Taiwan Tomorrow!!

Saying goodbye to Lute and leaving with our chauffeurs, Grammy and Papa

                                                         Flying over Alaska - beautiful!

                                                             Alaskan Rockies

                                                            Paul welcomed us to Taipei Airport!!

                                                         With the hotel driver

                           Our hotel has 4 buildings, in a rectangle, with this covered courtyard in the middle.

                                              The view from our hotel room

                                      The retractable covering over the courtyard.

                                                     Our view from the 12th floor

                 Meeting Paul and Alana in our hotel lobby at lunchtime on the first day!

                                        Alana in front of Uncle Sam American School!

                      I love these pretty flowers - growing everywhere - different color blossoms in the outer and inner rings

    On the grounds of the nearby Taipei University - out for a long walk!

   Amphitheatres on the university campus

 Our first Taiwanese meal - pork dumpings and cucumber salad.  We used chopsticks!!

   Paul and Alana at their favorite dumpling place --- Taiwanese "fast-food" joint!!

   The dark chocolate M & M's were a big hit when we opened the "Santa Suitcase"   :-)

                                            Taiwanese typo in our hotel hallway!!   LOL!!

                                      In our hotel room in Sanxia

Front entrance to our hotel

(Post by Michelle)
Hi from Ankeny!  Tim has had this grandiose goal of imitating Lute's Hope Spring Break Road Trip blog, and posting something every day during our trip to Taiwan to visit Paul and Alana.  I have been quite skeptical that we would really have the time and opportunity to do this, but perhaps it will work at least to a small degree.   At least I did figure out how to initially create our blog, which is one step in the right direction!!  :-)   
A quick update ---- we just got home yesterday afternoon from a wonderful weekend at Twin Lakes Christian Center for the Julius Family reunion.  The weather was awesome for us, and it was a wonderful time for everyone.  The Friday night gathering meal in the Shalom Center was incredible, as always, and only those who have ever attended this event could possibly understand how delicious all the food was.  The smoked chops may be my most favorite meal anywhere anytime.  Sweet corn was heavenly.  Salads, fruit, deviled eggs and more.  And the pies.  Oh my goodness the pies.  I believe the count was 17 kinds of pie.  Homemade ice cream was hand-cranked this year and smoother than ever.  And an enormous tub of sweet black raspberries.  Then once the Som-R-Set cards came out, there were cookies and bars galore.  All delicious!!  Well, beyond the food to rave about, there was also unending fun.  Formal Family Photos in our new reunion shirts from Grammy and Papa right after breakfast Saturday, then the climbing of the rock wall, with many harnesses secured by Mack.  And of course the traditional "knock-out" basketball competition was intense.  After lunch, the water fun began - tubing on Dean's boat with Skipper Steve, the Torpedo for the big kids, swimming, sliding, and Frisbee, with older generations and the new babies watching from the shade above the lake.  Did I mention babies??  With the 3-month old twin Wilson boys Eli and Grant, and the 1-month Wilkinson girl Maddie, we all had plenty of babies to pass around for much cuddling!!  The aunts and cousins were in heaven cooing and rocking with the babies.  :-)  After supper, the bravehearts entertained us with paintball.  Steve gets the prize this year for worst bruise - OUCH!!  Some zip-lining after that too.  More Som-R-Set Saturday night of course, actually lasting into early Sunday for some!!  Sunday morning's worship was very meaningful in the tiny church at camp with Bruce leading the service and preaching, and Judith playing piano.  I wish everyone could have been there for that family faith time most especially.  Thanks to everyone who came, made arrangements, prepared food, helped serve and clean, and joined in the weekend. All those who couldn't come were in our thoughts and hearts!!  We are already looking forward to the first weekend in July 2013!!  
And now we are in the midst of "The Hope Invasion", as Lute termed it.  Seven of his Hope College friends are visiting us for a few days here in Iowa, since none of them has ever been to our fair state before!!  They are delightful young people, and we are so glad they came to see us!  It's quite a crowd for our house, but we love it, and the kids are very gracious and helpful.  In between meal times, I'm getting the laundry done from the weekend and setting up our blog, and soon I will be starting to pack for Taiwan.  
The Taiwan trip is the real reason for this blog --- we are SOOOO excited to be going to visit Paul and Alana tomorrow.  We have been anticipating this  for so long, and it's hard to believe we're actually leaving in less than 24 hours!!  I checked us in online and printed our boarding passes.  The "Santa Suitcase" is all packed --- that's the gigantic "care package" we're bringing over for the kids with things they can't purchase in Taiwan.  I have several lists made out, and basically everything is done and ready now except for the actual packing of the suitcases.  We have done so many preparations and much research to make the most of our trip, so now we just need to get a good night's sleep, check off the last things on the list, and head to the airport tomorrow.  YAY!!!  
Hopefully there will be more posts from Taiwan.  If we don't get that figured out, I guess we'll just log our journal entries here after we return to the States!!  
-Michelle-