Dragon Yacht Mini-Cruise

You can't go for a swim in Sun Moon Lake, but you can go for a nice boat ride, so we did! It took us to 3 different stops around the lake.


The first stop was to a teeny-tiny man-made island. You can see it behind me & the boys. You can't walk on it, but they had docks all around it and lots of gardens.


The second stop took us to a temple on a medium-sized island. We had fun hiking around and the kids enjoyed sitting on the zodiac animals. Kaleb was born in the year of the Horse! Noe was too (obviously), but she sat on the Rabbit as that was the year that Len & I were born in. Gavin was born in the year of the Dog!


The third stop took us to a larger island filled with tourist souvenir shops. I love that they even had their own 7-11. They are everywhere in Taiwan!


At this shop I bought a tambourine, drum, set of hand-painted large maracas, and another set of mini maracas.

There was a huge wall of "lucky pick" boxes and the kids begged to play. Kaleb and Noe each had a turn with the mallet, and Len punched for Gavin.

Noe won a whistle, Gavin some bubbles, and Kaleb a truck. Do you remember the chicken that used to lay the plastic eggs with a toy inside for a quarter? I remember walking to Safeway many times with my Granny when I was Kaleb & Noe's age and she often let me buy a chicken egg afterwards. I miss you Granny!

A view of our hotel from the lake. It had been really hazy and bright this weekend, but on Sunday the sky was perfect for picture taking. I wish I could have spent a bit more time on the pier just soaking it all in!

Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village

We spent a fabulous day at the Aboriginal Village Culture Center! It's part amusement park, part living museum, part beautiful garden, and a whole lot of fun!


We met up with the Robinson family and really enjoyed spending the day with them!


Len got a kick out of the Buddhist monks riding the double-decker carousal.


The lovely Robinson's- Kay, Lizzy, and Adam. Len got another fun shot of 4 chickens up a tree. Have you ever heard of such a thing before?


We watched a dance performance by one of the nine tribes represented here. First the girls came out doing the daily chores, next the men ran out and swung on a rope across the moat, then they all paired up and lived happily ever after. At least that was my understanding from the dance since the narration wasn't in English. They gave a great performance though!


At the end of this park was a beautiful palace with a huge, gorgeous, manicured garden. Len's always wanted to live in a castle. I think maybe I could live here, but only if the grounds were included!

My 3 sweeties- Kaleb in the garden, Noe on the train, and Gavin my sleepy tribal baby!

Going Paiwan Tribal

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to dress up in Paiwan tribal costumes! The beadwork on these garments was spectacular. We are tough warriors now, check out all the skulls from our enemies behind us!

Click on the picture to enlarge it and take a close look at the skulls!

We had so much fun spending the day with the awesome Robinson's! I was ready to adopt sweet little Lizzy!


The talls found a swing perfect for the 2 of them, and the smalls found a house just their size too!

Pot thrower wanted!

Our hotel had these vases on display up on our floor. I fell in love with them! I searched the gift shop in vain for something similar, but had no luck. So this is a request for anyone who can spin on a potter's wheel: I'd love to commission you to make me some vases like this, please!

Fun at the Fenisia

Since it took us LONGER than anticipated to reach Sun Moon Lake, we decided just to hang out at our hotel for the rest of the day. We stayed at the Fenisia and it is definitely the best family hotel we have ever stayed at! This is our beautiful view of the lake from our balcony.


We had a BALL at the indoor children's playground!


The playroom had a library full of kids' books, a computer lab, but our favorite was the ball pit with 2 full walls of floor-to-ceiling (tall ceilings too) play structures with the 3rd wall being all windows to see the lake from.


I love to see such happy smiles of pure enjoyment on my children's faces!


The hotel didn't just have a pool, they had a whole water world! There were 6 different areas: hot tub and cool tub by the saunas, lap pool, fountain pool, water slide pool, and hydrotherapy pool filled with oodles of jacuzzi chairs and loungers to sit on under water complete with their own jets. (They also had an enchanted spring that were male/female nude hot spring pools, but we didn't even venture there.) Needless to say, we all loved our little water world! After a while though, the water got a "bit cool" and the hot tub was a "bit hot". I came back and had a soak in my "just right" Japanese-style tub. We also had the fanciest toilet I have ever used in my life- complete with heated seat, bidet washer, and air dryer. It seriously had an electronic control panel on the side of it- hilarious, but comfy! It sure beats the "squatters" you find at most public restrooms here- ha! I also have to mention that we were each given a Japanese robe and flip-flops upon check-in. We wore these over our swimsuits to the pool. It was fun to see our fellow guests wearing them at the restaurant and all over the hotel!

