Mom's 70th's Birthday Trip To Taitung

This is an important year. Hsiao-Wei and myself both turned 40, and mom - is turning 70. We've been struggling on what to give mom as her birthday gift as my mom is such a contended person, and she also had very low demand on material matters, neither does she wear any jewery or use luxury brands (other than if I insisted on buying for her).

Finally,we've decided a trip maybe a great gift for mom. At first when we proposed to take mom to Taitung, she immediately dismissed the idea. Yet, after a couple days, she said to me at dinner table - "if you are serious about taking me for a trip, let's go. Who knows how much longer I will have to live, and I think I should probably take the chance when I can still move around to go visit places. And it will be fun to also spend time with the grandkids".

So that was the deal. Besides taking mom, since Sean and Jean both had other enagagement, we've decided to take Christine (Hwai-Hwai) along with us, so the kids could play together!

Since it would take too long to drive down to Taitung, so we took the flight instead, but rented a van on the 2nd day so we still had the flexibility to move around Taitung.

The hotel room was great and perfert for the 6 of us. The bed was almost like a tatami which laied low on the floor, so the kids were jumping and runing around safely. Yet, at the end of the day, Mom and Christine slept on the sofa bed as it was still a little bit crowded for the 6 of us to fit on two queen size bed.

Not sure if mom had enjoyed the trip as much as the kids, but certainly the kids were having a wonderful time. The hotel facilities were meeting their demands already. This was probably also the first time that we got to utilize the hotel facilities to the full extend, from playing at the playground, feeding the fish and ducks in the pound, swimming in the hotspring swimming pool, then in the evening, spending time in the gameroom, and also visited the bird garden, all within the hotel premises.

The 2nd day, with the van, we went to 初鹿牧場 and also 三仙台, the wind was blowing so hard but mom and the kids all bravely finished the walk, going through the 8 bridges! At the farm, the kids were running around under the blue blue sky, on the green green grass, it was indeed the best natural playgound that we don't usually get by living in Taipei.. and the kids even rode on the horses :)

It's a wonderful time and great memory, its a gift for mom and also for all of us.