more of Taipei - beach and more

I've already said it, but I'll say it again.  

Finding things to do in Taipei wasn't hard.  

One morning, I was feeling very ambitious and decided to take my parents and kids to a nearby beach.  (I use the word "ambitious" because josh wouldn't be coming with us; he had other things he was taking care of and a beach trip by myself always feels a little weighty!)  We packed a lunch, towels, sunscreen and the camera and headed out.

It was a bit of a jaunt, but I had to keep in mind that you can't have a fab beach in the middle of the urban jungle.  We took a long subway ride and a long bus ride, but in the end we got off at a beautiful little beach.  

I had read online that there were no facilities around - no lawn chairs, no shade, no nothing.  But you could rent a little plastic tent sort-of-thing. The only catch was that (according to the internet) they fill up quickly.  I basically spent the entire bus ride worrying about whether or not there were going to be any shade spots available.  

I needn't have worried, because not a single one of them was rented out.  Turns out we were the first customers of the day.  =0

I was really surprised at how stunning everything was.  I thought it had a little bit of the "edge-of-the-world" feel to it, because the waves were so rough and the wind so strong - like there had been nothing to hold back the power of the seas until it hit the little strip of land we were standing on.  

Silas wanted to play it safe and hang out in the very much overrated shade tent to start off with.  Back on this part of the beach, the wind was almost unbearable.

But closer to the water, the wind wasn't as noticable (most likely because there wasn't sand flying all around your face.)

I live in a city with lots of blue sky, but it still took me a while to get over the beauty of the surroundings.  The girls had a great time playing with the cheap little sand toys we bought on the walk down to the beach.  

Lunch was difficult (remember the sand?) but it worked out fine and I would do it again that way, since there wasn't much to eat right around the beach.  [There were options for eating after we got off the MRT and before we got on the bus, though.]

Several hours later, we waited for the return bus and soaked in the view of the beach from a different spot.  My parents are so fun! I'm so glad they were there with us!

Our last big adventure in Taipei was a trip to Baby Boss, a place I knew very little about but had heard was incredible.  It's hard to even describe because we have nothing similar to it in America, that I know of.

Overview-- Baby Boss is a huge, quasi-theme park where kids study different professions and earn money for successfully "learning" a new skill.  It's a little pricey, but we spent almost eight hours there, so it turned out to be pretty worth it.  There are so many professions to choose from - it was really hard prioritizing for the ones we had time for - and they were varied in terms of gender appeal.

The first job my girls (all three) chose was a Nursery attendant.  There, they learned how to hold a baby, change a diaper, and burp it.  They LOVED it!  After they completed this job, they earned some money that they'd be able to spend later at the Baby Boss store.

One of the hotly contested jobs is Pilot and Flight Attendant.  My big girls really wanted to do the flight attendant, but Abby wasn't old enough yet.  My parents gladly took Abby to study up on how to improve her modeling career while the big girls and I waited in the Flight Attendant line.  (Most jobs only take 8-12 kids at a time, and they fill up fast - so there is a good deal of waiting involved.)

They had a "real" plane that the attendants and pilots got to work in.  The parents of flight attendants and pilots got a boarding pass to come and fly on the plane, but no cameras allowed on that part.  =(

Before all the flight attendants got on the plane, they had a little meeting where they put on their uniforms and learned what to do.  Then they all came out -- they were so cute!

They passed out magazines, books, blankets on the plane and wished us all a pleasant flight.

The Baby Boss park has it's own Department of Motor Vehicles; you can study to take your drivers test and be able to drive one of their cars around (for a fee, of course!).  There are also sessions on car maintenance - watching the five year old boys laying under cars and tinkering with tools was adorable.  

The Salon room was a major draw for my girls.  There, they were able to style their mannequin's hair in whatever way they wanted.

Later on, Abby raved about the Modeling class so much that all the girls decided they wanted to do it.  The helper at the modeling station spoke english and was so kind to Abby, though I do wish she could have given them a little more fashion advice!

They learned different poses, they strutted to music, the whole nine yards.  I was laughing so hard the entire time; it was hilarious watching them.  As if they needed any help coming out of their shells!

By the time we finished the modeling class, everyone was getting a bit tired.  We'd been going hard since the morning (each class takes 20-30 minutes, not counting waiting time).  There were still a few more that they wanted to do, but later in the afternoon many classes weren't offered as frequently.  They opted to learn how to mine for gold, since we happened to be standing right next to it when a class was about to start with only a few kids in it.  They strapped on their mining gear and disappeared into a mine. (There was a TV set up near the entrance of the mine, so I think it was supposed to show a live feed of whatever was happening, but it wasn't working.  I wasn't able to see anythign they did, but it was ok.  By this time, I was really comfortable with how things worked there - and I was glad for the chance to sit down and put my feet up!)

I gave the girls one last class to choose from and then we needed to head for home.  They chose the Paramedic class - which looked cool but turned out to be a bit lame.  They did have to wear paramedic baseball caps in order to perform this job (??) and Samantha flashed me some V's. 

The cool thing about the paramedic was that you got to ride in the ambulance all through the park.

They were on their way to "rescue" a child who got hit by a car.  In actuality, it was a doll that was crumpled against the side of the wall, but all the kids got to practice putting the doll on the stretcher, administering first aid, etc.

