Another perfect day of sightseeing.

What a Postcard... Taipei 101 last night. Gorgeous as usual. I am 1 floor above then I was 2 yrs ago. 1201 our view is the same. We requested 1101. But it does not matter as long as we go to bed with this view every night..... Taiwan is so beautiful.

Taipei 101

Changing of the guards at the Martyr's Shrine. Unbelievable to see.

This guard does not even blink for one hour. 105 degree heat index today and I did not see a bead of sweat on this young man.

Inside the Grand Hotel

The view looking out the front door of the Grand hotel. This is the Entrance to the hotel.

Lobby of the Grand Hotel

backside of the Grand Hotel.

Another back view.

Travis and I inside the Lobby of the Grand Hotel

View of the hillside outside the National Palace Museum.

Housing across from National Palace Museum.

Chin Chin as we called Mr. Yeh's adorable grandson. He was our Junior tour guide all day today....What an adorable little boy....

Sweet Alex and Chin.

Outside the National Palace Museum.

National Palace Museum. Gorgeous display of books, scrolls, artifacts dating back many years. Some very beautiful pieces of furniture and just an all around great museum of history.

A building off to the side of the Palace

Chin stamping his brochure at the College of Performing Arts.

Picture on the wall of the theatre of the Chinese Opera Character

Picture of what I image would have been of some of the students. They practice at this college for 12 yrs. to perfect their performances for the Opera's and acrobatics. WOW!!!

Another picture displaying more of the Characters of Chines Opera.

Characters on Display.

The only pic I could get of the Acrobats. No camera's....

First day out and about in Taipei

Dr. Sun Memorial Hall.

Guard at the memorial hall. He will stand there one hour without so much as flinching. Then another guard will take over. One guard on each side of the statue.

We just got done shopping at the Jade Market where this time I spent lots of money and got lots of great gifts for the kids. Bracelets, jade, multi stones, adorable Saworski chrystal pandas also. Oooooh I had sooo much fun this trip. Then off to get more souvenirs at the Handicraft market. Killed that store also. Great souvenirs for my 2 little ones from Taiwan for when they are older. beautiful chime hand exercise balls, chinese print playing cards, colorful dragon for our bookshelf, t-shirts for all. Taiwan flag. All things I missed last trip because of our visa paperwork fiasco. I really wanted to get my souvenir shopping done prior to getting Jing on Thurs. He is a boy and 5 yrs old and they just don't do shopping under normal..... circumstances. We headed back to the hotel and then walked a block over to Outback. Yep had a yummy steak.... He He.

More fun tomorrow..... Hot Hot here as usual..... C'mon Taiwan Diet!

Wulai.... Paradise!

This is the view from the gondala/tram ride in Wulai.

Travis, Alex, Jason, and Mr. Yeh

Our trip would not be the same without Mr. Yeh! Second time around and still there for all of us during our travels to our children. Thanks Mr. Yeh!

Alex and Travis outdoors at the indoor Aboriginal show. These 2 boys are six months apart and truly are enjoying ech others company.

Travis and Mom

This is us right after we zip tied ourselves back across.

A sign that we should posted in NC

Pulling the zip tie basket across the ravine.

Travis, Joyce, Jason and Angie. The other family here from Minnesota adopting their daughter Kaydee who is 5 also from Chung Yi. Both our kids are from Taichung.

simply breath taking .

All of us wading through the stream after we have been walking up for a long time and pouring sweat buckets......

Outdoor Aboriginal dance performance.

A family rowing in the stream. Which we did on the way back. I rowed and Angie kept us balanced so we didn't end up in the water.

Wulai waterfall. We took the Gondala ride up and trucked another 20-30 min. upsteps to the top where there was a whole nother world of activities.

This is my favorite thing about Wulai. The pure beauty of it all....

We Made it to Taiwan!!

We left around 5:30 am eastern time. Dropped Travis at the door to the airport with all the luggage,went to park the van for Tyler to pick up later and I punched for a ticket and the gate would not open, did it again. Now with 2 tickets in my hand for parking I still could not get the gate to open. Backed up and asked the lady at the booth what do I do now... Throw away the tickets and drive around to the other side.... EEEEKKKK should have known this is how my day would start on 1 1/2 hrs of sleep... Finally park the car. Board the crop duster and leave the only gate at our airport and sit on the plane roasting for 45 mins waiting for them to say we are going back to the gate to see if they could fix the air........... Really!!!!!!! We were all dying by now.. 15 min later we take off for Charlotte. Arrive in Charlotte and have to go to the other side of the airport to catch our flight which starts boarding in 15 mins. 8:45 now and we do the fastest powerwalk ever.. Made it onto the flight. As we were walking to the back of the plane for our seats my purse strap broke. OMG what next.....Being the Mom that I am I have a diaper pin in my purse with my luggage keys on it pinned inside my purse. Fixed my purse right up....
Make it to San Francisco 6 hrs later and decide to hop the hotel shuttle to the hotel where we will be staying one night when we return from Taiwan and get over there hoping to find a real resteraunt to eat at and nothing around... We wait 2 hrs to get back to the airport and end up eating at a burger joint in the airport... Probably the best burger I ever had.. cost us 40.00 for lunch. At least we burned 2 hrs of our 6 hr layover driving around SF. Cold though and windy....
We were in shock after leaving when it was already humid and warm at home. We board Eva airlines and had a perfect 13 hr flight .Travis and I pretty much slept the whole way off and on.. I chose not to eat anything knowing what I felt like last time I got off the plane here 2 yrs ago... So motion sick. Jet lagged and overall yucky... Helped a really nice young family shuffle through the airport with 2 children, car seat, guitar, and stroller. They were Americans who had never been here before but got jobs to teach English and Art. I know we were tired buy I can't imagine how they survived that with 2 under 4 yrs of age. And no idea what was outside those doors... Heat, humidity, and traffic. Mr. Yeh and Alex were standing outside with the biggest smiles waiting on us. It was now around 11pm Taiwan time... I was so happy to see them again.
They are what make this trip to Taiwan the most perfect trip ever. Not only as our guide but a friend sharing the happiness of our family and other families seeing there children for the first time... How rewarding can a job be to see families unite with there children. We arrived at the Agora and are in room 1201. We were in 1101 last time and we have the most beautiful view of Taipei 101 once again.. It was now around midnight. I pretty much unpacked our stuff drank a ton of water and headed for bed around 2 am.

Congratulations Tyler! You Did It!

He was so excited that night. But so nervous about the state exam he had just taken that morning... He did not find out he passed until he was in Atlanta waiting to catch his next flight to Key West....

Mutt and Jeff as I refer to them.. Tyler and Scott

Tyler, Dustin, Ryan, Scott, Mike. All worked very hard together through this class...

It is official Tyler has completed 624 hrs of Basic Law Enforcement Training and can now be hired as a Police Officer. Since January Tyler has continued to work at the Cherry Tree House with the children as a counselor caring for them afterschool or on breaks when they are out of school and going to his training from 6pm to 11pm Mon.- Thurs. and 8-5 on Saturdays. I must say he is determined to fullfill his dreams in Law Enforcement. After receiving his certificate the night of July 9, 2009, he boarded the plane the next morning to Key West for 2 wks. Well deserved vacation.... We are so very proud of you Tyler.... Best wishes to you in finding the first job in your field...

We Love Ya!