This is What We Came For

Grandpa and Solomon Soup enjoying Peppa Pig and the Chinese New Year while waiting for dinner to be served.

Missing My Boy

We have been home from Taipei for two weeks.  Every day I have wondered, what is Solomon doing?  Well..............

He is learning to roller skate!

Christmas Eve Dinner in Taipei

David, Chia, Taylor, Solomon and I had Christmas Eve dinner in our apartment.  We had a combination of American and Taiwanese food.  It was a wonderful meal.

Boiled peanuts from a street vendor.

Water chestnuts from another street vendor.

Here's a water chestnut that has been opened.  You eat the inside portion which is pictured on the right.

Homemade vegetable beef soup made by Chia.

I purchased these shrimp from the market in the morning - they were alive!

Taylor made pasta with fresh shrimp and salmon.

Chia prepared quinoa salad.

A cake from the bakery with a reindeer, and a Happy Birthday star.

The best part of Christmas Eve?

Watching Solomon open his three gifts was a joy - even though he had a fever.

Merry Christmas from Taipei!!!

One Day in Our Life with Sen Sen Solomon Soup

This is only our fourth full day in Taipei, but we are settling in to a pleasant pattern.

This morning, we walked out to try a new breakfast stop, before going to the market for fresh vegetables.

This spot is a little further from the apartment but it's convenient if we want to shop for vegetables.  Absolutely no English spoken here.  All the customers are regulars and I was definitely in the way.  However, I held steady in my spot in line and managed to order "shao bing jia dan bing" for Taylor, and "tong you bing" for me.  The result was, we got what I ordered.  We decided the food was better than our regular restaurant, so we will be back.

With our stomachs filled with egg, we purchased a cart load of vegetables from the market and returned to the apartment to receive Sen Sen Solomon Soup. David dropped him off on his way to work for a full day of fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

The first order of business is to open day 5 on the advent calendar.  Solomon manages to get the ornament on the tree.  It's really hard not to open day 25 - it has the biggest number and looks the most interesting to this young fellow.

Now it's time to sing "I've been working on the railroad" with grandpa.

It's a rainy day, but we feel that a trip to the little park near the apartment will help burn off a little energy, so off we go.

The children's equipment is pretty wet, but the grown up strider works just fine.

Striding is even better when Grandpa joins in.  And it gets better when we all sing "I've been working on the railroad."  We are all so happy to provide entertainment for everyone else enjoying the park.

To get out of the rain, we go to the bookstore to read some stories and to buy a new Peppa Pig book.  Then it's home for lunch, stories and nap time.

Our day is only at the half way mark.  Fortunately, Taylor and I each got a little nap, and Chia will come to the apartment around 4:00.  I think Taylor would agree with me that these are some of the best days ever.  And, we still have 26 days to go.

The Adventure Begins

Our bags are packed, we're ready to go.

This is more than our usual "one carry on" each. We made an exception to our rule so we could take a few items to the grand boy and his parents.

Good bye house

Good bye garden

We have great confidence that our journey will go without a hitch. We fly out of PDX at 9:30 pm on Monday night.  We arrive arrive in Taipei at 6 am on Wednesday morning. Since it's not typhoon season everything should go smoothly.  When we get there we will give our address to the taxi driver.  Yikes.  This is our new address.


台北市大安區溫州街74巷3弄2號


Our Airbnb hostess sent us these pictures of our apartment, with instructions to get the keys.

We should recognize our own front door because it it next to this book store.

This is our front door.  When we find the key, hidden in a secret place, we are to let ourselves in and take the elevator up to the third floor.

Here's our front door.

No matter what happens on the journey to Taipei, Solomon/Soup will make the trek worthwhile.

9 month birthday

More news to follow from the other side of the globe.