Fiona & Taddy's

Let's Go Near the Water

2010-07-17T23:11:00.009-07:00

Came to Deer Lake on early Saturday afternoon.

We'll do Kayaking here.

It's Fiona's first time.

And his second time.

Wow, it's far away from the shore already.

" Yay, we are almost reaching the other side of lake!!"

"Yeah right, I'm doing most of the work."

A lot of water lilies, kinda pretty.

See dragonfly too?

Nothing but relaxing, he wishes he could bring snack and wine with him.

Okay, U-turn.

Fiona was hot and tired, but she enjoyed her first experience.

Late afternoon, came to North Delta to see our friends.

Nice to know a family whose house has a swimming pool.

But need to warm up first, the water is pretty cold.

And he jumped...

Sooooo ****ing cold!!

It's dinner time, Oden in summer!!

But it warmed us up good.

That was one sweet Saturday

The First Good Times

2010-07-04T23:11:00.001-07:00

Kenneth and Taddy, looking at USS Shoup.

We went to Naval Station Everett in Seattle for Ship Tour on July 3rd.

Before that, had breakfast in our favorite diner.

He is curious about everything.

Love their potato pancake, sooooo good!!

That's USS Abraham Lincoln behind.

On the deck now.

The key, please.

Top Gun!!

Hey, watch out...

Another tour for USS Shoup.

Kenneth with daddy.

In front of the destroyer.

After long waiting, we finally got inside the ship.

It's Japanese flag up there.

Peeping Tom.

Yes, he is the MAN.

She uses only two fingers to control the ship.

Feels unreal to see this.

We normally see this kind of thing from movie or TV.

These stairs are unbelievably steep.

After going down several levels, we reached CIC. It's out of the world cool. Too bad, photos are not allowed.

Yes, the size matters.

Dinner at the Crab Pot.

"Order in the Court."

This is how they serve the feast.

4th of July:

David and Taddy went to a shooting range.

Only one target was bought.

Masking tape indicates shots done by the first shooter.

First time for Taddy to hold and fire a real gun.

Aiming the target.

Bullets on the floor.

It's still hot!!

What an experience!

Driving along the beach.

After dinner, went to down town Bellevue for fireworks.

First time for Kenneth to see real fireworks.

Sleepy...

Dancer in the Park

2010-05-09T23:11:00.010-07:00

Taddy went to see the dance performance, "Live, Love, Dance!".

This was on Mother's day, May 9th, 2010.

The show took place James Cowan Theatre, Shad Center for the Arts in Deer Lake Park.

It was packed.

And Fiona was one of participants!!

Here's the performance of her group, and the music is called "Tickling".

Aren't they sweet?

Busy Streets

2010-02-28T23:11:00.009-08:00

In front of 2010 Olympic Flame.

We visited LiveCity on Sunday, Feb 14th.

There are several Pavilions inside and they are all free to enter.

Coca-Cola Pavilion rocks.

Got free coke which is special aluminum bottle design, exclusively for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games Torch Relay.

With Polar Bear.

Came to the area of Robson Square on Thursday, Feb 25th.

These people are waiting for the show called...

...Mascots on Ice show!!

Fiona is the one wanted to see this show...

Many people were in the area of Robson Square.

In front of Vancouver Art Gallery.

First time for us to enter the building and it's free.

We enjoyed LEONARDO DA VINCI: THE MECHANICS OF MAN at the Gallery.

What a great show!!

Other side of the gallery.

Around the Countdown Clock.

Streets are full of people and several street performers.

Inside the Royal Canadian Mint Pavilion.

Came back the Robson Square for Ziptrek on Sunday, Feb 28th (the last day of 2010 Winter Olympics.

We waited for five hours!!

Tean Canada VS. Team America on the big screen.

We are now ready!!

Oh, nooooooo~~~~~!!!!!

So many people, so crazy time.

But it was a fun to be part of it.

Back to Burnaby, it's getting nicer this afternoon.

Look at Sakura (Cherry Blossoms).

Beautiful, aren't they?

What a day!!

Year of the Tiger

2010-01-06T14:22:00.003-08:00

On January 1st,

A lot of snow in Gokayama, Toyama.

On January 2nd,

In front of The Great Seto Bridge.

On January 3rd,

Relaxing in the room of Onsen (hot spring) Ryokan (traditional style hotel) in Kumamoto.

On January 4th,

We visited Takachiho-kyo(Gorge) and Manai waterfall in Miyazaki.

On January 6th,

Came to Itsukushima Shrine, Miyajima.

What a fun!!

Delicious Holiday Party

2009-12-25T01:11:00.002-08:00

:::Happy Holidays:::

Look how big our boy is now!!

...Just kidding. We went to see David, Amy, and cute Kenneth in Seattle two weeks ago.
In shopping mall, there were so many people waiting in line to take a picture with Santa who is inside that log house.
We just took a picture in front of the house without Santa, and it was free!!

Friday, December 18:

Came to the Sutton Place Hotel in downtown.

For Fiona's company's Christmas Party.

In the lobby.

A lot of trees.

The party's on the second floor.

The party hall was full of people.

Santa and Diva.

Finally it's time to eat.

And Taddy's plate...

Roast beef was awesome!!

Here comes the desert table.

After dinner, of course it's dancing time.

Why Fiona who loves dancing is sitting there?

Our table.

Had a great time!!

Saturday, December 19:

Went to Yap's house for dinner. They baked Turkey!!

Vegetables and wine.

Taddy missed this year's Thanksgiving dinner, so he was happy to have these.

The desert was Tiramisu from Target. So good!!

Because Taddy ate and drank a lot for two days in a row, he got stomach pain.

So he took this Thai stomach medicine.

It worked so well!!

Saturday, December 20:

Went to Missy's to have another Christmas party.

Had Yakiniku (Japanese style BBQ). Yukie baked outstanding cream buns!!

Shy Poncho and not-shy-at-all Missy.

After big meal, chill out for a while.

Time for main event, White Elephant.

Missy was the first to open a gift.

Man, what a gift...

These two actually got good ones, but you never know if yours would be stolen...

Hey Poncho, what do you smell, good or bad?

Poor Don...

And poor Madoka, her pick was stolen by Missy...

But what a fun game...!!

Also celebrating December Birthday.

Mango mousse cake.

Birthday girls.

These are the gifts we got. Taddy likes Meoto-Yunomi (Tea cups for husband and wife).

Fiona got some cosmetic stuff and chocolates which will be eaten by Taddy soon.

Thursday, December 24, Christmas Eve:

Came to upstairs.

Had dinner with Lew family.

Hot pot in this cold weather, awesome!!

And wine, of course.

Christmas cake!!

But Taddy was too drunk and slept already... missed this delicious cake.

We received the gift from them.

Thank you guys!! (But we haven't opened this yet)

Friday, December 25, Christmas:

We are leaving to Japan and Taiwan!!
Merry Christmas and See You in 2010!!

My Life with Humans

2009-07-12T22:10:00.012-07:00

Sitting on back seat of the car...

I'm Poncho, 4 years old, male.

My mommy, Missy, was gone for business trip to Japan for two weeks. So I am staying with this couple, Fiona and Taddy.
Fiona is a nice female, so I like her. Taddy is a moody and goofy guy. Well, I guess he's all right.

They took me to West Vancouver on Saturday.

The weather was really nice.

On the way, I saw this car.

Humans are...

We arrived Lighthouse Park. Man, a lot of cars.

This is the entrance of one trail. The city nicely puts doggy bags by the entrance.
But Taddy was complaining that there are many people still don't clean up after their dogs even the doggy bags are provided.
Taddy is always complaining about something, I noticed.

Let's started hiking.

Taddy, follow me!!

Hope these guys know where they are going.

Walking and walking, some part is quite tough to walk.

