2026 Summer: 6/16

Our plan was going to Taipei 101 yesterday but the boys are the spontaneous type and plans change all the time. Since Papa TJ wanted me to start the process of my Mainland Travel Permit ASAP, we decided to do that yesterday. And I knew that we had to go too several different agencies to get this task done, we went ahead a scratched our Taipei 101 plan. JJ, Wade and Claire's second son, is off from school this week, and the boys wanted to spend some time with him so they went to play pool yesterday while I ran some errands.

My aunt and uncle had planned to take us to Yang Ming Shan today and we agreed to meet in the lobby of Tangquan (the community that we are staying in during our time in Taipei) at 9am. Since Wade took care of the kids with JJ yesterday, and he has a lot of business to take care today, we asked JJ to come with us to Yang Ming Shan.

On the way to Yang Ming Shan, we would pass by Martyr's Shrine and my aunt and uncle said that we would be able to catch the Changing of the Honor Guards. JJ also said that he had never come watch the Changing of the Honor Guards.

We got there with about 10 minutes to spare. There was a group of Japanese tourists to watch the Changing of the Honor Guards as well.

Then we headed up Yang Ming Shan.

My aunt and uncle didn't want to hike up to the Mountain Peak so we sent James, Bogdan, and JJ up by themselves. My aunt and uncle, Catherine, and me stayed and walked to the Milk Pond (AKA Dreamy Pond) and JingShan Suspension Bridge.

There were so many insect sounds around us! Catherine and I spotted so many insects that we learned from playing Animal Crossing!

It took the boys a while to get to the Mountain Peak and back down. It was definitely passed lunch time by the time they made it back to us.

I don't think the boys realize how much walking we would do while in Taiwan. I definitely over-estimated their abilities. My aunt and uncle wanted to take us to Gold Mountain coast. But the boys were beat and they really wanted to go home to shower so we scratched the following plans and headed home.

The boys showered and went to the entertainment center within the community to play ping pong and pool. Catherine and I did laundry.