I'm also thankful that Nate has a better memory than me as I'd lost a day of our trip and was trying to figure out what I was missing. I'm trying to go back in time and blog our trip in chronological order because 1) I'm anal like that, and 2) it makes a great reference for scrapbooking this trip later on. As I was going through my pictures I kept looking at them, looking at the dates my computer was saying they were taken on, and coming up a day short. What the heck did we do on Sunday the 24th? Nate to the rescue! Remember the dryer day. Oh, that's right!
Yep, the dryer day. On Sunday Abby woke up again super early (4:30am) and it took everyone else a while to get up and rolling so it was lunchtime by the time we left the house. We went to a local mall and met up with Tim's girlfriend, Iris. We were blessed to have met Iris before as she and Tim came to visit us two Christmases ago. The mall had a large number of restaurants to choose from so we each went to a different one and pointed to something off their picture menus. Thankfully what we ordered was pretty good and weren't surprised by any unknown ingredients. While everyone was eating lunch Nate and I took turns taking Abby up the escalators and then back down again. This mall had seven floors (if I counted right) so she was pretty well entertained by just going up, up, up and then down, down, down.
After lunch we headed to a Wal-Mart like store while the guys went to the Home Depot in the floor below us. Due to space issues you find many stores stacked on top of each other rather than spread out across the land. We'd been in the store for a while when Abby let us know it was time to go home for a nap. Wouldn't you know that as we took the escalator down we saw the guys on the escalator up. :-)
One home (with Tim and Iris gone) Dad and Nate set about getting Tim's new dryer installed. Normally people wash their clothes then hang them to dry one the line. All the condos we saw had a small utility room off the kitchen that allowed for a small sink, washer, and a window cove to hang clothes. Tim liked the American version of the dryer so much that he quickly bought one as soon as he moved in to his place, then promptly let it sit as he was so busy with flying and meeting up with friends he hadn't seen in a long time. My guys thought that installing the dryer would be a small way to say thank you for the amazing job the Kuo's had done in giving us a fantastic vacation. Abby went down for a nap, Mom and I watched TV, and the guys installed the dryer and drank beer. We found out a bit later that the alcoholic content in Taiwanese beer is a little higher than in the states. Nate and Dad were in fine form. :-)
The afternoon was a very relaxing one as we just hung out at Tim's house. We did venture out a few blocks from the house to visit the local McDonald's for dinner as we were all missing American food but that was pretty much it. Tim came home after dinner, we watched a movie or two, and then all called it a night. It wasn't the most exciting day, true, but after all the jet lag, the busy schedule seeing the sites we'd seen so far, not getting a lot of sleep a slow day was just what we needed. I was reading Mom's journal entries about the trip in an attempt to try and find the above mentioned missing day and I got a kick out of her commentary about me on the trip. Literally every entry that mentions me mentions how tired I was. :-) I didn't sleep well during the week that Nate was in Taiwan and it was just Abby and I at home, stayed up late due to our super late flight out of Seattle, didn't sleep well on the plane, stayed up late visiting, was woken up a few times in the night by a munchkin not used to sleeping with someone, and was woken up early by a little one who hadn't adjusted to the new time zone. Yeah, I was tired! But after our restful day we were ready to hit the tourist scene again in the morning. And what neat places we were going to visit!
I didn't take any pictures this day but I did find ones from earlier in the trip that I thought were cute and hadn't yet posted. (Forgot to grab them from Tim's Facebook page earlier!). In no particular order...
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| This is when we were at Tina's bakery on the first day on Taiwan. Abby is enjoying her ice cream and hasn't yet discovered the container of cherry tomatoes that would soon become her favorite play toy. Jane is not flashing the peace sign (which is what Americans mean when they hold up two fingers in a v-shape) but rather a victory or good luck sign. Thought that was interesting to find out! |
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| Nate and Abby sitting outside a restaurant we had lunch at. Abby did fantastic at mealtimes, but there were moments when it was wiser to take her outside rather than keep her cooped up inside. I honestly can't remember the day we visited this place but I know that it had the best beef noodle soup. I'm thinking it was the same day we dropped Don off at the airport, but who knows? Not I! |
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| And this is how little miss took most of her naps. In the car on our way to someplace exciting. With a super early wake-up time and then it taking a bit for five adults and a child to get ready for the day we ended up leaving for places right when she was getting ready for a nap. I was thankful as it meant she definitely got in at least one or two good cat naps a day rather than struggling with trying to get her to nap in a stroller or on us. The car seats were also different than what I was used to here in America with the chest straps buckling together and the crotch straps independently buckling into the buckle. Here you looped one side of the chest strap into the single plastic harness piece (as seen above) and then you latched the two crotch straps together (one had a plastic hook and the other a plastic opening where the two would connect together) and only after they were hooked together could you buckle them as one unit into the crotch area. Very safe! Just different. |
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| Finally a picture of my family together! We're in front of The Grand Hotel on our first day together. |
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