Day 1- Tuesday

It is 4:30 pm on Tuesday and we have already ate (2 times), slept (quick nap) and explored. Here is the recap so far:

We were somewhat worried after getting delayed two hours at O'Hare when they announced that we were going to San Fran on a smaller plane and they needed 35 people to give up their seats. This was at about 8:30 when we were originally scheduled to leave at 6:45. At that point the flight was scheduled to leave at 9 but it was pretty clear that we were not leaving at 9 and were unsure if the plane was even there. We got in line with 250 others and did get seats on the flight and were able to stay in first class (thanks to miles) but were not sitting together. No problem.

Over a wine & beer we calculated that as long as we left by 10 we should be able to make our connecting flight. And our wonderful travel agent agreed. We left at 9:45 and were in good shape. The connection in San Fran was easy and EVA was able to confirm the bags were on the flight before we boarded.

Love EVA! The elite class seats reclined enough to sleep (much better than the First Class American seats) and the personal movies were great (the sound was awful on the movie on American making it unwatchable). We watched two movies each and slept a decent amount (maybe 5-6 hours?). We arrived on time. Before we went thru immigration, we walked past the disease control station (two ladies wearing masks) and they took everyones temp as you walked past. Some kind of body temp measure. We did not see them stop anyone and did not think until later to take a photo.

Mr. Yeh and his son Alex picked us up. I felt great when we got in the van but felt wiped out by the time we got to the hotel. We got into the room right away. It is very nice and has a separate bedroom/living room and two balconies. We decided breakfast then a quick nap and shower would make us feel better. Although the breakfast buffet had American foods we had noodle and dumplings for breakfast. Very good! After a two hour nap we were ready to explore.

We started with Taipei 101 (tallest building in the world). This is walking distance and helped give us the lay of the land. They had a free audio that pointed out major landmarks and we were glad to see the hotel. Then we went to find a diet coke. Yes, no diet coke for 24 hours! We were all the Taipei 101 food court at exactly noon and it was a bit intimidating! People everywhere, limited signs in English and witness a boy vomit... Decided to eat lunch later. We walked a few blocks to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Beautiful architecture, two guards standing like statues, lots of kids hanging around outside practicing dances. We checked out the gardens then found a noodle place for lunch. Very good. Yes, we picked it because it had the word Noodle in the name. We walked neighborhood to find the closest 7-11 to get some basics, diet code water, beer. I think the girl there laughed at my Ni-how attempt. Oh- well.

Observations- Women carry umbrella to shield the sun. It is as humid here are in Chicago in August. There are different traffic rules for scooters and people wear masks while driving them. I feel funny trying to speak Mandarin.


The pictures below are backwards in order

Scooters w/ masks


Umbrella with no rain

Gardens outside Dr. Sun Memorial

Dr. Sun Memorial w/ Taipei 101

Kyle would have joined this baseball game if he was here

Guards- I could not do this job

Dr. Sun Memorial