islands, several small Pacific Islands in the south of Japan's main island Honshu.

for more information on Tokyo, click here - Tokyo

July 2010 - Orlando, Florida

Melinda went to Orlando for work and took the Flat Stanleys with her. Orlando is home to Disneyworld, Universal, and NASA! We have visited Orlando twice as a family, in the Summer of 2008 and 2009. We spent most of our time at Cocoa beach, or new Smyrna beach (we preferred the latter!) we did go to Disney for 2 days though, and had the time of our lives. its a long drive (about 19 hours + stops) but well worth it!

click here for information on NASA!

July 2010 - Portnahaven, Islay (Scotland)

The Flat Stanleys were posted to "Nanny and Pop" (my parents) who took them to Islay with them. islay is an island located of the west coast of Scotland.My brother in law, John, has family who live on Islay, and Sally visit often. My parents joined them this year.Click here for more information on Islay!

June 2010 - Port Aransas/Gulf Coast, Texas

June 2010

We went to the Gulf Coast with friends for a long weekend. It was about an 8 hours drive there, then a day and a half back due to several trailer-related issues on the way back! We had a great time, and the girls loved the beach as always. it was nice to see the gulf "unspoiled" as we were and are worried about the lasting effects of the recent oil disaster. Port Aransas was a really nice, small touristy town. We put the camper up at Mustang Island State Park. We bought if for net to nothing a few months prior, and had taken it to Oklahoma, but this was our first big trip, and there was a LOT of work that went into fixing it up! We took these pictures in front of a tourist shop just off the beach. click here for more information on Mustang Island!

Flat Adventures!

Lilly and Macy were inspired by the Flat Stanley books to create their own "Flat Stanleys" and send them around with the world. I am creating this to log the journey, so they always have a record of where the Flat Stanleys traveled to. They were made in June of 2010 for the first trip to the gulf coast and we have continues from there. I hope this blog will also encourage other parents/kids to join in this project. Its a great way to educate your kids about other cultures and places around the world.


here is a link information about the original Flat Stanley books

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley