From the Mountains to the Beach

Did I not tell you all that I love when Will has whims???Well he had a big one. Wyatt has had off a ridiculous amount of time the past couple weeks for spring break. All I kept thinking was "good mothers don't let their kids watch TV all day"......"good mothers don't let their kids watch TV all day"......"good mothers don't let their kids watch TV all day"......yeah, well you get the point. And quite honestly I don't want Wyatt glued to the tube, so I was furiously thinking of cool and DIFFERENT things to do.(As in NO science center) Then Will decided to take off a couple days and book a trip to Alishan (mountain area) and Kenting (beach). We left from Saturday to Tuesday evening. SWEET. My hubby rocks.
SO according to my research the highest mountain peak is 2663 meters above sea level.*The drive was beautiful. Breathtaking actually. If you didn't have vertigo before a trip like this then surely you'd develop it here- the heights were dizzying for sure- we just kept wrapping around the mountains..ascending higher and higher. The strangest was the change in terrain. We went from palm trees to redwoods within a 10 minute drive- it was crazy. Any type of flower you could imagine, really words do not even give this trip justice. Unfortunately Wyatt's not much of a hiker, but we coped. We scouted out the area, "hiked" around in the woods, saw the magnolia grove ( I was DYING- I love magnolias so much), the sacred tree, ponds...it was just awesome. Everywhere you looked you thought- wow. God is pretty amazing- that's all there was to it. As if that wasn't enough, like a family on crack, we decided to see the sunrise Sunday morning. Seriously..crack heads. At this juncture, let me take a moment to say that Will told me to pack for two extreme temperatures. VERY cold and VERY warm. We'll see if he reads this, but I packed very poorly. I was FREEZING..though I'd never tell him that. Seriously though, I couldn't feel my fingers. 3:30 am is a bad time not to feel your fingers. We caught the train at about 4 (AM) and took it further up the mountain to the sunrise spot. Sunrises are gorgeous, but sunsets in my mind are prettier. Maybe because I prefer evening. Who knows? It was worth it to do it once... I mean when opportunity knocks answer right? (That was dumb sorry.)After the sunrise we took a nap then headed on the road again to the beach. Woohoo!!
So crazily enough I preferred the mountains to the beach. Don't get me wrong- the beach was great. Wyatt went bananas over the pool of course, and really is just content to chill in the hotel room with his two rolls of TP. Driving into Kenting however, I felt looked like some back streets of Newark or a coal mining town in PA...it was uh....you know, not quite what I was expecting. Which, when you get right down to it, I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting. Everyone talks about Kenting, so...... I don't know. It was OK. As we drove a bit further it looked more like a beach community.- There were the stands along the roadside selling beachy crap that one feels compelled to buy and they had ice cream and a Starbucks....it was all good. There was nothing to complain about- I was happy to see the southern end of the island and just chillax with my totally awesome family. I love my life.

Below are pics from Alishan

Coffee Bar in Alishan

Crazy amounts of people waiting for the sun.....

     

 

Below are pics from Kenting (the beach)

*(http://www.orientaltravel.com/province/city/area/TaiwanAlishan.htm)

Umbrellas, Heat and a little bit of Whine.

The title would refer to our weekend trip to Kaosiung. We traveled there a few weeks ago , leaving on a Saturday at the whim of Will. I LOVE when Will has whims. He felt like driving, Wyatt and I were happy to comply, and we ALL wanted to get out of dodge. Yes, even in paradise, sometimes you want out. According to Wikipedia, the website for all things true and factual, Kaosiung "is in southwestern Taiwan and is located south of the Tropic of Cancer." (TRUE) Kaosiung is also home to the Hakka people, who first immigrated from China (http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/hakkaint/). Their history is fascinating and we had a great time experiencing the culture, the food and of course the shopping. We toured the Hakka museum, ate noodles with the locals and walked around town. In the countryside of Kaosiung they are known for their handmade/handpainted paper umbrellas...(beautiful). We bought a few. It was incredibly fun.  On the way home being heavy competitors,Will and I even had a healthy sized bet on what was wrapped up underneath the tarps on the trees(the fruit here is like, pre-packaged on trees) For the heck of it Will dared me to run over and look- I think he knew it was bananas(literally bananas) but really just wanted to see if I'd follow through and do it. FYI- NEVER dare me. I have yet to see my 500 NT (just in case you read this Will).Yeah so an incredibly fun time was had by all when we ignored Wyatt's whining about the heat and incessant complaints about walking. We did all this on Sunday though. Let me back up to Saturday, I'm jumping a bit ahead of myself. The drive took about 4 1/2 hours until we ended up in the city of Kaosiung. It reminded me of Singapore with its newness- but bigger, with 3/4 less congestion. It was baffling. As we were driving through, it was such a freeing feeling not to be in bumper to bumper traffic... even walking was a bit surreal not to have a stranger stuck to your buttocks like when in Taipei. It was AWESOME and as I said just moments ago... refreshing.....until Wyatt saw the park from our hotel window. Bummer. That's where the whine came in. He couldn't think of ANYTHING else all day but that stinkin' park. He spoke of nothing else all day but that stinkin' park. I appreciated his resolve, but it was SUPER annoying and I was starting to lose my temper. Being that I start to whine when I'm hungry and uh, Wyatt and I have a couple of similarities, I suggested perhaps we stop walking around the Love River, which we weren't all feeling a whole lot of and get Wyatt something to snack on. We stopped at this little restaurant and waited  ages for food. Wyatt started chewing on ice when Will looked at him and said...Did you lose a tooth?!? Sure enough he did. I like to think that we're stellar enough parents to have noticed if our kid's tooth was gone earlier in the day...or the previous one. It's pretty obvious. Oh, and did I mention that we have no idea where his tooth went? Aren't great mom's supposed to save their kids first tooth? Well, I can tell you I wasn't going to go searching for where it potentially could have gone. (The tooth fairy came a few nights later after a note was written regarding the literal "lost" tooth). Anyway, after a bit to drink and the excitement over the gaping hole in his mouth, Wyatt's whine dropped a few degrees along with the heat. We were ready to proceed with the rest of our day. We walked around the night market and a little further down the river and found the blasted park on the way back to the hotel. By the time we got back, we were exhausted and thoroughly ready for room service. Fast forward to Sunday morning where we drove 45 minutes further south towards the Hakka village (refer to previous information)......Minus the whine good times were had by most.

 

The Place where the tooth was lost.

At the Hakka Museum 

Wyatt throwing a pot..you know child's play.

Umbrella making.

The "it" couple on the island. Perhaps you've heard of them. 

The beginning of something terrible.....terribly wonderful.....?

OK. I should probably put this on Wyatt's page..but it was kind of a big deal, so I'll reserve it the space it so rightfully deserves on the Front. Yeah Baby. With my husband's permission (I feel that's important to point out) I brought my son to get a foot massage. I know. I know. I really wanted one....and I know that he really likes them. What could it hurt I thought? I'd been there before- 10 minutes for a soak and a shoulder massage and you're out. I repeat. 10 minutes. I pointed what I wanted for WYatt and I out to the cashier receptionist from the "menu" on the wall. She wrote it down. She appeared to understand....Until I said not to give Wyatt the shoulder massage- then it all went to pot and we ended up getting shoulder massages AND wait for it......40 minute foot massages. Wait, what? I know. Ridiculous. Worse than that? Wyatt LOVED it. Now he keeps asking when we're going again. Crap.

Regardless of age. Pampering is a must. 

Sorry Wyatt's future wife.......

The monster has been unleashed.

It's been a long hard day.