Didner Family Pictures and update

Atai in Huko		The market in Huko the day of the Ghost Festival
	A familiar face	Dinner with the cousins in TaiJong
TaiJong Atai
	Shau Jo is ready for the Ghosts
How tall do I have to be?	Swimming in YangMei	Fanchi Aiee and the boys
Da Jo and Family	Agong, Amaa and Shau Jo at an Italian Buffett
Rest stop on the way to Kenting	By the beach at the Chateau
Ride like the wind!		Agong takes Aaron, Joey and Mei-mei for a walk afer dinner

The Story

 On August 30 Aaron, Joey, Pam and I flew to Taiwan for a two week vacation.  We had a great time staying at 'Shau Jo's' house ( which I would refer to as Pam's parent's apartment) in Yang Mei.  The boys played with, and broke, many snoopy toys and enjoyed Chinese language cartoons and, of course, playing with Shau Jo (Mungru) and Erica Ai (Fangchi).

  We visited the outdoor market in Huko, which was very crowded in preparation for the Ghost festival.  Aaron was very disappointed that he didn't actually see any ghosts but Joey was disturbed by the very load firecrackers some trucks were setting off as they paraded by Atai's house.

  We also went swimming in a giant indoor pool that had a slide into the water.  Joey absolutely loved it and went down over and over again.  A couple of times was more than enough for Aaron, though.

  We also visited every McDonald's, KFC or Burger King that we could as it's hard to find food that's not inherently unkosher.  They also all had little playgrounds inside, which the kids always enjoy.

  We visited the other Atai in TaiJong and went to dinner with  a big crowd of cousins.  A little horse play with some of them was captured in the photographs above.

  Erica planned a great weekend getaway for the whole family in Kenting in the deep south of the island.  The kids loved it!  The resort was right on the beach and had a pool which was not much deeper than 3 feet at any point.  We put a life-ring around them and they were able to play in the water and navigate without assistance.  Despite the two outdoor play structures and the play structure indoors, Aaron and Joey's favorite pastime was to 'ride' on the motorcycles that were part of a video game there.  We included some pictures from dinner there at one of the restaurants.

  Shortly thereafter the camera was misplaced for most of the rest of the trip. 

  It was really great to have all the Grandparent's and Aunts and Uncles to help watch the kids.  One night Andrew, Erica Pam and I left the kids with Pam's parent's and went to K-TV, which is like a private hotel room geared up for Karaoke and internet surfing.  We stayed until four in the morning and, when we finally got back to the apartment, I had to log into the Intel network and work for several hours.  Did not get much sleep that night!

  The first week of the trip it rained, and I mean HARD, unlike the continual mist we usually have in Oregon.  Near the end of the trip, a taiphoon was headed for Taiwan and we considered leaving on September 11 instead of the originally planned twelfth.  The taiphoon, changed directions, though and headed towards Japan instead.  Then, as we were packing the evening of September 11 (Taiwan time) the World Trade Center fell and everything changed.  The next several days flights were cancelled and, when we could finally get a flight out on that Sunday, the taiphoon had headed back towards Taiwan.  We were fortunate to get off the ground as the airport was closed only an hour after we departed.  Then we really had to scramble in San Francisco as the connecting flight to Oregon was cancelled.  We did finally make it back home that same Sunday, just in time to sleep it off and get ready for Rosh Hashanah!

  No family or friends were at the World Trade Center.  Ron was scheduled to be there at noon on September 12 for a wine tasting and Pam's cousins in Queens work right nearby but at night and were not on the premises at the time.

  Keep in touch!      didner@yahoo.com