Hey, it's so bright over there.

So I walk towards the light...

Oh, I see

...Cool!!

This is quite high...

Fiona and I were not scared at all, but Taddy was.

I recognized this place is quite a view point.

So there are other people coming here and walking around.

I enjoyed the smell of ocean.

And the view.

Hey, don't hold too hard, I ain't falling.

Getting thirsty.

There are some people, swimming, diving, and ...what are they doing down there?

Humans are pretty interesting.

Let's go back.

Taddy, follow me again!!

That's the exit.

This was some experience for me.

Then I saw the Ice cream truck coming to the parking lot.

Surprisingly, Fiona and Taddy didn't get anything.

Because...

They wanted fresh juice from Dragon Ball Tea House.

Papaya milk and Mango juice. Hey where is my drink?

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Next day, Sunday, we went for driving again.

Sitting inside the car makes me sleepy...

Again?? Man, these guys really like the drinks.

They bought Red bean milk and Taro milk this time.

We came to the Queen Elizabeth Park.

Sitting in front of the... hey, what's this?? A huge jet tub!!

I've seen a lot of people here.

I can jump really high. Fiona did not pick me up. I jumped!

View from where I was sitting.

So that's downtown over there?

Then we started walking around the park.

It's nice to be around tons of flowers.

Taddy keeps on taking pictures of us.

Hey, can we move on?

I don't remember when was last time I saw a water fall.

This man-made one is not bad.

Hey, you down there, you are kind of good looking.

How do I look on the bridge?

Fiona, don't let me go.

This is the view from the bridge.

Oh, there're several newly-wed couples taking pictures.

Japanese garden?

I wonder what mommy is doing in Japan now...?

Colorful...colorful...colorful...

I think I love flowers.

All right, this is Stan from Buffalo, and he came to Vancouver.

He and Taddy did their MFA graduation show together in Kansas, that's what I heard.

Had BBQ in the backyard with Lew family.

Man, what's wrong with Taddy? Everyone already finished dinner, but he still keeps eating...

They also made smorse.

I did not have any neither!

It looks yummy, but weird...

I wish I could have some.

Ah, Fiona and Taddy both have dogs in their home country too.

This is Taddy's mother's dog, Ryu.

Do our faces look similar?

And they are Zai Zai and Niu Niu at Fiona's home in Taipei.

They are Shiba dogs.

At night...

I was just so tired after these two days' activities that I fell asleep in Fiona's bed.

Hey, wait a second. When was this picture taken?

That's invading my privacy!!

Memoirs of Jioufen

2009-06-25T22:10:00.004-07:00

Arts 2009 is now in the Surrey Art Gallery.

We went for the Opening Reception on Thursday night of June 25th.

Many people in the gallery that night.

The announcement went pretty long as usual.

54 artists' work are in the show this year.

Fiona is exploring Art...

By the way, Taddy's illustration is in the show again.

It's his second participation for the show.

Also his illustration was chosen for the 3rd place of Category 3 (2D mixed Media, Drawing, Printmaking).

Receiving the award.

His last name was terribly pronounced...

"Jioufen, Love" - Mixed Media 43" x 21.5"

The illustration depicts Taddy's favorite mountain town, Jioufen, in Taiwan.

Intending to express his identity, imagination and memories along with the nostalgic scenery of Jioufen.

Some elements are very familiar to something you have seen. right?

:::The Exhibition runs until August 30th:::

So Taddy really loves Jioufen. Last November, we went to Jioufen with Taddy's parents and Chi-Ching.

The view from A-Mei Teahouse.

Inside A-Mei Teahouse.

Amazing decorations.

Taddy was so impressed by these items.

The art of Taiwanese mask.

Having afternoon tea break.

A lot of tourists visit Jioufen every day.

The famous stairs.

When we were in Taiwan this past June, we went to Jioufen again.

And we took Taddy's brother, Mutsumi and cousin, Yu this time.

Went to our favorite store which is famous for Fishball soup.

So good!!

In front of the restaurant that was used for one scene in Taiwanese movie, "A City of Sadness".

Yu (left) and Mutsumi (right).

A lot of gift shops and stairs along the narrow street.

Mutsumi bought handmade sandals for his children.

The same old stuff. The only difference was the very hot weather this time.

Don't forget to take a picture at the famous stair if you ever visit Jioufen.

Mutsumi is a quiet guy. But Yu is very goofy just like Taddy as you see.

Nice sunset scene...

After visiting Jioufen, we usually go to Keelung for good night market food.

Jioufen is a very peaceful and nostalgic place, hope you will visit there someday.

The Hottest Show in Taipei

2009-06-02T21:09:00.003-07:00

We came to Nangang, Taipei.

This is Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall.

Fiona's Company participated in Computex Taipei from June 2nd to June 6th. And here is the exhibition venue.

By the way, when we were at the Vancouver airport, we bumped into the Tu family.

Took a picture at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. But we could not see them while we were staying in Taiwan.

And the day before the tradeshow started, we had lunch with Chi Ching.

After that, went to the exhibition hall to set up the booth.

It is a huge hall.

The first day of the show, we came to Nangang around 9 AM. Had breakfast at Mos Burger inside the exhibition hall.

These sandwiches are quite tasty.

2009 Computex Taipei started!!

This is the 4th floor.

Microsoft's booth is huge, and there were always a lot of people.

Those big companies had their booths on the 4th floor.

Some booths were designed and set up nicely.

By the way, this is Fiona's booth.

Small...

And there were two food stands on the same floor.

But we didn't want to eat lunch here.

So we went outside.

Oh, almost forgot to mention this... the temperature in Taiwan was always around 30-34°C (86-93°F) while we stayed there.

We ended up eating lunch at Mos Burger. There were so many people inside the store.

Fiona is eating her favorite chicken.

Mos rice burger is pretty good.

Yakiniku burger and shrimp burger, yummy!!

Another day, we had these lunch sets from another eatery inside the building, but taste was so so...

There are so many people in this store too.

Took pictures in front of some sculptures.

After lunch, Taddy went to the 1st floor of the exhibition hall.

There are also interesting booths here too.

In a small section, there was Good Design = Good Business exhibition.

PEGA's booth was pretty cool.

Their portfolio were quite creative and stylish.

Computex Taipei Exhibition was throughout several halls.

One day, Taddy went to another hall, Taipei World Trade Center.

Inside TWTC Hall 3.

Taddy liked the look of the food stand.

Outside look of TWTC. Interesting architecture.

Taipei 101 is right across the street. The picture on the right is the passage to go to Hall 1.

Inside Hall 1.

So many people were there too.

*But what Taddy was most interested in seeing in Computex Taipei is...

Promotional models (in Taiwan they are called "Show Girls")!!

More girls!!

And more!!!

And more!!!!!

It's Show time!!

And "Real" show time!!

...amazing!!

This kind of IT exhibition in Taiwan is heaven for guys like Taddy!!

Spring Gathering

2009-05-18T12:12:00.009-07:00

Nice cherry blossoms in our neighborhood.

This was taken in mid April.

But this cherry tree is not in good location.

Near by the tree, there is an empty building which used be a McDonald's.

5 minutes away from our home, there was another one in front of the library.

Behind the library, there is a track. We sometimes come here to walk or jog. (Not lately...)

:::Getting together and have a nice meal::::

One weekend in April, we went for Hanami (flower viewing) party at Peters'. BBQ in the back yard the simple way.

Their house is really sweet. And there is a big window in the living room, and you can see cherry trees and mountains, so pretty!!

After eating, we walked to the Deer Lake Park.

Nice park, nice view and nice weather.

It was also a surprise birthday party for a friend.

Happy Birthday!!

Another weekend, Poncho came to our place.

...with Missy.

And couple weeks ago, we invited other friends over for dinner.

How could you not have wine with Takoyaki, beef, tofu, pork...

...fried squid, and Korean noodle!

Watched hockey game.

Even though Canucks lost this evening, we had a lot of fun!!

At Missy's place last weekend.

Another non-stop eating gathering, Japanese style.

Little Poncho's room and the view from the living room.

Dining room.

Poncho was not in good mood.

He's been hiding in the washroom.

Japanese Okonomiyaki.

Home-made breads and takoyaki (grill flour ball with octopus).

We took a break from eating and walked to the beach.

What a nice view.

We all needed some exercise, including Poncho.

Had a great time!!

:::Summer is coming soon:::

A Snowy White Season

2009-01-03T19:30:00.017-08:00

We had too much snow.

Streets are kind a mess.

It snowed for a few days one week before Christmas in Vancouver. And it snowed more during Christmas holiday.
So we stayed at home for 4 days.

One evening, we cooked Ramen.

We brought this pack from Japan. Taddy also cooked Char siu for this.

And here we go.

So good. Instant noodles can't compare to this.

And another evening, we ate Takoyaki with Lew Family.

Yes, we bought the Takoyaki machine in Japan.

And here we go...

They actually tasted pretty good. And it is also fun to make Takoyaki.

They cooked Crab Rangoon.

By the way, there is no Crab Rangoon in Vancouver. So you can imagine how bad we miss this one.

Bottles of wine.

Finished three bottles that night.

New Year's Eve:

We ordered Sushi.

Everyone likes sushi here.

But Taddy couldn't enjoy white wine.

New Year:

New Year's dishes in Japanese style, Osechi, cooked by Kaori.

And we cooked Zoni again.

Ashley loves eating, but Justin, not so much...

Good or so-so?

January 3rd:

Guess what? It snowed again..... we couldn't stay inside anymore.

And Taddy made Snowman.

But this snowman was melted next day.

:::Wish you all the best in the year of Ox, 2009!:::

Normal Holiday

2008-12-22T21:30:00.009-08:00

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At 2008 Christmas Party.

Fiona dressed up!!

With Santa.

He is the same Santa from last year.

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Christmas Eve on Frances Street:

At dinner, we enjoyed Plum wine which we brought back from Japan.

With Korean kimchi dumpling and hot pot.

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December 25th:

Our neighborhood in the morning of Christmas...

Very peaceful.

Our poor car.

We are not going to clean up yet because it's still snowing now (Dec 26th).

In evening, Amy and David came by our place.

Seven months pregnant, Amy still weighs less than Fiona.

Can't wait until March.

After we came back from dinner, Lew family brought Christmas gift for us.

Lovely!! But Taddy will eat up most of them for sure...

:::Merry Christmas!!:::

The Long Walk Beach

2008-11-06T23:11:00.001-08:00

We were on the airplane.

Flying from Vancouver to...

Arrived to LAX.
We decided to stay in L.A. for a day before going back to Japan.

Took the train to Long Beach.

We were in Long Beach downtown area.

Walked around the port of Long Beach.

It's a beautiful day for walking.

Under this beautiful weather, we quite enjoyed walking.

And now getting hungry...

Found a burger stand. We had BBQ Chicken Sandwich and it's surprisingly good.

Having lunch outside, and it was really nice. And sparrows in the area are not afraid of people. One even came so close to us.

A classic boat for Sale.

Wonder how much would it be.

Man...we walked a lot and Fiona was almost crippled.

Sun is so dazzling...

This is the Convention Center.

They were having some tradshow for sound effects or something.

Stopped by a coffee shop.

We had chai tea and apple cider. Surfing internet with iTouch.

The hotel room we stayed.

We actually paid $20 because we had some points from Starwood.

Next morning, right after we checked out, a fire truck came to the hotel.

What happened?? We had no idea.

Well, we went back to LAX and caught the flight to Japan.
Arrived Japan safely.

:::To Be Continued:::

Autumn Feasts

2008-10-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Nothing but tasty wine.

Eating and drinking, that's pretty much what we do in the weekends' evening.

Fiona likes cheese. We bought two kinds this time.

They match with wine so well.

Sichuan and Indian Dinner:

One Saturday evening, we went to friends' place for dinner.

We brought Chinese (Sichuan style) dishes and they had Indian dishes ready.

Chinese meat ball and Indian Butter Chicken.

Fish with Tofu and Curry vegetable.

This is Blackberry wine. Taddy was pretty excited to drink this.

But the taste was...hmmm.

And Shiraz.

Well, this one is pretty good.

Muslim Dinner:

On another Saturday, we were invited by Fiona's coworker for Eid ul-Fitr (Eid Celebration).

They are Singaporean home style dishes.

There were a lot of guests in their house.

People are eating, chatting, watching Hockey game from TV, and singing Karaoke in the basement. Food were continuously added from the big pots in the yard.

Japanese Dinner:

Takoyaki!!

Shige and Sanae brought their machine and cooked delicious Takoyaki that night.

We cooked Gratin and Taiwanese chicken dish.

And Akihito and Yuko brought Potato Salad and Karaage.

Opened two bottles that night.

Yummy...

A lot of stuff to eat and a lot to talk about.

We finished the party at midnight, what a tasty and fun night!!

Thanksgiving Dinner:

Big turkey was cooked well.

Canada's Thanksgiving was on October 13th. And we were invited by Lew family as usual.

Isn't this great?

Stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, carrots with cream sauce, vegetables, gravy, cranberry sauce... you name it.

This time it was Spanish wine.

And it's pretty good wine.

Okay, let's eat!!

And their homemade pumpkin (it's from their garden) soup was so delicious!! We brought roll cake instead of pie. but this roll cake is actually quite tasty.

And they are just busy in eating.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Afternoon Cycling:

Eating is fun, but gaining weight isn't much fun. So we decided to do little exercise.

First time to ride the tandem cycle.

Came to Stanley Park on one Sunday afternoon.

And circling around the park.

It was great day for cycling.

A lot to see in the park.

Arrived the beach.

Taking a break. We haven't riden a bicycle for a while, but we really enjoyed it.

It took about an hour to finished a complete circle around Stanley Park's seawall.

Well, this is how we enjoy the autumn season here. And...

Winter is not welcomed!!

September Wine - Part III

2008-09-07T21:00:00.018-07:00

The third day in Okanagan.

Too bad, this is our last breakfast at Apple Blossom...

We sat at table with two couples from England and Edmonton.

And John was entertaining as well.

Fruits parfait with yogurt.

Healthy and tasty.

Warm homemade bread has arrived. It's moist and warm. Yum!

Look at the containers for butter and jam, but jam was not apple flavor...

Their special healthy Pancakes were the main dish.

It had very little flour. Very soft and tasty, what a breakfast!!

We checked out Apple Blossom at 10:00. Best B&B we ever stayed!!

We decided to go to one more winery, Quails' Gate.

This place isn't as big as Mission Hill, but it is another very famous winery here.

Nice vineyard.

And this time, the weather was the best among three days we stayed.

We joined the winery tour too.

Grapes!!

And inside wine cellar.

The tour guide explained their special way to make wines.

Wine Tasting.

We tasted White, Rosé , and Red wine.

Inside the store.

And you can taste their samples at the counter bar.

We came to the Old Vines, the restaurant in Quail's Gate for lunch.

Actually the B&B owner and other guests were talking highly of this restaurant. So we wanted to try before we leave.

Bread's arrived.

With herb butter, it tastes pretty good.

Taddy had Rainbow Trout.

Fiona had Albacore Tuna.

Super Deliciaous!!

We can enjoy the the nice view from inside of the restaurant.

This nice environment made us feel very relaxed and comfortable while we were waiting for the desert.

Coffee is a necessity before long drive.

This chocolate cake with maple honey ice cream is just amazing!! $10 is worthy for this plate.

We left Okanagan at 1:30 PM.
Arrived Vancouver at 6:30 PM.

Before leaving Okanagan area, we stopped to buy peaches and plums.

They were too ripe, so we had to eat very quickly.

We really enjoyed our Okanagan trip this fall!!

September Wine - Part II

2008-09-06T20:32:00.050-07:00

Our second day in Okanagan.

In the morning, we saw this wonderful view from the B&B's garden.

We came to the dining room for the breakfast.

We ate with other guests.

First, their original Banana Split.

Healthy and tasty!

Their special scone.

Honestly, this is the best scone we ever had!!

And Eggs Benedict.

Soooooo good!!

Surprisingly, we were so full...!!

Because the B&B name is "Apple Blossom", there are a lot of apple related stuff in the house. Everywhere in the house, you see apples.

Check out the owner's vest.

Even though in the guest's living room, how many apples can you find?

The chess board is kinda cool, and that wooden apple case is Fiona's favorite.

Apples in the guest's kitchen too.

Tons of apples.

And this is the name of the room we stayed.

After the filling breakfast, we went for the outdoor.

Nice vineyards, and nice weather.

We arrived Kettle Valley Railway.

Not many people were hiking since most of them were riding bicycles.

After 30 minutes walking, we reached the first trestle.

Rest a while.

Let's see how many trestles are here...

Wow, 18 in total!!

Started walking again.

We walked about 25 minutes...

And reached the second one.

Taddy was bit scared walking on the side.

Well, we could not go through rest of the Kettle Valley Railway, so we decided to turn back.

It started raining, so we stayed under the big rock.

Left KVR.

On the way back, we found Apple orchards.

Kind of pretty. Are they ripe??

Our First Winery Tour:

We then arrived the Mission Hill winery.

This is the symbol tower for Mission Hill.

Vineyards!!

Actually these vineyards for displaying and demo purpose. not the real thing for making wine.

The place is quite big. And it's very beautiful.

Enjoyed walking around.

Picture time.

In very peaceful environment.

Nice building.

Okay, let's go inside.

Wow, a lot of wines!!

A lot of things to look around.

There was a gallery type of room.

A big barrel.

These tags were our tickets to the tour.

The tour begins.

The guide showed us a movie and took us outside to explain about grapes and wine making briefly.

Then we went to the underground cellar.

Wow...!!

So cool!!

It's a interesting tour, and we really enjoyed it.

Finally, it's wine tasting time.

We had four different types of wine with super tasty organic cheese.

The first one is: 2006 Select Lot Collection Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon (0) - $26.99.

Taddy still doesn't like white wine much.

And 2006 Reserve Pinot noir (0) - $29.99.

Hmm... interesting taste.

2004 Select Lot Collection Syrah (0) - $34.99

This one is Taddy's favorite.

2005 Reserve Vidal Icewine (21) - $49.99.

This ice wine was Fiona's favorite.

And we got gifts.

Brand new wine glasses, cool!!

For the dinner, we went to a golf course' club house.

The view is nice but the food is just so so.

Taddy had a steak.

And Fiona had a grilled chicken.

Well, except dinner, we really had a great day!!

(To be continued...)

September Wine

2008-09-05T21:00:00.005-07:00

Arrived PeachLand.

In front of Okanagan Lake.

One Friday in early September, we left Vancouver for Okanagan area which is about 300 km away. It was our weekend getaway.

It was cool and bit windy, but it's so nice walking along the lake (a tiny part of the lake).

It's a cute small town.

We had a light and late lunch at Bliss.

Had Thai curry soup with some bread, and it was all right.

After lunch, we went to the Antlers Beach.

The water's cold, but felt so good!!

We then moved to the Hardy Falls.

The warning sign about the bear kind of scared us.

It's a small hiking (more like walking). There were several small bridges and we looked at the little river/stream, and there were many salmons.

They are called "Kokanee Salmon".

And look what we found in the end of the trail...

Kind of cute.

Took a rest by the water fall.

Well, lucky we didn't meet the bear.

We drove back to the beach in Peachland because Taddy wanted to swim in the lake.

Nobody was swimming besides him...

After Taddy's short swim in the lake, we drove to Westbank, which is 20 minutes driving from Peachland. We came to Apple Blossom, and it's first time for us to stay in a Bed and Breakfast in Canada.

A lot of decorations in the house and garden, a lots of flowers. The house is on a hill and there's a well maintained path leading you to the house, if you go from the front.

We are at the first floor.

This is the Spartan room we stayed.

Nice and cozy. All the four guest rooms in this B&B are named after some types of apples.

The owner of B&B recommended several restaurants in towm, and we picked a Greek restaurant, "Aegean Grill" for the night.

Since we had a light lunch, we were quite hungry.

Taddy ordered a glass of wine. By the way, Okanagan is famous for wineries.

Pita bread, it's pretty good.

Taddy had Lamb dish.

And Fiona had Calamari dish.

The food is sooo good!!

The restaurant exceeded our expectation. The quality and quantity were very satisfying

We had a great evening. And went back to the B&B.

(To be continued...)

She Can See Clearly Now

2008-07-25T23:11:00.001-07:00

Fiona had her cataract surgeries on both eyes. The first one was done for her left eye.

And she needs to put the eye shield when she sleeps.

Several different type of eye drops.

4 times a day.

:::The following week, she had another one on the right eye:::

Inside the Eye Care Center.

The surgery area is in the basement.

Before surgery.

Because this is the second surgery, she wasn't nervous at all. But Taddy was more nervous.

After surgery.

Now it's all done, so she is happy.

Because she had surgeries on both eyes...

This is how she sleeps now!!

His Work Friday

2008-06-27T23:11:00.034-07:00

We went to the Surrey Art Gallery on Friday evening.

For Opening Reception of Arts 2008 (A Juried Exhibition of Local Art).

We actually went with Lew family. Surrey is like 30~40 minutes by driving from where we live.

First time for all of us to attend the gallery reception in Canada.

Entering the building.

There are quite some people in the gallery.

Time to see the local talents.

58 artists' work are in the show.

Justin and Ashley explored Art.

And so did Fiona.

The announcement and speech went pretty long...

By the way, Taddy's illustration is in the show.

It has been more than 12 years since he did his last illustration. He wasn't totally happy about what he created this time.

"Past Three Years" - Mixed Media 21.5" x 15"

As his style of illustration, the piece reflects his identity, imagination, and good memories. Each element, such as figures (his families, Chaiwat, Fouquets, Paynes, Chi Ching, etc.), and the environment, comes from one of the four cultures that Taddy has tasted in the last three years.

All right, refreshments!

They served punch but no wine...

Inside the building is kinda cool.

So we just walked around.

Ashley and Justin explored the building.

Well, we had spent enough time in the gallery.

Came out of the building.

It was around 8:30 PM, but the outside was still warm and bright.

There is a big park near by the gallery.

So we took a short walk.

After we came back home, we ate snack and drank wine!

Our Big Fat Greek Festival

2008-06-22T09:47:00.024-07:00

So many people on this warm Sunday afternoon...

It's Greek Day on West Broadway.

We went to the last day of Greek Heritage Month.

Many food stand were selling Souvlaki, therefore the street was quite smoky because of the cooking.

Several blocks on West Broadway were closed for the event.

There's also a stage for live music performance.

In front of this store, there's some ethnic music performance. Not sure which ethnic music was being played, but surely it's nice.

This is Greek doughnut.

Fun to try it for an experience. It's not bad at all but we probably would not eat it again. Too sweet...

Greek dance on the street.

And we found a nice store on the street.

Most of the items are antiques and they are well displayed.

Prices are bit expe...

Some people wearing Greek costume, more slouvaki cooking, Greek cooking demo and some antique car.

...and that tall angel.

Fiona is buying Falafel wrap.

