week 2 - outings

the metro in taipei (locally known as the MRT) is amazingly clean, well-organized, and inexpensive.  we used it quite a bit, and we were unfailingly offered seats as soon as we got on.  i suppose two moms and three kids four and under (when we were with e and k) look like they need a little extra help ;-)  on this occasion, we were heading to lunch to meet a friend of e's.  apparently good american food is hard to come by, and they were excited to go to a place called 'the diner'.  i love asian food, but i have to say, it was nice to get a good salad ;-)   and my complimentary soup whose chinese name i couldn't understand and guessed to be curry turned out to be clam chowder =p

poor little l did a lot of falling asleep at restaurants during this trip =p

our first of several uncle leo sightings!  a friend of ben's from high school, it was a treat to meet up with him again.  after lunch, we went to a bookstore, and i picked out some books for the girls with taiwanese phonetics so i can read them (slowly).  the big find was a translation of the Frog and Toad collection.  we now have those in two languages and on audio book =p

taiwanese playgrounds generally come with some funny grown-up equipment.  i guess it's the taiwanese version of a fitness trail =p  there's usually a station with moveable plates that you stand on and twist from side to side (obliques i guess!), a station with handles on a wheel that you pull up and down on, and this one - we called it the elliptical ;-)

along the canal on the way back.  i accidentally overexposed the picture, so this was the result of my playing with it

i already posted about our danshui trip, but since the girls did so well with hotpot at lunch, i was happy to agree when p suggested it for dinner that same day.  not to mention, it's one of my favorite meals, especially the ma-la versions (literally translates as numb and spicy - there is some kind of spice in there that will take you down for the count if you accidentally chomp down on it =p).

the girls' favorite part was adding stuff to the pot.  guess which is the spicy side ;-)

guess lu wasn't the only one sleeping at restaurants =p

we had to do some rearranging to transport three sleeping children home on foot

the next day dawned clear and not too humid (a rare combination), so we decided to try the zoo.  leo was kind enough to drive us all, since a metro trip would have been quite long.  i don't know how the animals felt about their accommodations, but for human visitors, the zoo was a great place to spend an afternoon - a lot of pleasantly shaded walks, and just for c, an abundance of drink machines =p

opening a present from uncle p at the penguin house

best 60 cents i ever spent to get back to the entrance - happy kids + less stroller-pushing =)

we saw a lot of this the whole trip - 'uppeez!!' (up please)

for dinner, leo took us to a japanese place set up like a big kitchen island, with the chefs in the middle putting their offerings on a conveyor belt that circled the patrons seated on bar stools.  i thought it was pretty nifty, not to mention tasty =)  i'm told that was fairly expensive sushi there, but i calculated it to be about half the price we'd pay in the states for a sushi dinner!



upstairs in the mall, someone found her store

and finally, the return trip from our first visit to p and e's church.  the girls were always eager to push baby k's stroller, which made for some fancy footwork for auntie e =p



what to do when both tykes refuse to walk? =p

thankfully, that didn't last too long, as we spotted a playground and took the canal path home.  they wanted to put up the umbrella against the sun as taiwanese people do, but it was kind of like a three-legged race =p  after 30 feet or so of walking in step, the umbrella was abandoned in favor of racing to the next bridge =)

and that wraps up week 2!