Swimming and Touring

We had another nice day in Taipei…it started with Benjamin sleeping until 9:20, that boy likes to sleep!  While waiting for him to get up, both Nanette and I went for a run (at different times ;-) ).  After everyone was up and had breakfast we decided to go up to the 20^th floor of the hotel and feed the fish in the garden.  When we got up there, all of the kids wanted to put their feet in the water of the Jacuzzi tubs.  So we let them and I knew it was going to lead to everyone getting soaking wet.  Instead of fighting it, I went and changed and we decided to take a little dip.  We were real concerned about B & E getting the contaminated water in their mouth and drinking it, but we figured we would live on the edge!

After playing in the pool, we came back and cleaned up and had lunch.  Funny thing about eating out here is that there are no forks and usually no napkins.  So just imagine having 3 kids who can’t use chopsticks try to eat noodles and soup without a napkin…it just doesn’t work.  At one point I told Elise to just wipe her hands on the tablecloth!  I think we have finally come to the realization that we need to BYON –bring your own napkins wherever we go.

We then took a train to Danshuei, which is an old port town that is primarily a tourist trap now…but it has a great view of the water and mountains with some shopping.  It is extremely hot/humid here, so walking around really wears the kids out quickly.

After Danshuei, we went to the Shinlin night market, but it was so crowded and hot that we decided to just get some dinner and then head back to the hotel.  Dinner consisted of the kids eating sausage on a stick and we had traditional won-ton soup and an oyster omelet.  Not bad, but a little greasy…

Benjamin is doing well, seems to be having fun and he calls us mama and baba (Chinese for Daddy).  Bryce and Elise are being great big brothers but they would much rather just stay at the hotel and run around nearby as opposed to doing all of the touring…but we are going to see as much as we can.  Big appointment on Tuesday at the AIT (US Embassy in Taiwan).