This is not the best Falafel we've ever had. But alright.

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Taddy cooked Curry for dinner. There're potatoes, scallops and pork.

Spicy and yum!

For Sale by Owners

2008-06-15T22:10:00.002-07:00

We joined the garage sale organized by Lew family and some neighbors last weekend.

The first time for us to do the garage sale in Canada.

It's quite a selection, isn't it?

Lew family decorated the setting pretty good.

And this is our table.

We wanted to get rid of DVD player, computer keyboard, some DVD and VCD, shoes, and clothes.

However, we didn't sell much that day...

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Next day (Sunday) was much nicer and warmer outside.
Expected more people to come, but not much different from Saturday...

See? Compare to other neighbors, we had a lot of stuff.

Well, at least we could sell that DVD player and computer keyboard!

By the way, Tu papa and Tu mama (Penny's parents) stopped by our garage sale in the afternoon.
After the garage sale, they took us to a Cantonese style restaurant near by their place for dinner.

Tu papa and Taddy had glasses of wine.

"Pretty good wine", that's what Taddy said.

This crab dish is their specialty.

Steamed crab rice (left) and crab leg.

And other dishes.

Fish, tofu, green vegetable, and soup... yummy!!

And mango pudding for desert.

This one looks pretty and was so tasty.

We had a pleasant evening.
Thanks to Tu papa and Tu Mama!!

The Anniversary Dinner

2008-05-06T22:10:00.021-07:00

On our 3rd Anniversary...

Fiona is regretting why she got married with Taddy...

We went to West Vancouver, near by Ambleside Park at this evening.

Around 7:00 PM, it is still bright, and the sunset here is about 9:00 PM now.

Because it is our anniversary, we decided to have a dinner in this French Bistro, La Régalade.

Fiona's colleagues spoke very highly about this restaurant, so we are exited.

This place carries France home cooking style, so the atmosphere is pretty cozy .

The smell is so good inside the restaurant.

The bread has arrived.

They taste just like bread...

About 15 minutes later, pots were delivered to the table with food inside.

The sauce for one dish and the baked potato with garlic and cheese as the side.

This is Coq au vin, chicken in red wine sauce.

...and Carre de Porc. Regular pork chop cannot be compared with this dish.

So delicious!!
Both quality & quantity are perfect. Taddy couldn't even finish his dish, how unusual!!

We also ordered the desert, Isle Flotante.

It was pretty sweet, but good too.

We paid $67 in total, including tips and it is definitely worth it.
"Let's come back again", that's what we both said. What will we eat for the next time...?

Railroad Trip - Part II

2008-01-31T00:12:00.007-08:00

This is the train of Alishan Forest Railway.

We left Chiayi for Alishan around 1:30 PM.

Before that, we met with the Paynes at Chiayi station and had lunch together.

Paynes bought the tea and sweet for Taddy.

The rice cake is filled with whip cream and there's one big strawberry inside.

The train shakes pretty hard. There's no way you can sleep inside the train, even when the ride took more than three hours.

Most of the scenes we saw from the window was like jungle environment, but there were some nice views of mountains.

When the fog appeared around the mountain, we also started feeling the temperature is colder.

We arrived Alishan around 4:30 PM.
The shuttle bus picked us up and drove us to the hotel.

What a tiny room!

Looking at the outside view from the window...

Lovely sunset.

It looked quite mysterious too.

After resting for a while, we went to the shopping area.

There were a group of elementary school kids, doing some activity in the train station.

Time for dinner.

Fiona still had no appetite, so she just ate the vegetable and tofu soup. Taddy had fried noodle and Xiǎolóngbāo (but this one was more like Baozi).

In front of the big Thermometer.

The temperature was around 10C˚(50F˚) that night, not too bad in the mountain area like there.

Got to wake up early next morning, so we went to bed before 10 PM.

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The second day in Alishan:

We got up at 5 AM. It's time for a bus tour to go to the upper part of the mountain.

Before the sunrise.

That tree was huge.

Came to Yushan National Park.

Taddy was so sleepy that morning.

This pair is called "husband & wife".

Then it started raining...

The tour was cut short because of the weather!!

So disappointed... we couldn't see the famous Alishan sunrise, nor did we see the 'Ocean of cloud'.

The tour bus took us back to the hotel, and we had a late breakfast.
There were still a few hours before the train left for Chiayi. So we decided to take a walk around the Alishan National Forest Recreation area.

The lakes are called "Sister Lakes".

There is a story behind these two lakes that are next to each other.
"Once upon a time, there were two beautiful sisters, but they loved the same man. Sisters did not want to hurt each other, and they each jumped into a lake. So the two lakes were named after this sad story of love."

Here's one called "Golden Pig Brings A Good News", do you see the figure of a pig?

This one is "Hearts Together Forever", see the shape of a heart, right?
And of course, there are more.

We left Alishan around 1 PM.
It was not a great visiting... but it's because of the weather, what can we say?

At Fenchihu station, Taddy bought the local lunch box.

A Pork chop, sausage, egg and vegetables are all inside the lunch box. And it's only around US$3.

Again, the train shakes!

Getting closer to Chiayi.

We arrived Chiayi at 4 PM. Paynes picked us up at the station.

For dinner, we met up with Shu chun's family in Budai.
We had dinner at a local seafood restaurant.

After dinner, we came to Shu chun's parents' house for tea.

This is a Sugar-apple, also known as "Buddha's head". They say it is quite expensive fruit in Taiwan.

Left Budai and went to Chiayi's Night market!!

P.S. Because Taddy was using his new camcorder most of the time during this trip, there are not more pictures about this Taiwan trip. So no way to introduce the rest of out trip in Taiwan, even though we did a lot of interesting stuff including Chinese New Year events, etc. Unless Taddy edits the video footage and posts them on this blog...

Railroad Trip

2008-01-28T21:17:00.003-08:00

First time to ride a THSR 700T train.

It's Taiwanese Shinkansen!!

On January 27, our 3 nights and 4 days trip had started.

Kaohsiung was the first destination for this day.

The seats were very clean and comfortable.

We actually had a Taiwanese breakfast before the ride.

Taiwanese milk is pretty tasty.

Arrived New Zuoying Station.

It's like an airport.

Fiona's friend, Wu Cheng Cheng came to pick us up with her husband.
Drove to the city side.

...but, Taddy started feeling sick.

When we arrived Cheng Cheng's mom's apartment, Fiona's other friends, Chi Ching, Samantha, and Nikki were already there, what a surprise!!

:::Time to explore Kaohsiung city:::

We went to the famous shop for beef noodle for the lunch.

Very tasty!

After lunch, we took a walk along the Love River.

Cute puppies came to play with us.

Time for snack. Already??

This store is famous for some type of Taiwanese sticky rice and pork soup.

We resumed the walking after the snack.

"When I see those temples on the streets, I feel that I am in Taiwan" by Taddy

Okay, now it's time for the Taiwanese sweets!!

This place was packed.

Wow, so big!!

It was the middle of January, but was warm enough to eat these shaved ice deserts.

However, Taddy was getting weaker and weaker...

Came to Xizi Bay, but Taddy decided to sleep inside the car.

There were a lot of people visiting this time.

It's Qianqing Dagou British Consulat.

Well, they also look very tired.

Because of Taddy's sudden illness, we decided to check into the hotel.

Little bit New Year's decoration.

The place was pretty clean.

But we forgot to ask for a No Smoking room, so the room was smelly...

The bathroom has a lot of space.

Bruce Lee's on TV!!

"That's why I love Taiwan so much." by Taddy

Taddy slept more than 10 hours. Poor Fiona, she didn't even go to the night market...

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Next morning, Taddy felt so much better. However, now it's Fiona who did not feel well.

Went for the breakfast.

Buffet is just lovely.

