On Monday August 10th, we continued Week Two of Noah's visit and we went to the Taipei Zoo. Google Maps tried to lose us on the drive there but we ultimately made it. And for just over $3 a person, it was totally worth it. First up was flamingos. Like for real, how do they stand on those legs?
Then we met some alpacas who I felt bad for in the heat. This one was parked in front of the mist-maker.
Next were a family favorite - the meerkats. They were so funny how they stood on their hind legs, rolled around, and raced along the glass barrier to find a way out. Here Terry was showing them the zoo map so they could escape.
Before going further, we decided to have lunch right at the beginning since there was a McDonald's. I had salad to try to avoid a belly ache and this fun bird was hoping for a handout. There were lots of pigeons too.
After a trip through the glorious air conditioned gift shop, Evie insisted on a photo with the poop emoji.
We found a mountain lion! As one of our favorite video says, "Wow. Wow."
The penguin's habitat was under construction but we did see a sliver of the Taiwan black bear.
This gorilla (who was also MIA) reminded me of our 2011 trip to the Omaha Zoo...
2011 with little adorable kids! ðŸ˜
We visited with this chill hippo
I just thought the sky and trees (and mountains that you can't see) were cool so mandated a family selfie - there were groans.
Fun hippo sculptures
And right after we left the hippos we saw a disturbance in the trees to our right. To our utter shock, it was a wild monkey! At first we thought it was an escaped monkey but that seemed unlikely. Terry thought I was ridiculous how close I got to take this picture since I've always said monkeys scare me.
Pandas! Noah was particularly happy to get a good picture of a panda after his first attempt failed in Japan for his 2025 YWAM mission trip.
We left the zoo around 4:30 and bravely drove further into Taipei to take Noah to the Lego store.
We'd previously visited June 5th and Noah couldn't wait to join us. What he didn't know is that we spent all those hours there for the purpose of making him his own personal Noah mini-fig!
Noah was our first attempt and we loved it so much that we made ones for all of us! Now we have a Six Pack of Bears in Lego!
Next we visited the Harry Potter store. It was super cool.
Finally we had dinner in the basement food court - ramen for most of us.
Tuesday August 11th, was a chill day. We decided that after every full day of adventuring we needed a day off at home to rest. We were especially tired after walking 13,000 steps the day before.
But we did go out to the big Carrefour...but we drove there! We'd never done that before. I was grateful b/c I needed to buy a lot of food to feed us all.
At home the kids took turns creating their own levels on Duck Game.
And the boys started the Risk game Noah brought for us.
That evening we had friends over for dinner, dessert, and games. Actually Mveli offered to make dinner so he brought simply delicious lasagna over.
The kids who weren't playing the adult game were here.
Lillian taught us her favorite game, Acquire, and it was a big hit. Though I am still confused on how to play it since I only watched.
Anna and Evie unintentionally wore matching outfits!
We invited Lillian over purposely to be able to finish visiting with Noah about the story he's been writing for the last year...
...he had begun telling her about it last summer while they were showing us apartments and he just loved talking to her. He was eager to continue the conversation.
Wednesday, August 12th, was another adventure day. But first, breakfast. I had made a giant homemade pop tart. It was delicious.
We watched The Price is Right per family tradition.
Terry went out to Subway and grabbed some lunch while I prepped dinner for that evening, and then we loaded up in the van and drove to the beach!
We chose our beach carefully after last month's interesting beach outing. We came specifically to Fulong Beach b/c of the epic sand castles, tourism, and presumably, a clean beach. The sand castles were there...but closed. We're guessing they were damaged due to the weekend's typhoon.
So we walked to the right to where people were surfing and playing.
We had to walk through a river to get there but it was too deep right here. Our new American acquaintance, Brian, tried to cross and got yelled at.
Big kid pictures!
The water was warm but not as crazy warm as the last beach.
Everyone got to work diving into the waves.
We tried to body surf but it never worked very well. It was still fun. And I got some funny shots.
Family selfie before I put my phone away.
There was a temple overlooking the bay. It seems like there are temples on every block in Taiwan.
Beautiful walk back to our little and rapidly disappearing camp.
Here's the boys' wall protecting our stuff.
For about three hours, the boys made a sandcastle that the tide continually destroyed; Evie took a nap; Noah told me his story; and we played some more in the waves before deciding to leave.
When we came back to the bridge we were "allowed" to go see the sand castles.
The right side of this one was missing though you can't see it.
Pretty cool!
They were working beyond this point (the guy in the lower right is polishing up some details).
But Evie was told off so we had to leave.
I love the trees here.
We drove halfway home along the coast and were gobsmacked at the island. The mountains are so sheer and come right down to the water. It's incredible. Evie said exactly what I was thinking, "Is this even real?"
Thursday, August 13th, was another down day. We did very little this day. The boys played Pokemon card games.
