A Few Slower Days

Day Five - Wednesday, March 24
After two days of go, go, go... the kids and I needed some time to re-group near home... so after Tony and I returned from our 2 hour morning bike ride, we sent Dad and Lynne on their way to look at some memorials during the day while we just hung out at home napping, doing laundry and perhaps playing in the park... though it's all a whirlwind now! Of course we couldn't let a whole day go by without some kind of tourist attraction, so that evening we all went over to the Shilin Night Market.

Dad's always good for those sweet little sausages (truth be known, so am I).

Granny Lynne's truly a good granny... she brought her grandkids' shoe sizes out with her to see if she could find shoes to fit... unfortunately the price wasn't right so no shoes... but she managed to find something for everyone on her list at some stage!

After eating our share of street food and touching all sorts of things we didn't buy, we headed home on the MRT for another 'way-past-bedtime' night.

Hunter 'won' this little toy during his time at the arcade in the market... he loved it!!! And as you'd guess, one week later it's already broken and in the bin... well, that's one less thing to pack!

And morning and another late evening were the fifth day!




Day Six - Thursday, March 25
Dad and Lynne spent a big part of the day on their own... looking at shops, drinking coffee, eating cake... basically enjoying a holiday! They even went to a concert that night - "The Seven Last Words of Christ' which my friend Vicky was performing in... what a fun "date night" for them! The rest of us had a nice morning with Stephen and Felicity in the swimming pool... and an evening where they actually went to bed at the 'normal' time!!!
And morning and evening were the sixth day.


Day Seven - Friday, March 26
This day started with our regular healthy breakfast and a trip to the Core Pacific Living Mall for our regularly scheduled tumbling class!!! This was fun for these guys to see part of our 'real' life and Hunter was especially excited to have Tony there to see him do his thing! (more on tumbling class at another time)

Part of our 'regular routine' is a stop at the potty before class starts... Grandad and Granny Lynne took advantage of the moment for a cuddle with Mei Mei.

Here's Hunter and his classmates finishing up for the day by balancing against the wall... it's all pretty fun to watch... and even more fun for them to do!

That's the spirit, Granny Lynne!

After lunch, Hunter, Tony & Dad headed off for a very special afternoon - Hunter's FIRST MOVIE!!! A showing of Thomas and Friends at the Vie Show!!! He especially enjoyed the popcorn and really liked the movie once the previews were over (what kind of theatre plays PG13 previews at a G rated film? Tony had to cover Hunter's eyes during "Clash of the Titans"- that made me angry... I guess next time we take the kids to a movie (whenever that will be?) we'll go a bit late so as to avoid the potential violence, etc.) The kicker was that the movie was in Chinese with Chinese subtitles - so Hunter was fine with it since for all he knows Thomas only speaks Chinese (his dvd is in chinese), Tony was fine because well, his Chinese is good, but Grandad had a heck of a time watching a kid's flick in a foreign language... what good sport!!! Anyway - Hunter loved the overall experience and still tells me about the popcorn everytime we pass the theatre.




Later that evening, we met up with Anna, Sharon, Felicity & Janet at Din Tai Feng - a restaurant 'famous' for its delicious dumplings... with good reason!


We all enjoyed our feast... and since we had enjoyed such a 'local' dinner, we decided to stop for a 'local' dessert - shaved ice with tapioca balls, sweet potato/taro starch balls, green beans (not the stringy kind you're thinking about), fruit and a bit of sweetened condensed milk... very different... but Dad and Lynne were brave enough to try a bit - minus the beans! Of course when Tony and Janet rocked up with frozen yogurt their eyes lit up (as did Helena's) to something a bit more familiar (and sweet!).

After dinner and dessert, we sent the boys home with the kids and Lynne and I headed out on a mini-shopping spree with the girls! Janet knows her way around the shops and Felicity knows her way around a bargain - so we were in good hands! We had a fun time and Lynne especially thought it was such fun going shopping at 10pm - remember, she's from the South Island... it's even slower and quieter down there than Wellington! Boy are we going to miss this city!!!


And morning, afternoon and late night shopping were the seventh day!