Fiona didn't have appetite, but Taddy enjoyed Taianese breakfast very much.

After checking out, we arrived Kaohsiung Station.

It's different from the station we arrived yesterday.

Take the local train to Chiayi Station.

Kind of nice, riding the local train.

Those two characters actually are the same as Taddy's home city, Okayama City.

And guess who's waiting at Chiayi Station?

(To be continued...)

It Happened One Afternoon

2008-01-26T19:00:00.004-08:00

Drinking Taiwanese "can coffee" inside the car.

Little bit too sweet...

We went to Luodong where our uncle's family live.

Arrived at uncle's dental office.

He looked at Taddy's teeth.

Before lunch, we just walked along the streets in town.

And found one Douhua (tofu pudding) store.

It was so good! Not too sweet at all.

This one is a small egg cake.

Taddy's favorite Taiwanese sweets.

The street was pretty busy.

Especially before the Chinese New Year, a lot people were shopping.

Fiona bought pig blood cake, coated with peanut powder.

Fiona's mom ate Youtiao(deep fried strip of dough) and peanuts soup.

Saw the wine store. Had some sampling.

Taddy bought 2 bottles.

At uncle's house.

Mother and daughter were just relaxing in the living room.

The lunch is served.

Hot pot, chicken, beef, fish, and vegetable!!

Wine in a big jar!!

Wow..., this one is pretty tasty! Taddy liked it a lot!

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We actually brought back the wine from Taiwan.

And we decided to open one in a weekend, drinking with Lew family.

These are also from Taiwan.

Dried vegetables (potatoes, green beans, burdock, mushroom).

And these are eggs which were boiled with soy sauce and spices for long hours.

They look like black beans...

You eat the egg white (the color is black now), feel like chewing rubber... but the taste is actually not bad at all!

Now let's taste the wine.

Hmmm... the taste is not as enjoyable as the samples Taddy had.

One Fine Taiwanese Day

2008-01-26T16:16:00.003-08:00

Traditional Chinese medicine doctor and Fiona.

Fiona always goes to see this kind of doctor when she comes home.

The Chinese art of combining medicinal herbs.

The doctor's wife is in charge of putting herbs together.

We went to a local restaurant near by our house for dinner.

The place was quite busy.

(menu)
A: Fried rice B: Stirred fry vegetable C: Oyster soup D: Fried noodle

E: Soup with seaweed and small fish F: Clams G: Baked fish H: Steamed fish

The food was awesome!!

We had a great time for the first family dinner at this time.
It's our first day in Taipei during our vacation.

Fiona's mom cooked breakfast the following morning.

Rice, vegetable, egg, fish, meat!

This tent-look-like thing is for keeping leftovers.

Haven't seen this item for a long time...

Taddy found his favorite Japanese snack at the convenience store near by the house.

It's pretty spicy.

Fiona bought this Taiwanese snack.

The taste is fishy...

:::Love Taiwan!!:::

Slap Shots

2008-01-15T21:09:00.002-08:00

They are pretty fast!!

We went to see the Junior Ice Hockey class in Burnaby where Justin belongs.

By the way, we never follow the Ice Hockey, even though a lot of Canadians are crazy about it...

There are several ice rings inside the building.

Inside the building is bit chilly.

The class has begun.

There are two instructors.

Most of the students are elementary and junior high students.

They are skating on the ice ring so fast with several different movement, it's pretty amazing.
Way to go, boys!!

There's a wide lounge space and food court upstairs.

And, you can see the practice from here.

There's an indoor court too.

They were playing succor.

Figure skating practice.

Hey, you are very flexible!

Of course, the adults' hockey is so much more powerful than junior's.

The sound was sooo loud!!

Did you have a good time?

Man, you look beaten..

:::After that, we went for dinner:::

This is the food court inside Crystal Mall. There were not many people this evening. Usually, this place is packed, especially it becomes crazy in the weekend.

This is kind of our favorite place to eat, and it's Chinese style of handmade noodle shop.

Their Xiǎolóngbāo (soup dumpling) and Jiaozi (Chinese dumpling) are pretty good!

Taddy ate their fried noodle. But Fiona had a baked fish with rice from a different store.

Justin was hungry. Hey, don't you feel food is tastier after the practice, huh?

Ashley, you better start figure skating!

New Year, New Year

2008-01-01T21:26:00.000-08:00

January 1st, 2008:

New Year's dinner with Lew Family.

Osechi is traditional Japanese New Year dish.

Zoni soup and nimame (beans).

"I miss Japan, especially New Year's time!!" -Taddy

:::Wish you all the best in the year of Rat, 2008!:::

Everyone's Holiday

2007-12-25T14:15:00.000-08:00

On a Friday night, we went to the Christmas party from Fiona's company.

P.S. Santa's beard is real!

The Party was held in Canada Place in down town.

Beautiful decorations for this time of year.

The party was really good, food, drink, and everything.

And Fiona won ipod touch from the drawing!!
But she says "I have ipod nano already..."

"It's mine now!" - Taddy

Nice view...

We stayed at the party until midnight. Free food & drink, it's just awesome!

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David and Amy came back from Seattle this weekend. We went out for dinner on Saturday night.

It's Chinese-Hunan style restaurant.

...uhhhh, not our taste, didn't enjoy very much.

Next day, we had dinner together again. This time, we went to a Chinese-Canton style restaurant.

The place was packed.

Cantonese cuisine.

Dishes are delicious! This time we enjoyed a lot.

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In our neighborhood.

Reindeers' heads actually move!

In upstairs' living room.

Justin has improved his piano pretty good lately.

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Dec 25, 2007:

Okay kids, it's a time you've been waiting for!!

Wow... Justin got ipod nano, and Ashley got Nintendo DS!

We received the present from them too.

P.S. The card is made by Ashley.

Hey, the parents also got Nintendo DS for themselves...?!

By the way, Lindt Lindor chocolates are the present from us.

They are now into their new toys.

Some of Ashley's tiny dolls are so cute.

Around 3 o'clock, it started snowing.

Now, it is White Christmas.

We had a Christmas dinner together too.

Randy cooked Chinese style chicken, and it goes with wine(Australian Shiraz) pretty well.

Of course, we got to eat deserts! Man, we ate a lot that night!!

And we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix DVD together after dinner.
It's so hard to follow the story of this series now...

:::Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas day!!:::

Big Bang Pumpkin

2007-10-30T02:19:00.000-07:00

Three days before Halloween, the landlord family asked us to join the Pumpkin Carving.

They had one extra pumpkin for us. Taddy wanted to try his first pumpkin carving.

Wow, they are big!

Justin and Ashley, you guys already have ideas?

All right, let's do it.

The cleaning was the worst part, but after that it's fun.

Almost...

Well done!

But Taddy wasn't very happy because the outcome was so different from his sketch.

Then we put the candles inside of Jack-o'-lantern.

They all look nice. We are ready for Halloween!

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October 31, 2007:

We decorated the house!

And kids are ready for Trick-or-treating.

Now, here are kids who came to our house for Trick-or-treating!

Some of them had style. We enjoyed seeing them!

The little girl wasn't much dressed up, but so cute!

But after all...

Poor pumpkins.

Well, maybe we'll dress up for next year, but until then...

See Ya!!

Mountain Drive Weekend

2007-10-27T03:19:00.001-07:00

We went for a short trip on the weekend. Drove 5 hours to get to Adams River from Vancouver.

Arrived Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park.

We wanted to see "Salmon Run".

The trail was filled with a lot of falling leaves.

Pretty nice!

But we did not see many salmon at this point.

And later, we found that there wasn't much salmon to see this weekend...

But still, this is a very beautiful place. Nice to walk around.

Beautiful sky!

We really enjoyed walking the "yellow trail".

and loved the sound when we stepped on the leaves.

Finally, we saw many sockeyes salmons!

