Dan and Delaney Taiwan Trip: Day 1

Dan had a hankering to go to Taiwan. Delaney wanted to take a trip for her birthday.  So they went to Taiwan and left on her birthday.  Here I am dropping them off at the airport to begin their adventure.

They arrived safely and here is Delaney on the express train into Taipei!  

Delaney was more adventurous than usual.  Here are some spicy noodles at a street vendor's stand.

Lots of markets in Taipei.  This one was mostly clothes.

The city was crowded but had some parks like this one that were visitor friendly.

Delaney could not get enough of this contraption lifting her own weight.

Our first night market.  This one had lots of fish and electronics.  Not necessarily together.

Apple soda, fried rice with pork and noodles.  This whole meal was just under $14.  Yum!

An example the cool fish setups we saw at our first night market.

Iwakuni Again

 Josh had been asking to Space A over to Iwakuni and we had every intention of doing that.  Then I sat down and looked at the calendar and realized there were very few opportunities to make that happen.  We bit the bullet and bought one way return tickets for the Monday holiday and I flew Space A out with him on Saturday morning.

Here we are Saturday morning waiting to get on the Patriot Express to Iwakuni! It was smooth sailing and went beautifully.

Once in Iwakuni I took Josh to his friend Hunter's house and left him there till Monday morning.  Then I picked him up and did the last few things on his bucket list.  He declared the trip a success.  He got to hang out with his friend, and visit church on Sunday.  He saw other old friends (we went to the newly opened Chili's and took bets on how many people he would see that he knew.  He ran into 8.), and we went to lunch at Soba Express, which was just as delicious as we remembered it to be.

 We stopped by the Kintai on the way to the Shin Monday afternoon.  Had to document it!

I was there too! It isn't as pretty in the winter, but it is still awesome.

We got our Kintai ice cream, and it was delicious.  April did the world's best photobomb as well! 

 April dropped us off at the Shin station and we took the bullet train to the airport and then flew into Naha and Dan picked us up.  It was a lot more complicated and expensive than flying Space A out there!

Random bits of awesome

I took the girls to the thrift store.  This hill is right by the parking lot and they dashed up it to roll down it.  But then chicken out of the rolling down when they realized it was a steep hill and they would roll right into the parking lot! 

I have the best kid in the world.  I discovered this after she left for seminary on Valentine's Day. 

And Dan was out of town, but he had Josh sneak out and pick up flowers for me from him.  They are lovely and Callie says it looks like they are photoshopped into the picture! I assure you, they were beautiful and smelled delightful.

We had a most glorious sunset.  I was a little disappointed that this did not adequately  capture the gorgeousness of it.  

I took Josh's car in for an oil change.  When I got home, I was perusing the receipt and noticed they said the front tires needed attention.  I went to look at them.  Yep, the tread on the sides is about gone, but the grooves are still deep in the center of the tire.  Then I noticed this screw.  I have no idea how long it has been in the tire, but I certainly would have given the tires some "attention" had I known it was there when I was at the car place.  It has been a week though and the tire is still holding air, so I guess we will run it till it does go flat! 

Thrift store shenanigans!  The girls found a wig at the thrift store and much hilarity ensued. 

I always wanted to know what Marian would look like with short hair!  (Her hair currently reaches her waist.)

Field Trip with Rylee to Okinawa World

 Rylee is ing to go up and be an agoraphobic cat lady.  She never wants to go do anything and she was very unhappy to have a field trip for school. I was much more excited than she was, so I volunteered to chaperone.  I had to get a ridiculous amount of security clearance done to be able to volunteer, but I did it, because I wanted to go!

It was a trip to Okinawa World to see the cool underground cave there.  Rylee apparently really hates dark places and she was a little scared of this cave.  I got to be in charge of her and two other really sweet girls and we had a good time. Except maybe Rylee, who dreaded the cave.

Chilling on the bus on the way there.

At the entrance with all the pretty flowers. 

The cave was damp and hot and drippy and filled with these never-ending stalagmites and stalactites. 

Just look how cool it was!  Okay, it was a lot more amazing in real life. 

It was really pretty in some parts as well. 

Ug, such dark and poor quality photos.  But you can see the stalagmites having down to the walkway.  Giant and impressive.  I was trying to get a photo of Rylee there, but it is not good. 

There was one area where the kids could do a little bit of climbing on the rock formations and they could touch them.  It was neat and Rylee decided this part was okay,

Courtesy selfie. She was not enthusiastic. 

Once we were done with the cave she loved everything else. 

 Obligatory photo op.

 There was a glass blowing area where you could watch them blow glass.  That was very cool, but the kids were more enthralled by this.  It had a reflexology chart for feet at the start and you walked on these glass blobs that got less and less comfortable as you went on.

 Rylee thought it was the coolest thing ever and it was her favorite part.

 We explored the snake museum and the girls were creeped out by these habu snakes in the barrel.  There was a sake bottling plant in there where you could buy sake and other things with a habu snake inside.  We did not purchase anything there!

Outside the museum was this area with what looked  like a few snakes.  Then, as you looked closer, there were snakes everywhere!!  Can you see that there are about 10 of them in the shrub?!  

And there was a cage with these adorable bats.  I want one! 

Rylee was enamored with this iguana.  Poor little thing was touched by about 100 2nd graders that day. 

Obligatory ice cream, because, well, Japan has awesome ice cream! 

My friend Amy also chaperoned the field trip and we got a selfie in front of the pretty flowers. 

 This tree was too cool to pass up a photo with.

True love in the gift shop!

All Levi

Levi was feeling neglected.  See that little black plastic dog at his feet?  He pulled that out of the toy box in a bid for attention.  I told him to put it back, but he just dropped it.

And then he wouldn't look at me.  His feelings were hurt. 

Levi loves a car ride. 

He tries to act all cool about it, but he really wants to go on a ride whenever we get in the car. 

He likes to sniff the smells and feel the wind on his face and hang out with his people.  He does not want to be left behind! 

But mostly he just wants to smell stuff.

Things to mention

There is a Facebook group here called Oki rocks.  People paint rocks and hide them around the island (mostly on base) and people find them and then post that the rock was found and usually they will re-hide them.  The girls love this and have been keeping their eyes pealed, and have found some fun rocks.  They also want to paint them.  I feel that their enthusiasm is greater than their talent, but that isn't the point, and they have a very good time.  These are some of their creations. 

When you need more flannel for your blankets and Joanne Fabrics has a fabulous sale going on so you spent $100 or so on glorious fabric and it finally arrives in the mail and you are giddy with joy and want to throw it all on the ground and roll in it.  So many really cute patterns in 3 yard increments! I think there was 35 yards or so in there. 

Things that amuse me:  This is a taxi in the lane for the Taco Bell drive through. 

Oh my!  I claim to dislike travel, and yet I keep doing it!  I currently have 3 trips booked in the next 3 1/2 months.  Awaken this weekend, Beijing and Hong Kong in March, then Korea in May.  Apparently I just couldn't live with a brand new passport with no stamps in it. 

Hee hee hee.  Just in case you did not know how to use a toilet, there are instructions.   

For Spanish class, Callie needed to make a genealogy chart with names and photos.  She had to label them in Spanish.  I felt that this was a little unfair with the number of family members she has.  I had to get 61 photos printed at the photo shop for her!  61! And they were a little too big so we had to reeeeealy trim them down, and even then there were a few that just were not going to work, and we printed those out on the computer.  I was pretty impressed with her work though. She is amazing!