Clark's In Taiwan

We had a great week re-connecting with old friends from Wellington - Nathan & Raewyn Clark (and no, we're not blood related)! Nate & Rae, on their way to France to pursue their long-held dreams, decided to make Taipei their first stop in their new adventure together - and we were so happy to have them here with us. They managed to fit in a whole lot of exploring in the 7 days they were here - including that trip to Sun Moon Lake to cheer us on in our big swim event!

Hunter has never brushed his teeth so often as he did while they were here - he wanted to be part of the action all along! Both of the kids absolutely took to Auntie Rae & Uncle Nate in a matter of moments and the feelings seemed to be mutual!

Paris, eat your heart out - Taipei is the city of Love!!!

After a bit of a shopping trip for a much needed carry-on suitcase and a fun teppanyaki lunch, these guys made it up the Taipei 101 while the kids were napping! With rain predicted for the rest of the week, we thought they'd better get up there while it was somewhat clear... but you'll see later on that the weather report was fairly inaccurate! At any rate, they enjoyed the view, the building and the ice cream they got at the top!!!

Once the kids woke up we took them out for our favorite activity - a bike ride along the riverbed! It was such a pleasant evening and all of us enjoyed the trip.

Of course we had to take them to a night market - it's such a Taiwanese thing to do... so Tony met us there after work and we kept the kids up late sampling all manner of tasty delights! One of my & Hunter's favorites is the fruity shaved ice... while Rae was busy taking pictures, Hunter's spoon never took a rest - he ate his share and then some!!

Nate is a big puppy lover so he found this a special treat!!

Lovely ladies

(don't worry, we didn't buy them)

After trying boiled squid, stinky tofu, fried chicken pieces and a few other classics, we wanted to end on something sweet so we shared an icecream burrito - well, it's almost a burrito - it's icecream with peanut slab shavings and coriander/cilantro wrapped up in a thin rice paper 'tortilla' of sorts! Very refreshing!

The next morning these guys went for a hike at 7am while Tony went to work and I stayed home to stabilize two tired kids (we got home from the night market close to 10pm - they never stay up that late!!!).

Notice - it's a gorgeous day overlooking the city - no rain clouds at all!!!

They even got to check out a temple while out on their adventure. This was great - we were introduced to a lovely Taiwanese woman who hikes our local mountains every morning and because she's training to be a tour guide - she's quite happy to take people with her to show them around! This was my dream come true as the Clarks really wanted to go on a hike but that's one thing I just couldn't arrange with the kids... perfect set up!!! Thanks, Jill!!!

After they got home and showered, we took the MRT out to meet the McFedries who are friends of Nathan's from Christchurch and friends of our's too!!! What a small world! We met for a tasty Thai lunch (thanks guys) and some fun catch up.

On Wednesday, Tony took the day off so we could go further still... so we went up to Danshui for the afternoon. It was the most quiet we've ever seen the place, but it was still nice just to be near water and in good company. Most of our food stalls weren't open yet so we got noodles and sat along the river under a big shade tree. Hunter was quite keen to watch people fishing and Helena was happy to have daddy around!

For the first time, we took the ferry around to the Fisherman's Wharf (we've always taken a bus) - Hunter, of course, LOVED the boat ride and that's all he could talk about. It was fun letting Raewyn use my camera because she thought to photograph some of the things I take for granted now like this great view of mountains and city.

Six Clarks in Taiwan

You've got to get photos of all the icons in the area and the Lovers Bridge is definitely the icon up here! We had a good time walking around looking for tea and snacks (does it seem like all we do is eat here?) and Tony even got a yoga demonstration out of Raewyn...

and Helena managed to get a bit of ice cream... she enjoyed it so much it became the motivating factor in her longest journey on foot to-date and we all were witnesses to the event!!!

Yep, Hunter's now big into boats after two boat rides in the past week! I'll have to look around for other opportunities for him.

As if we hadn't eaten enough snacks, etc; Tony took these guys over to our favorite local restaurant for a sampling of sit-down food. They loved it!!

On Thursday, their final day with us, we took a leisurely stroll to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall (via Starbucks) and got their just in time for the changing of the guard ceremony!! What a way to end the trip!!!

Here are the guards on their last leg of duty - the new guards came about 3 minutes later! What a relief that must always be!!!

Thanks, Rae & N8 for a special week! We really enjoyed your company and appreciate your friendship! May your next step be a grand adventure!!!! (the kids still miss you)