Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is Thanks-Living! Our family chooses to travel on Thanksgiving. When we are in the US we go to our family in New York. Since we have been overseas, we tour the new country we live in. (Of course, last year, we toured the hospital. Payton was sick and on dialysis for kidney failure. We are sooo greatful he recovered and is a jolly, energetic, normal boy.)


This year,2006, Owen was sick, but not deathly ill. We decided to go to Sun Moon Lake, which is situated almost exactly in the middle of Taiwan. The country was gorgeous! Spectacular!

After making it to the lake, we couldn't find our hotel. It was frustrating. There was no parking near the hotel so Greg carried our luggage from a parking lot some 400 meters away. Luckily we didn't have much since it was a one night stay. Our fantom hotel (which was being remodeled) was not the nicest but we had clean beds! Awkward- new experience!

Next, we went for a boat ride. (Of course, I didn't take a picture of that boat. Oops! Now that I think about it, I should have. It was funny walking on the dock. We keep passing all these nice looking yahts and then we finally get to our little ugly yaht.) But the tour of the lake was nice. We didn't understand our red-toothed, old guide but we appreciated his friendly kindness. The tour was to the opposite side of the lake to visit another small town for 30 minutes (really not enough time) then to a somewhat man-made island in the middle of the lake. There were plantbeds floating around what we thought was the real island but since we weren't allowed to walk on it we couldn't tell.

After the boat ride we got ready to eat dinner that the hotel had provided. It was like a flashback to living in mainland. (Actually, this whole resort get-away felt like it.) The food was authentic chinese. The table was full of weird things the boys didn't like. (I eat anything, but even after trying most of it, I wasn't impressed by any of it.) Our menu consisted of: sweet and sour fish with the head and tail still on, steamed-scrambled eggloaf, some kind of pork that looked like jerkey meat, cold chicken with all the skin, fat and bones, cold salad of bell peppers and sliced ham, yucky tofu something, taro soup, and rice. Needless to say, we ate mostly rice.

Later on that evening we walked around the neighborhood. A street dog adopted us for company and followed us around. She was friendly. The boys picked up a snack at 7-11. We went to our car to get our video camera, which we later found out had no power; we forgot to charge it up. Finally off to bed.

Getting anyrest in a one room hotel is difficult. New place, unfamiliar sounds. We watched a video on our laptop and then tried to fall asleep. Once we were dead asleep, the fire alarm goes off. I frantically picked up my purse and got my shoes on. We woke up Gray and Owen and where getting ready to grab and carry Noah and Payton to walk down 9 flights of stairs, when I felt impressed to have Greg call the front desk. (I thought, "Knowing our experience in China, I bet this is a false alarm.") Sure, enough it was. A cigarette smoker set off the alarm. So we put the children back into bed and sat around trying to smell smoke. We called the front desk again and asked if we should exit the building and they said not to worry. So we didn't! Now, if we were in the U.S. I think they would have made us walk down the 9 flights of stairs even for a false alarm.

The next morning we woke up in time to see the sun rise. Beautiful! (But, like most of this trip. Did I think to take a picture? No! So you'll just have to believe me.) I promise to get better at picture taking.

Friday our day was spent at a nearby Aboriginal Village/ Amusement Park. Amazing scenery and lots of walking. It was lots of fun. There were rides and games and shows. I loved the shows. The opening ceremony had the guests jump over a flame to enter the village.
There was train rides, carosel, rollercoasters, log ride, and more. Owen almost past up the skylift but did very well on it. I was the baby. I just don't like heights. Again, the food available at the amusement park was mediocre but we didn't starve. We had a wonderful time!