Taipei 101

On June 4th we went to Taipei 101. It was huge. There were signs that bragged that the elevator was the worlds fastest so I was somewhat anxious about getting on the elevator after reading signs that strongly discouraged anyone prone to dizziness from riding. Jeri and I had vertigo. Her vertigo had the rooms spinning. mine had the floors moving up and down, but she was a trooper and wanted to do it. It was $14 per adult but worth it to me while Taipei 101 is the worlds tallest building. First we put our backpacks in free lockers which are available to anyone. Since we had the little boys in a side by side stroller we got to go to the front of the line since the stroller would not fit in the lines marked out. So we got in the elevator and they packed us in tight. After about 2 seconds the lights went out and they had stars on the ceiling of the elevator. I was thinking crap! I'm going to die! It was hot in there. Well the elevator went from the 5th to 89th floors in less than 30 seconds. I thought it was going to rocket us up there and then stop so our heads hit the ceiling and then we'd feel like hurling. But the ride was smooth all the way. Up top they have these wireless handheld recorders that talk your through 13 tour stations on the 89th floor. On stops 1-6 I never could see what they were talking about so I gave up and tried to get some good pictures of my own. That was tough because the pollution and haze makes it impossible to get a good view in the distance. The only good pictures I could get were looking down at the streets. After going to the 91st floor by special elevator we went to the center of the building that has some huge counterweight that helps stabilzes the building in wind and earthquakes. To go any higher you have to take steps so that was it for us. We went to floors 1-4 where they have high end shopping stores and in the basement there are about 50 or more restaurants. There was tons of deelicious looking food but we stayed simple with fried rice and chicken (which they still didn't really eat). Up on the 4th floor we stopped at a Haagen Dazs place where we spent $15 for 2 3 scoop bowls of ice cream. These were not Texas sized at all. They were mini scoops made with a mini scooper. But it was oh so good and it was Jace's and Jovi's first ice cream with us. It was relaxing and tasty. We walked around and checked out some of the stores. Jeri saw some purse she liked but of course we'd never spend more than $50 on a purse. I went in the store, picked up the purse in question and asked the lady if she thought it matched my wardrobe. She looked mortified, then I said just kidding. =) The purse was $400 so we left it there. Later we went back to the same couches looking for a place to relax since the boys had fallen asleep. We definitely didn't want to wake them from their nap. We also didn't want to go back to the Hotel too early because there Jace would cry for his foster parents. Whenever we were away from the hotel I think he considered us to be helping him look for them.

John