"Welcome back!"

There was a big lake by the motel we stayed.

So we took a walk before dinner.

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Next day, pretty much what we did was driving, but took a different route this time.

Stopped several points to see nice views on the way back to Vancouver.

And we also stopped by Whistler.

Well, it's nice to get out of Vancouver once in a while. We saw and enjoyed the beautiful nature scenes from this trip!!

Temporarily Away from Home

2007-07-07T22:56:00.002-07:00

On the Ferry to Vancouver Island.

It was really nice day.

Ching family came to Vancouver in late June and stayed with us for a week.

We decided to go for a one-day trip on this Saturday.

In Victoria.

Walked into Bastion Square.

Somewhere along the coast line.

It was really beautiful!

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On Sunday, we went to see the Shannon Falls.

So cool!

On the way back, we stopped by Ambleside Beach.

We saw the cruise ship to Alaska. Very tempting...

Kids liked there.

Cleaning up??

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Following Saturday, we got a call from Tom Huang. After their Alaska trip, they stopped by Vancouver for a while.

Originally, we were going to have lunch together, but their flight schedule was changed.
So we just met them at the airport.

Fiona and Taddy were so shocked by Cole and Maya. Because they are so different from what we remembered.

Turning to Japanese

2007-01-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

Fiona wore a kimono for the New Year.

This kimono is from Taddy's aunt.

In Japan, there are still a lot of people wearing this traditional clothes for special occasions.

...but it takes time to get used to it, it's pretty hard to move around.

Inside the train to Kanazawa.

Taddy's mom slept almost on every transportation.

After sightseeing in Kanazawa city, we came to Kaga Onsen.

It's dinner time!

It's onsen time!

In the lobby in the morning.

Then we went for the tour of Kaga city.
This is the one of the stops called YUNOKUNI NO MORI.

These old houses are craft shops (workshop), souvenir shops, and tea houses and restaurants.

Hello Kitty is everywhere...

At Kaga onsen station.

You can see the big Kannon statue from the station.

We stayed in this area for two days and one night.

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By the way, Taddy's family has a dog.

Ryu has been with the family for more than ten years.

The last day in Japan, Kenichiro family came to see us that night.

They were becoming good friends.

The Trip to Kyoto

2007-01-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Jan 2, 2007:

The first stop of our Kyoto trip was the Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion Temple).

It was raining that day, but still many tourists.

Walking in the rain.

For the New Year's wish.

We went to the restaurant which is famous for Tofu dishes.

Jeff and Shanon had a tough time to eat these.

This restaurant has a pretty impressive garden.

And it's quite big.

After lunch, we visited Nanzen-ji.

Then we moved to Ginkaku-ji (the Temple of the Silver Pavilion).

Beautiful gardens.

The view from the hill.

On the way to the Gion area.

In front of Chion'in Temple.

The room we stayed.

Killing time before dinner.

The dinner time.

Poor non-Japanese (Jeff, Shanon and Fiona) did not enjoy 100% this very traditional Japanese meal.

After dinner, we went for a walk.

With a Geisha girl.

She's too white...

There wasn't much going on that night. Everything was closed pretty early.
I guess on new year's time in this area isn't so busy.

Jan 3, 2007:

The breakfast in the next morning.

Again, it's very traditional Japanese meal for this special time.

The one new year's styles, we got to drink sake!

It's the first time for Jeff and Shanon to drink sake in the morning.

We left the hotel around 9 o'clock.
Jeff and Shanon needed to catch the airplane, so we went to Kansai airport.
Taddy's mom cried so hard when she had to say good bye to them.

By the way, Jeff liked Yukata ( Japanese garment) from the hotel.

So he brought it back with him as a souvenir.

New Year's Day in Japan

2007-01-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

Jan 1st, 2007: Okayama City (Taddy's home city) in Japan

On New Year's Day, we went for the bort riding in the morning.

It was a nice day for boat riding in the sea.

This is about $30 lunch box for New Year's special.

Can you tell this is in the shape of a boar?

On the boat, they had the traditional rice cake making event.

First time for Fiona, Jeff and Soma to try it.

By the way, this is the boat we rode.

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We went to see The Great Seto Bridge in the afternoon.

Jeff, Shanon, Fiona, and Taddy tried Helicopter ride.

Launched!!

We are in the sky!

The view from the sky was just awesome!!

Landing on the ground.

"My..., my feet..."

By the way, the helicopter ride was only 10 minutes long, but costed $40 per person...

In front of Seto Inland Sea.

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We went to Kurashiki area in the evening.

The Bikan district of Kurashiki is famous area for sight seen.

19th-century warehouses are along quay in this area.

Many of them host merchants of artistic local wares.

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Well, this is how we spent New Year's day in Japan.

Last Day in Taipei

2006-12-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Hectic Taipei Tour:

We first visited Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

8:30 in the morning, everyone was still sleepy. (It's the day following the wedding reception)

It was actually a nice day,

...and quite windy.

The next stop was Longshan Temple.

At this time, there were already a lot of visitors.

There are many different things to see in this place.

Then we went to The National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine.

Jeff also guards in front of the soldier.

The buildings on this compound are beautifullyl crafted.

And it's a very sacred place.

The changing of the guards occurs every hour.

... and is quite an elaborate process, worth to see it!

We moved to Tamsui area, and had lunch there.

It's always a popular area.

The final place we visited was Fort Santo Domingo

It's a nice area to walk around.

There was a small museum section inside the building.

Our last Taiwanese dinner was at Din Tai Fung.

We all enjoyed their famous Xiaolongbao (small steamed dumplings)!

Even though we need to wake up early in the morning to catch the flight, Fiona went out with her friends for the last fun before leaving Taiwan.

So the rest of us (Fiona's parents, Paynes, Jeff & Shanon, and Taddy) had a drink together at home.

:::Good Bye Taiwan:::

The Longest Day in Taipei

2006-12-29T19:30:00.001-08:00

Episode III:
The Wedding Banquet

•1st entering•

•2nd entering•

Let's drink!

The basket and other decorations were actually created by aunt Mei-Hui.

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After the banquet, some folks came to our room to have another drink.

Jeff doesn't speak Japanese, and Mutsumi, Yu, and Kenichiro don't speak much English either.
However, they somehow could communicate and had a great time together. That was amazing.

Let's toast...again!

Analyzing his tattoo.

:::Thanks for watching:::

The Longest Day in Taipei

2006-12-29T15:17:00.001-08:00

Episode II:
Serving Tea to the Groom's Family

Our suite in Sheraton Taipei Hotel.

Caitlyn and Jesse were holding Fiona's dress to the room.

Taking pictures with Kenichiro's family.

The Paynes, Popo, Samantha, and Yun-Te.

Until Taddy's parents show up, we were just chilling.

Fiona's best friend, Chi-Ching was beside her all the time.

It's time to lift the vail.

And we are ready to serve the tea.

Taddy's parents and Fiona's grandma.
Grandma can speak Japanese so she was with them all time.

...and the bride receives red envelopes with money inside from them.

With Taddy's parents and the Fouquets.

Fiona is now relaxing.

Ok kids, it's snack time!!
On the table were bubble tea, McDonald's, and meat buns.

They were actually starving, so they ate like crazy.

Adults were hungry too, especially Taddy's mates. Taddy didn't even let them eat lunch.
It's too bad that they ate too much finger food before the banquet...

Soma was kissing Rin and Rio.

Again, just hanging out until the reception time.

Almost time for us to get ready for the banquet.

Going to the banquet hall!

(To be continued...)

©Most of Photos by Jeff & Shanon

The Longest Day in Taipei

2006-12-29T12:00:00.001-08:00

Finally, here is our main event in Taiwan.

Yes, it's about this!'