Noah received the name "chop" he had bought the week before in Juifen.
And the boys finished their Risk game. Ezra won.
Friday, August 14th, was our final full day with Noah. I went to bed the previous night sad that his visit was almost over, and I woke up sad. Terry cheered me up and we got on with our day. Terry made waffles.
Then we watched a Wingfeather episode with Noah. Usually we do this with Noah on FaceTime in South Dakota on our Saturday mornings and his Friday nights. It was surreal to watch in the same room as him.
We left the apartment a little later, after lunch, since we had evening plans to watch a baseball game in Taipei. We biked to A9 to take the train into town.
Standing room only but at least it's air conditioned.
After switching trains, it was raining by the time we arrived.
We shopped a little first and then came back to the best shaved ice place.
We visited this shop last year with Albert, Mei, and others and I had been dying to go again.
It's life-changing. Usually shaved ice is a glorified snow-cone, but not this stuff. It's mango through and through and amazing.
From there we took another train to the Taipei Dome to watch the Dragons play the Monkeys. We even bought hotdogs...which weren't great.
They gave everyone free t-shirts and flags at the entrance.
Taiwan baseball was a very different experience than in the States. They had "Dragon Beauties," which were hyped up cheerleaders. They led us in songs, dances, and cheers. And everyone participated, to the point that we felt kind of left out that we didn't know the words everyone else did. It was a huge deal. So loud. The community was really cool. Even the opposing team did their own cheers and dances.
The game was pretty slow but the Dragons won 2-1 in the final inning. Very exciting with everyone cheering and screaming.
Then we left and took three trains home.
I thought it looked cool, all of our feet together.
We biked home at like 11pm.
Once home, I immediately felt sad again. It's been so nice being a full family again. We always missed Noah but being together made us really remember how incomplete our family feels without him there.
Saturday, August 15th, was Noah's departure day. We were able to chill that morning while packing and preparing.
We got the souvenirs ready and the boys opened some Pokemon cards...
...and looked at cards together.
One more family selfie before we left, this time with Porky.
Google maps failed us again but we found our way to the airport in our van.
Getting out of the van for the last time.
We got him all checked in. He brought three bins on his way here but left with only one.
And all too soon we had to take our final family photo and say goodbye.
And there he goes...😩😫😠That really sucked.
While Noah was going through security we went down two floors to the Lost and Found to search for Evie's lost ARC. When we had come back from Macau in March on Evie's birthday, her Alien Resident Card had fallen out of her pocket. She was very upset about it. However, it wasn't a big deal since her ARC expired that day. It was just a bummer to lose something that would be fun to look back on as a keepsake. But surprise, someone turned it in and they had kept it all this time! Yay!
From there Evie and I boarded a bus to Taipei for a mother-daughter adventure. Evie was planning on seeing The Odyssey with friends but I came along to stave off depression and also b/c I really wanted to see it, and hang out with Evie. Terry meanwhile drove the boys home. They went and bought fried chicken and had their hair cut while it cooked.
It was our third trip into Taipei that week and it was also raining again. We got to visit this mall with the ferris wheel we had seen from the highway earlier that week.
We had burgers at a TGI Fridays! American comfort food is amazing when we can get it.
The girls wandered around a little before the show.
And then the show began at 3:30. It was an IMAX showing and since I wasn't quick enough to give my permission, we had to sit separate from the rest of the group...in the very front row. The front row is never a good experience, and even less so in an IMAX theater when the screen towers like 30 feet above you. We had to crane our necks back for almost three hours. But despite the discomfort, it was still a pretty epic movie that we were glad to have seen. We took a train and a bus back to Linkou and went to bed almost immediately.
The boys were finishing up putting together some of the Lego sets Noah had brought for them.
Sunday, August 16th, dawned with almost no texts from Noah! I was bummed. All of his flights were delayed or late. Perhaps he had been too stressed out to send any pictures. He had been upgraded for his long flight, which was amazing, and I was excited to hear about it. So I called him. He was waiting in Denver and getting into line at Chick-Fil-A. His long flight went great but he missed out on the lounge. He was tired but rallying. Then we went to church.
...and he boarded his final flight to Rapid.
Meanwhile Noah arrived in Rapid to my parents who picked him up at 11:15pm!
Noah arrived home at midnight and was sad to be in a big, lonely, quiet house. He said he missed our "ruckus." At least he has Trouncer, but we sure miss him too.
To cheer us up, I made pizza yet again. Because why not eat your feelings? Drown them in pizza.
While I was writing the blog Terry went out to do some errands and came back with Noah's suggestion to make Porky like us more - cat treats.
And it worked. Porky was very interested in staying near me while I wrote the blog.
We watched School of Rock and Evie did the dishes. That's when I discovered Noah had left his water glass on top of the fridge. I let Evie leave it there instead of washing it. We'll see how long til we need to actually wash it.
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