Our second day in Taipei, Taiwan was pretty packed. Kim was working but the girls and I got up early and went to a small amusement park, which the girls enjoyed until the seats got so hot it burned. Left there and got some fast food lunch. Hazel thought she was ordering a burger but got a shrimp burger instead. But they liked it so no harm no foul. Then they spent several hours making traditional taiwanese pineapple cakes, which they really enjoyed, we headed to a mall, did some shopping, ate a huge pile of sushi at the conveyor belt sushi place, then rode the giant ferris wheel on the rooftop.

Hazel has been in a Mandarin Chinese language program since kindergarten, but has definitely been less than enthusiastic about it at times. And she sometimes can be nervous about asking for things or talking to strangers in any language.

But on this trip she has really leaned into it. She’s stepping up and ordering food, helping figure out things, asking for directions, etc. And she told Kim the other night how fun it was using her language skills.

When we were looking for the ferris wheel. She asked someone for directions, and I saw the lady smile. When we walked away hazel said ” I didn’t know the word for ferris wheel, so I just said ‘big big circle'”

Margot really really loves gambling on the claw machines. I’m a little worried shes going to ask to stop in Vegas for our next vacation.

Last night she really wanted a little key chain version of tanghulu, a popular street food snack. I was a little worried it was going to cost a fortune, but it was only two tries at NTD$10 each try, so about $0.67 us.

Picked Kim up at the hotel. Our day almoooost ended there, the beds were calling for some tired kids, but we decided to rally and headed to a night market, where we enjoyed tanghulu, shaved ice, meat on a stick, boba, and other night market favorites.

Taipei, Day 2 · Tuesday, Jun 10 📸