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By the way, Taddy's family arrived Taipei from Japan a day before the wedding.
They stayed at Grand Formosa Regent Taipei.
P.S. Taddy's mom cried when she finally met Jeff and Shanon at the airport.

It was the first time for Fiona and Taddy to meet Taddy's naphew, Rio.

After checking into the hotel, we went for dinner hosted by Fiona's family.

Taddy's parents and his cousin, Yu.

Fiona's parents.

Fiona's aunt, Mei-Hui and grandmother.

Another aunt, Mei-Ling and her husband. Both aunts and grandmother are kind and sweet. They are Taddy's favorite.

Time for the family toast.

Fiona with Soma. Mutsumi and Yu are happy because they were full.

Now, this is a typical Japanese thing, giving a lot of souvenirs from Okayama City, Japan.

"Thanks!!"

After the dinner, we went to Shilin Night Market and met Chuck's family, Jacky, and Shu-Mei there.
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Episode I:
Pay Respect & Say Good-Bye to the Bride's Parents

Dec 29, 2006:
Taddy and his team left the hotel and came to Fiona's house. According to the Chinese custom, the groom's parents should not be part of this team. The groom's parents stay home and wait until the groom takes the bride back to his parents home where the bride will serve tea to the parents as a new family member.

Kinda nervous...

It was not easy for them to enter the house. Taddy was requested to do some tests by Fiona's girlfriends as a Taiwanese tradition.

"All right, hold this."

The girls (Hsiu-Hui somehow was the leader) asked Taddy to prove his true love for Fiona. For example, #1 expressing his love in Chinese and then #2 dance a little bit.
#3 He also had to sing a song (Taddy made up the stupid song).

To demonstrate that he's healthy and strong, Taddy did 20 push ups!

He passed the tests and was allowed to enter the house...

Waiting for the bride.

Tea and some Taiwanese sweets were served while waiting.

I don't think these Japanese and Americans enjoyed the sweets...

Fiona as the bride coming down to the living room.

Taddy was nervous. He took Fiona to her parents.

Bow to parents.

Fiona's father started crying so hard and that made us cry too.

Fiona, her parents, her brother and Taddy.

Now it's time to leave the house.

Giving red envelopes (little money inside) to friends and relatives who played various roles.

And ready to leave for Sheraton Taipei Hotel, where the reception was held that night.

Riding the nice cars made us feel pretty cool!!

(To be continued...)

©Most of Photos by Jeff & Shanon

Once Upon a Time in Taiwan

2006-12-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

We'd like to share with you the photos which a wedding photo studio took for us in Taiwan.
These were taken 10 days before our reception day.

謝謝!!謝謝!!謝謝!!謝謝!!謝謝!!!Thanks!!

Last Day in Chiayi

2006-12-25T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hsiu-Hui's mom's shop.

Paynes live upstairs.

It was the *Christmas day*

Somehow, they knew what they would receive...

Jesse and Caitlyn with their Christmas gifts.

Very relaxing morning.

Taddy is getting his hair dyed.

Too red...

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A Gorgeous Temple in Chiayi:

In the afternonn, we went to visit BaoAn Temple.

They are beautifully designed.

The splendid entrance.

Amazing details of curvings!!

There are so many things to see.

Felt very sacred inside this temple...

Jeff praying in Chinese style.

This is how it works:
You pray first, then go to pick a stick #1. Each stick has a number that corresponds to a poem. The answer to your pray is hidden in the poem. After pick up a stick, you then throw #2 to the floor. If these two wooden pieces facing different directions (for example, one faces up, another one faces down), that means you have picked the right stick for your pray. If these to wooden pieces face the same direction, you'd have to pick another stick and repeat the process until you reach the right one.
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After visiting the temple, we went to the city.

The popular bakery in Chiayi.

So many different kinds of breads and cakes.

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A Nice Park in Chiayi:

We arrived the park.

Ate up all buns.

Jesse rocks.

Hiking time.

There are several trails.

In the end of the path...

Having nostalgic moment.

Of course, they can swing way better than adults.

There's a small temple in the parking area.

Elements are different from BaoAn Temple.

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It's already eveninig.

The view from this tower was ...okay.

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Lovely food in Chiayi:

Dinner at Hsiu-Hui's aunt's restaurant.

Believe or not, they are all vegetarian food.

Yummy〜!!

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Chiayi's famous Chinese spring roll store.

We just watched how they make it.

Taiwanese MacDonald's...

...and KFC.

After we came back, Chuck demonstrated how to put 4 people in one scooter. (Taddy always wanted to do this)

Turning Taiwanese...

Another small temple(?) in the neiborhood.

Hsiu-Hui's dad showed this to us.

It's the famous Japanese sake brand, Kikumasamune, 35 years old. (unopened)

It's time for Jeff, Shanon, Fiona and Taddy to leave Chiayi.

:::Heading back to Taipei:::

Forget about Greyhound!

Aloha bus is awesome! You can really sleep in this bus.

By the way, Taddy left camera on the bus...
(Fortunately we got it back later)

Meet the Paynes

2006-12-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Finally, we met the Payne family!

Paynes: (from left) Chuck, Hsiu-Hui, Jesse and Caitlyn

At the fancy restaurant in Chiayi City.

Dongxuanyuan Tea House

You can eat at this place while enjoying the Chinese architecture.

"Yes, they are edible."

Authentic Taiwanese food!

"Fish with dry soybean" was uhhh...okay.

We finished eating, but stuck around for a while.

Every sitting area is different.

This Chinese style garden is quite fun!

Very interesting place.

After the restaurant, we went to shopping streets.

There are lot of shoe stores, and Shanon was surprised.

A lot of people, a lot of scooters...

Chiayi's Night Market!!

Taiwanese BBQ!! Taddy was addicted to chicken butt.

Caitlyn and Jesse, they are already hungry.

"Sugar coated tomatoes" that Fiona can't refuse.

Shanon also tried. She loved it.

Taiwanese dry fruits.

It's very fun to walk around.

In this night market, there are some game corners too.

So many stuff to look at.

Jeff loves swords.

Of course, we went back their home late.

By the way, this was the Christmas Eve!
It's interesting to spend Christmas Eve this way.

Magical Mystery Taiwanese Tour - Part II

2006-12-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Breakfast in Taiwanese style.

After breakfast we went for hiking in the mountain.

It was a nice, but long walking.

Passed the red brigde.

Finally the destination! It took about 45 minutes to get here.

After checking out the hotel, went to visit the big bridge.

At the end of the bridge, there was the store selling honey.

We tried some samples.

They opened the box and showed bees to us!

Leaving Dongpu area.

↓our tour bus.

On the way back, stopped by another temple and nearby shops.

The history of ice creme in Taiwan - by Professor Fouquet

In front of the famous "washroom" in Taiwan.

Inside the washroom.

They spent a lot of money (more than 1 million U.S.$) to built this washroom building.

Taiwanese opera on the stage.

Very fun area, a lot is going on!

We enjoyed this local tour. Met many nice people!

At some point, we got off the tour bus because we were going to see friends who live in Chiayi City.

At the bus station, waiting for the bus to Chiayi City.

They look tired...

Going to see Paynes!!

Magical Mystery Taiwanese Tour

2006-12-23T16:44:00.000-08:00

Jeff and Shanon joined us in Taiwan on Friday, Dec 22th, 2006.
Next day, we went for a Hot Spring Tour to Dongpu in Nantou area.

7:00 am, inside the tour bus that Fiona's relatives chartered.

Stopped by a temple damanged by the big earthquake in 1999.

They tried some sample.

Lunch time.

Beautiful mountains.

Nice walk in the mountain.

Plum trees.

Main street in that little hot spring town, Dongpu.

↑The hotel we stayed.

After dinner, we went to Hot Spring.

Felt so good〜!! We slept like babies that night.

(To be continued...)