Elliana's 4th Birthday- FANCY NANCY STYLE

 For some crazy reason, amidst trying to organize myself to move countries, I decided to let Elli have a last birthday party here in Taiwan.  It was a great way for her to have a last party with all her friends.  

Here are the kids in a 'fancy' pose.

Reading a Fancy Nancy book together!

 

                   

Sienna enjoying bucket rather than the book!

Learning to walk fancy and elegantly with bananas!  

 Making fancy hats and bow ties!

 

Purple and blue yummy cupcakes!

Thanks for coming everyone!! 

Dudes on Parade ... Taiwan Style

For many expat families in Taiwan, as soon as school is out, the wife will take the kids back to their home country.  As a result, many guys are left geographic bachelors for several weeks at the start or end of summer.  

Well, life gets pretty boring without the wife and kids at home, as you can imagine.  So a few of us decided to get together and do something about.  And we did.  We went on parade ... Taiwan style.

Just outside of Taipei is a huge mountain called Yangming Mountain.  It's famous for its hikes and natural hot springs.  Robb and Cameron (buds of mine from church) and I had heard about one small hike to a "hidden" hot spring.  So we tracked down some directions and started our adventure.

The directions we got were totally sketchy at first.  It was literary along the lines of "go up the mountain, then down, then pass the big tree and rocks.  You'll find a narrow road that leads down to a farm.  Go by the old house, take a left in the narrow path through the bamboo forest, then you're there."

Dubiously, we followed the directions, and it turned out that they were spot on.  See below for the old house and rice paddy farms we passed, along with some sulfur vents (another tell-tale landmark).

Here's a pic of the source of the hot springs captured from above.

After a little more hiking, and blowing past signs warning that trespassers will be fined, we made it to the hot springs.  And they were pretty cool, I'm not going to lie.  The hot springs mixed with a natural mountain stream fed by a series of small waterfalls.  Some locals used the river rocks, pipes, and sand bags to form little pools that mixed the river and spring waters in different combinations to create varying levels of hot to warm pools.  

Here's the mountain river/waterfall on the left and the piping hot spring water on the right.

The pools were pretty steamy.  So after a few minutes soaking in them, we had cool off in the frigid waterfalls.  Unfortunately, even the cold mountain water couldn't cool off these studs!

At one point, Robb found some mud and wanted to exfoliate a little on his face.  Cameron joined in quickly thereafter.  As for me, being a real man, I used the mud as Indian warrior paint.  Pretty intimidating if you ask me.

It was definitely a cool place and great hike.  I was sad Heather couldn't come with me.  But at the same time, Robb, Cameron and I also had a lot of man fun, too.

Return to Taroko Gorge

One of the final things Heather and I wanted to do before leaving Taiwan was to return to Taroko Gorge, our favorite place in Taiwan, one last time to hike the Old Zhuilu Trail.  This trail was originally termed a "road" by the Japanese occupiers who built it along with a network of similar high mountain trails.  The Japanese built the trails originally to fight against the aboriginal people in the decades leading up to World War II.  The roads were used to transport large amounts of troops and even canons, which is pretty incredible once you see the pictures of the size of the trail below.

We had to hire a guide who could arrange for special permits allowing us to hike the trail.  So Heather and I took a short 30min flight from Taipei to Hualien on Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning we were hiking the trail.

The trail was 3 kilometers to the highlight of the trail, which is the largest cliff face in the park.  In about two hours, we climbed over 1,500 feet along 2.3 kilometers of trail.  At the top, the trail is actually carved out of the cliff face and provides amazing views of the gorge.

Here's a picture capturing the dizzying heights of the trail on the cliff face.  Down below is the road that  goes through the gorge, over 1,500 feet below.

Our guide, Matt, was great.  He knew quite a bit about the local plants, and showed up old plum and orange trees along the trail.  Our favorite was when he pointed out a cinnamon tree.  We chewed the leaves like bubble gum and then he made cinnamon leaf herbal tea when we got to the top; very tasty.  On the way down, he grabbed some soapberries.  

 Here's a picture of the cliff face from the road below.  The trail is just under the cloud line in the picture.

After we made it back down to the gorge floor, we took a little drive to a natural hot spring and soaked our tired legs for a while.  We even used the soapberries to clean ourselves off.  The soapberries actually made great, foamy soap when you peel them open and add some water.  All natural, too.  I had never heard of these things until this hike.  Nature sure does have some amazing things.

This was truly a world-class hike, and we were glad we had the chance to visit the gorge one last time.

More Grandparents Visit

At the end of February, my parents came to visit us in Taiwan.  This was the third time they'd visited Taiwan: the first two times were to pick up Kyle and me when we finished our missions.  Both of them had also already visited China.  So Heather and I really wanted to give them a different experience this time round.  Of course, they were mostly here to visit Elli and Sienna, but we thought we could add in some interesting experiences, too.

Quick warning, the below pics are not in chronological order.  This is simply how I uploaded it.

So first major event was our trip to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan.  It's hailed as one of the most picturesque areas in Taiwan.  It's a large, aqua colored lake situated right in the middle of the mountains.  We stayed at a hotel right on the lakeside and connected to the bike path that surrounds the lake.  Here's a pic of the lake from our hotel room.

When we first arrived, we took a nice little bike ride around a portion of the lake.  It was pleasantly cool and fortunately it was a weekday, so we didn't have to fight a horde of other bicyclists.