We ate dinner at their buffet restaurant. It mainly had Asian food with some green salad, french fries, and ice cream for their Western fair. I took a slice of their gourmet pizza and after the first bite I knew it was seafood flavor. It actually was pretty tasty until I came to the very last bite. I looked down to see a piece of tentacle (octopus or squid I wasn't sure) with its little suction cups staring back at me. I sat there for several minutes debating whether to eat it or not. I finally took the last bite and once I let go of my fears, it wasn't bad either. It was actually a lot firmer than I expected. I know I've eaten squid before but this tasted a lot different, so now I can say I've eaten octopus too!

Random Roadtrip Remembrances

Our first four days of spring break were filled with rain. The kids did have fun play days though with Makenna, Abby, Julia, and Sophie each day. Len had Friday off for Tomb Sweeping Day, and since we are fresh air junkies we decided to escape the concrete jungle that is Taipei and head to Sun Moon Lake. We had a fabulous time and I will make posts of our little adventures. But it took us 6 hours to drive 160 miles! (Last year we took the high-speed train to Kaohsiung, but now we know that this is the most traveled weekend of the year here, so maybe next year we'll fly to Kenting.) During that LONG time on the road I thought of some things that I don't have pictures of, but that I want to remember, so here goes:

• The beautiful palm tree FORESTS are amazing!
• The workers in the rice paddies really wear triangle-shaped hats.
• I want to follow the freeway sign to "Little dingdang" someday.
• How many bikini-clad betel nut sales girls do you really need on one street?
• On tomb sweeping day the tombs are actually littered with lots of yellow ghost money.
• Taiwan has got to have some of the craziest/reckless drivers in the world!
• I REALLY don't like the smell of stinky tofu.
• I love the bush that smells like peaches though!

I had us each choose 2 CD's to help us pass the time. The big kids still quarreled and the parents still lost their tempers and Gavin hated his carseat, but for the most part we all did pretty well traveling through the parking lot of the freeway. Anyway, here's another list of the CD's we brought and I was wondering what's your favorite music to listen to on road trips?

Len= U2, The best of 1980-1990; Dido, Life for Rent.

Jen= U2, The best of 1990-2000; Fiona Apple, Tidal.

Kaleb= Jim Valley, Friendship Train; Strawberry Shortcake, Strawberry Jams.

Noe= High School Musical Soundtrack; High School Musical 2 Soundtrack.

Gavin= Kindermusik, Cock-a-doodle-MOO; Inside Out, Sharing Time.

Len is now in Thailand for work, and I'm already planning our next trip!

Share the Love

It's time for my first give-away on the blog!!! Why now, you ask? Because...

• I'm finally caught up with all of my back posts for 2007, so now I can finally make a blurb book for it! (if you're ever bored- go to my archives and have a looksee)
• This is post #221, and I wanted to do something fun every 100 posts but I missed #200.
• It's Thursday.
• Tomorrow we're going to Sun Moon Lake to end our spring break (and hopefully escape all the rain we've had.)
• I'm craving comments! So if you've said hi before, please say hi again. If you haven't said hi yet, please do now. Maybe you'll be the lucky winner!

Here's what the lucky winner will receive:

A miniature qipao bag. It has pockets in the front and back that are perfect for keeping your cell phone, chapstick, whatever little treasure, handy in your purse or your favorite gal's purse.

A little Year of the Rat figurine. Fun if you were born in the year of the rat (1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996) or if you know a baby being born this year!

A solid brass key chain shaped like an ancient Chinese coin. It also has a handy clip.

A jade bead and Chinese knot bracelet. It expands and contracts to fit the size of your wrist.

10 pairs of sandalwood chopsticks. Great for hosting your next Chinese food dinner party.

I had fun shopping for these prizes and if you'd like to win them, simply click on "Comments" under this post and say hi! Sign up at blogger.com and you can leave comments without having to create your own blog. It's free and easy. I'll draw the winner next Thursday. Happy playing!