Saying Goodbye

 We felt a bit melancholy knowing it was our last day, but we rallied and it didn’t disappoint.  Following our last Taiwanese hotel breakfast, we headed over to the Red House.  Next stop, via the metro, was the Creative Park.  We enjoyed shmiing around, but the best part for Romi was certainly his waffle. 

 After 13 days in the heat and humidity, climbing countless stairs and walking literally miles a day, we decided on some pampering.  We ducked into a local store for foot massages.  Our toes received a hot soak and a wonderful rub, and they also worked on our head, neck and shoulders.  This little storefront had everything from comfortable chairs to hot towels, all for $550 (which equals about $18 US).  We left an hour later, relaxed and happy.

 After a brief stop at our hotel to freshen up and cool off, we headed out for an early dinner.  We had reservations at Mia Cucina, an all-vegetarian Italian restaurant with good online reviews.  What we didn’t expect was for the restaurant to be in a department store.  It was a total throw back to a different time, with the fancy-ish eatery in the middle of a large retail establishment.  It even had chandeliers and overlooked the cosmetics department.  (We were happy it wasn’t perfume!)

We ordered a wide variety of tasty treats, including salad, pizza and pasta, and a waffle to share for dessert.  The food was really, really good, but the best part of the meal was when every member of the waitstaff took a look at the three of us and turned to Romi to speak with him in Mandarin.  He was used to it at this point in the trip and just went with it, nodding along.  Rob was concerned that he was agreeing to buy a time share, but it seemed to work out just fine.

We returned to our hotel to shower and pack up.  We even had time to make a video reflecting on our trip.  Far too soon it was time to head downstairs to meet Mr. Yeh. 

Mr. Yeh was our driver 15-years ago on our first trip to Taiwan.  In 2008 he spent a week lugging us and two other families (shout out to Lee, Theresa and Maddy along with Kim, Kent and Kai!) around the country, alternating between paperwork and site-seeing and baby feedings.  We had arranged the ride to the airport through Gladney, but I am not certain they explained the connection, because when we showed Mr. Yeh photos of himself with baby Romi and baby Maddy, he got really excited.  The language barrier presented no problems when we took a moment for photos at the airport.

We had some time, so we hung out at the airport.  There were many, many duty-free stores, but no convenience shops.  I have no idea what people who need last-minute gum or a magazine do at TPE.  We did manage to find a Jamba Juice, and used some of our last “free” money on my Easy Card to enjoy some smoothies.

Our flight home was uneventful, the best kind, and even a bit shorter going that direction—only 12 hours instead of 14!  In a weird twist of modern travel, we took off close to midnight on Thursday night and landed at LAX at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, three hours before we took off.  China Airlines was lovely, and paying for the upgrade was once again clearly the right choice.  Thanks to Global Entry (also totally worth the cost) we breezed through customs, picked up our bags and then waited for what felt like forever to get our rental car. 

We arrived safely in El Cajon at 2:00 a.m. and managed to sneak into the Dinsdale’s home without waking up anyone.  We found our beds and gratefully fell into them.