We were wiped out by the end of the day, but it was really fun!  We poked our heads into the Baby Boss store to see how we might be able to spend the money they earned doing their jobs....but everything was pretty tacky and expensive.  I graciously allowed them to trade me their Baby Boss money for real Taiwanese money and took them to buy ice cream to reward them for a job well done!

Of birthdays and pictures - Taiwan

Happy August 5th everyone!  For those of you who don't know what we're celebrating today, we'll all be celebrating my dad's birthday!  Happy Birthday, Dad!!

My parents just recently spent a small fortune and a month of their time to come halfway across the world to play and live life with us.  It was such a wonderful time, and even if they were equally as happy to return to their quiet home, they never showed it once!  In light of celebrating my dad's birthday and their fabulous trip over here, I have been pulled out of my blog hiatus (in which life has totally hijacked all my good intentions about blogging) to post some pics from their time here.  

Dad, thanks so much for making the choice to spend your days and your money on us!  We were totally blessed not just by this one act of your love for us, but by the many acts of love - both big and small - that you express as my dad, father-in-law and grandfather.  We love you!!

We were going to be meeting my parents in Taiwan, since we had a few visa issues to take care of.  As luck (and travel) would have it, we didn't make our first flight and had to be rescheduled for a flight two days later.  We were so bummed - knowing that my parents would be on the other side made it even more frustrating!  But finally, we got on the plane...

and ended up in Taiwan!  While they got over jetlag one of those early evenings, we went to a friend's home for dinner.  They loaned us a HUGE box filled to the plastic brim with barbies and barbie accoutrements.  Since my girls had never really played with barbies, they were full of wide-eyed wonder and their little imaginations cranked into overdrive.  

Of course, they pulled my dad into many of the Barbie adventures.  He was a great sport, and acted out the parts of Ken with startling authenticity.

Just a short walk from the place we were staying was a quiet residential park and playground.  It was the perfect size for a half hour of fun when we were all tired of staying inside the apartment.  The other incredible bonus was that we could walk down to 7-11, buy a slurpee for everyone, head to the park and spend 45 minutes drinking it and playing.  An astonishing number of our Taiwan pictures show my children with slurpees in their hand.  

Taiwan officially became my favorite "big asian city", unseating Hong Kong, which held the honor for the last several years.  There were so many, many fun and child-friendly things to do that we could easily fill our days, our tummies and our shopping bags.

One of the really great places we went was the Taiwan Zoo.  I'm not a big nature or eco-friendly buff, so for the most part (excluding China, of course) most Zoos pretty much seem the same to me.  That being said, the Taiwan Zoo was such a wonderful use of time and money!  The grounds were beautiful, the animals fascinating, and of course...there was a 7-11 with a slurpee machine right at the entrance.

The subway ride to the zoo was a long one from where we were staying, but my girls got in the front car and loved watching the trip when the subway car became an elevated train above the city.

Don't give Silas a quiz about what he saw at the zoo; he only remembers the bright orange of the slurpee straw.

 There was a lot of walking involved - hello, it's a zoo! - and my mom had just recently had foot surgery, but she was a champ and made it all the way through.

The lizard and reptile exhibit was fascinating.  I know, I'm kind of geeky.

When the slurpee ran out, somehow Silas fished out the bag of goldfish from the bottom of my purse.

 We ended up spending the entire day there (I had only planned a few hours), but my dad wisely grabbed an order of hot McDonalds fries to eat on the way home.  Yes, we love eating at McDonalds now that there's not one within a day's distance of us.

Though we had a great time at the zoo, it wore us all out and we spent the next day recuperating...with the help of some slurpees.  That night, we had an artery-clogging dinner at TGI Fridays and attempted to find the chiang kai shek memorial using only bus routes written in characters.  It left us in construction zones and shady parts of town.  It was...memorable.

We did end up making it there successfully, and at a beautiful dusky hour.  The only memory I have of the Chiang Kai Shek memorial is a picture Josh showed me from a trip he took to taiwan almost 15 years ago - the blazing sun was beating down upon him and his friends, and he was drenched in sweat. That picture was what prompted my evening plan to visit the memorial, and I'm SO glad we did!

The place was quiet, breezy, and peaceful.  My girls ran and ran and ran in the open space; is there anything better than being able to mindlessly run without expecting to get sideswiped by a car?  =)

We took lots of pictures, watched ladies do aerobic dancing, ran a little, took more pictures, and generally just lingered around.   The cool breeze, the gentle night-lighting on the memorials and the overall quiet of the area felt like such a contrast to the cramped, urban mass that was waiting on the other side of the wall.  It was hard to pull ourselves away from the serenity and togetherness of the evening...

But there were no benches and we were tired.

So we left.


The following day I persuaded my parents to go with me and my children (who needed ZERO persuading) to go to a local water park just down the street.  Apparantly, there's a huge water park in the city (think Schlitterban, or White Water, or one of those huge theme water parks) but I was hesitant about taking my crew there and paying half my monthly budget to get in.  (haha, not really...but still $$)

This local water play area was a perfect fit for us!  It only cost a few bucks for our whole group to get in, and though the water was shallow enough for abby and silas to safely play, it was deep enough for emma and samantha to have a grand time!

We actually went there three times, and one of the times was free!  (score!!)

So this is part one of the taiwan pics; a special thanks goes out to my dad for having a birthday and giving me sufficient motivation to put them on the blog!