A very tiring trip to Taipei

What an exhausting day! Because of the boys' interests, we decided to take the train to Taipei for my elementary school reunion. But since all the seats were sold out, we had to stand for 85 minutes. By the time we got there, the boys were already pretty tired. We took the MRT to Taipei City Hall, which was supposed to be next to Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, but when we got there, we realized it was sill a walk to the building. Luckily there was a huge fancy department store nearby so we enjoyed the food court. Speaking of food courts, American ones pale in comparison with Taiwanese ones. Fresh food, expediant and polite service, clean environment, ... we haven't gone wrong once eating at the department store food courts.

We walked to the famous Taipei 101 and took the expensive (but I thought worthwhile) elevator ride to the 89th floor observatory deck. You get a splendid view of the entire Taipei and all the surrounding mountains. The elevator is Guiness Record fast, getting up in 40 seconds or so. Noah compared it with a rocket ship.

The best part of the day for me is seeing my elementary school friends. Some of them I haven't seen for almost 20 years! We found that people's faces don't change that much, but of course, now everyone's a grown adult. It's amazing that we were able to stay in touch and 13 people gathered in one place easily. Among us there are: a playwrite, a military judge, engineers, construction manager, music teacher, illustrator, translator, and of course dads and moms.... I had a wonderful time seeing everyone.

The bus ride home was long and tiring. We decided that next time, we are driving to Taipei instead! Below: view of city from Taipei 101, elementary-school buddies.