Kingswells in Taipei

MOM VISITED!!! I've got SOME photos in. More tomorrow!

We had our first visitor last week. Mom came over for 11 days! It was wonderful. We were all very tired and occassionally very confused dues to lack of schedule. It is amazing how children backfires when faced with a lack of consistancy, but all-in-all, we were thrilled with the visit. The first weekend was spent preparing for Jessi's ballet recital. I DROVE downtown Taipei on a Saturday in hunt of ballet pink tights with full faith in my map... but the map wasn't right. Thank goodness for local friends with photographic memories! Adventure one, accomplishment one. Sunday was relaxed in the house and waiting for the recital. We headed downtown once again with a GOOD map in our hands and Jessica was a champion. She loved the stage and just kept on smiling! OH!

And we went to the dragon boat races as well! How can I forget!

Monday Gramma had to go to the Taipei zoo and I thought it would be best to take the subway. Parking fiasco and 2 MRT changes later (one hour) and we were at the lovely zoo checking out Koalas, fancy birds, and more snakes, turtles, and tortoises than any of us had every seen before. The onslought of photographers of the little blonde children did not occur until the END of the visit, which was nice. I think next time I will practice the words for "excuse me, they don't want any more photos please"

We also headed up to Shimen on the north coast highway and played around in an old coral arch (now above water on the beach due to years of volcanic uplift) and on to the inner mountain and the Juming Museum. Hao Kan (good to look at) and great to run in. Again, on the drive back, I tried a new route... SO NOW, my mom has learned how to read Pinyin (roman lettering for chinese words is not consistant) and was a great help at getting us all home. Guess what, we ended up on the same major road we were on on the ballet tight adventure!






We played in the park with our friend Ethan, who was going home to Seattle until July with his Mom and Dad. We are all excited for his return! This fountain nearby is going to be a great relief in the summer. I still need to find the perfect swimming pool though.

Friday was for going up to Wulai village and waterfall. I should note that it has been POURING rain most of the week, so the mountains are seeing a lot of water, washouts, etc. The river below the waterfall was obviously above the normal level. The village was great - Mom and I were thinking it would be fun to shop there. There was a 43 year old train that took a steep climb up the mountain (broken so we took a taxi up) and then we thought better of the enormous cable car that went steeply up the gorge. We'll try it next time... gulp. As we worked to find a taxi back DOWN the mountain, we found that not everyone speaks english, but most do their best to help. We got down, listened to the radio just long enough to hear that some roads were being closed, and headed home.

The final outing was to Ding Tai Fang. ('scuse my pinyin) It is a "famous" dumpling restaurant. we met our friend John there and walked over to see Chang Kai Shek Memorial at night. That was beautiful, and the kids were fully energized after the coffee lollypop they got at the restaurant, so Jessi actually RAN up all 89 steps. She thinks John is absolutely wonderful, (we like him too), so we'll hope to get together with him again before he goes back to the states.

We hung out and relaxed on the Sunday and Mom went home Monday the 12th. She left at 5:30 am. We miss her.

This week has been day camp for both kids and Paul has had some late nights. I see a schedule forming in the next few weeks and am looking forward to enjoying chinese class and hopefully some yoga, learning to shop more at the local market, and finding some swimming pools and friends to meet for coffee.

Hope all are well,
Peace, Steph