That night, we had a dinner at one of the five-star restaurants at the lake.  It was fantastic food and surprisingly affordable.  The grounds around the restaurant were also beautiful.

The next day, we took a lake taxi across the lake and rode a gondola up the side of the mountain to a large theme park.  The theme park was half amusement rides and half designed to showcase and educate about 9 of the 12 aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.  It was reminiscent of the Polynesian Cultural Center on Hawaii, if you have ever been.  We spent a full day there a had a great time.

The gondola cars each had a massive teddy bear inside of them. We saw tons of grown adults, including men, taking pictures with these bears.  It was hilarious!  Of course, I didn't want to think about all the filthy germs covering this thing from other people because there was no way our girls we not going to hug this bear.  Oh well, they survived!

Elli and Sienna loved all of the rides we took them on.  Elli was barely tall enough to ride the large log ride drop below.  She was a little nervous once we were at the top staring down the drop off, but she LOVED it and wanted to do it again afterwards.  We have a little thrill seeker on our hands!

Part of the aboriginal cultural center had an archery range.  We all took turns on it.  Turns out Heather was the best shot of us all.  I had no idea I married a warrior princess!

The cultural center was all out door and had lots of examples of aboriginal houses.  They also had several stages were they performed cultural dances.  They were really fun, interesting, and entertaining, and we couldn't help but laugh a little at the very expressive confident dancers even with their small amount of clothing.

One of the highlights was a shop that one could rent aboriginal clothing to take pics in.  So Mom, Heather and Elli got all dolled up and we had a little photo shoot.  Of course, the local Taiwanese who were watching LOVED seeing this and took some of their own pictures as well!

The above pic is in front of a display of killed enemies' skulls that could have been found in villages to show the prowess of their people and to warn off their enemies. Clearly Heather and Elli were just as vicious and daunting as any skull could be.

One of the last things we did on our way back to Taipei was stop off at a temple dedicated to a famous monk that overlooked the lake.  Unfortunately, a huge cloud of fog covered the lake, so we missed that.  Even worse, our car's battery died and we were stuck.  Luckily, we were in Taiwan surrounded by amazingly nice Taiwanese, one of whom took the time to jump our car so we could get back to Taipei.

Besides the trip to Sun Moon Lake, Heather took my parents to all sorts of places around Taipei.  Oftentimes, they took these trips during the day when I was at work.  Here is an art exhibit of all 3D art that they went to.  Everything you see (including what they appear to be holding) was painted on the wall even if it looks like it is coming out of the wall.  Even the shadows are painted on! Pretty cool.

One night, we also went to a theater that specialized in traditional Chinese performances.  Half of the show was dedicated to a shortened Beijing opera about the Monkey King, the other half was dedicated to a traditional Lion Dance.  Before the performances, the performers stood outside in the lobby and let the audience interact with them.

 

Right before my parents left, I took them to Jiufen, an old mining village built on the mountainside overlooking the north coast of Taiwan.  We happened to have gorgeous weather, which made for some great pics.  Now, the village is famous for its old street market, tea restaurants, views, and pottery.  The village has also been the setting for a few famous Asian movies and was also the inspiration for the animated film Spirited Away.

 

Here's the old street market in Jiufen.  It was so crowded, we had to weave up and down the rest of the village to skirt the main thorough-way.

One of the biggest and ornate temples we'd seen in Taiwan was located right beside Jiufen, so we visited that as well.

Here's a view of Jiufen from the bottom of the mountain.

One afternoon, Heather took the girls and my parents to a nearby restaurant that had a bunny petting zoo area attached to it.  The girls had a great time with the rabbits.

The first night they arrived, my parents gave my girls some gifts.  For Sienna, it was an Olivia doll and books.  For Elli, it was a Fancy Nancy dress and book.

Sienna took to Dad very quickly.  Almost immediately, she grabbed a book, brought it to my Dad, plopped in his lap, and had him read it to her.  This happened several times throughout the time they were here.  It was pretty adorable.

Other day trips with my parents included a trip to Yingge (a famous pottery area in Taiwan) and Yongkang Street, one of my favorite food areas in Taipei.  Of course, we had to get shaved ice, one of Taiwan's best creations ever!

Heather also took my parents to a nearby park to feed the ducks with the girls as well as to a morning produce and meat market.  Gotta love hanging hearts, bladders, intestine, and who knows what else!

Of course, Heather also took my parents to the third tallest building in the world, Taipei 101, as well as the Ding Tai Feng for some amazing soup dumplings. We are really going to miss those!!!  Other trips included to a traveling panda exhibit (which was extremely popular in Taiwan-so funny), the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, the Lin An Tai Ancient house, and the Maokong gondola/zhinan Temple.

Taiwan is also famous for its night markets. One of the largest of which is the Shilin night market.  The place is packed with food stalls, clothing stores, and carnival like games.  Here's Dad and I shooting balloons with an air gun.  Below, Mom and Heather are fishing for shrimps.

Here we all are together on my parent's last Sunday here.

This is Mom and I at the Bao'an Temple in downtown Taipei.

Taiwan's infamous toothpaste, Darlie, formerly known as Darkie (as recently as 10 years or so again).

So glad my parents were able to come out and visit us.  It was fun to introduce them to tons of great food and fun places, but even more important, we were grateful that our girls got to spend more time with them.  Can't wait for the summer when we can see them again.