A (Family) Night on the Town

On a recent Friday night we hit the town -- family style.

First we went out for dinner at one of the few American restaurants in Taipei. I have been trying to take my camera everywhere to capture every day moments. The kids don't much like me taking their picture all the time, so I let them have a turn at it sometimes.

This is how Anna "drinks" lemonade:

Ethan, after eating ribs, in a rare moment of cooperating for a picture.

This was our waiter. He was crazy to the point of being annoying. He wrote our order on his arm. We wonder what that looks like at the end of a busy night? When we were almost ready to leave he came and asked if he could sing us a song that he wrote. Okay, sure. It was ridiculous and I think he had better keep his day job. Afterward he agreed to pose for a picture (no surprise really, he was not short on ego!) I wish I had taken it instead when he was singing, but I think I was too much in shock to reach for the camera.

(By the way, the waiter's glasses were fake. You see that a lot here. A LOT. People wear frames with no lenses. Sure, because it makes them look...? We don't get it.)

After dinner we went across the street to a mini night market. (For those who don't live in Taiwan, a night market is a common thing. Many neighborhoods have certain areas where vendors come out of the woodwork about 4:00 and set up booths selling all kinds of cheap junk. And always there is food. Stinky tofu and squid on a stick and such.

There were some bouncing things. My kids are ALMOST too old for that stuff, but not quite too old yet, and so we let them burn off some energy.

They climbed up loads of times.

They slid down in all sorts of positions.

This one I thought for sure was going to result in a broken neck. Thankfully the only injury was a "rug burn".

I snuck a few pictures of other people's kids because I thought they were so cute. This first little girl was really adorable as she toddled around. I had my camera aimed at her for awhile but either she had her back to me or someone would step in between us.

Another very sweet, slightly older, little girl.

When I got bored I took dozens of pictures of the Miramar Ferris Wheel, trying to capture all of the different light combinations.

Since none of us are brave enough for the street food, we headed back to the mall for dessert. This is one restaurant we will actually MISS when we move back to the States: Haagen Dazs. I am not much of an ice cream fan, but it is impossible not to love Haavc gen Dazs. Here in Taiwan they not only sell the scrumptious creations, they do so in fabulously beautiful restaurants.

The restaurants all have these luxurious lounge chairs:

They have beautiful light fixtures.

A cool, sweet ending to a sweaty, fun evening.