I mentioned previously that there are three Costco’s in Taipei, and that the third one is so far out that it was off our maps and no one had any idea where it was.
My frivolous goal is to photograph every Costco in the world, which may seem impossible, but it gives me a goal.
As we began entering the outskirts of Taipei, Mr Huang spotted and pointed out the third Costco. I briefly glimpsed it as it passed behind a hill, and was not visible when we got past the hill. I was playing with the GPS so I managed to get a fix, but the camera was on the floor and I couldn’t react fast enough to take a picture.
Now I know where it is. My expedition to Carrefour had been about a 1 mile walk from the last station and I took readings there and at the station. The third Costco appears to be about 2-2.5 miles further in a direct line from the Carrefour. As the subway station was sitting right along the railroad tracks, there should be a straight, level path in that direction. I might consider trying to locate it on foot, despite not having a street map of the area. The non-linear nature of the city streets makes it potentially difficult, but I’m reasonably sure I could navigate back to the station if I had to.
It will just depend on available time on a trip that is now certainly looking more towards the end than the beginning.
When we got back we finally went out to dinner as a family. I was hungry enough even Chinese food sounded good.
We went to a place that specialized in Northern Style Chinese food. That consists of lots of dishes made with flour, noodles, dumplings, bread-like things along with other things such as hot pots and Peking Duck. Chinese restaurants in the US have an overwhelming majority of Southern style restaurants, as the predominant immigrants during the railroad era were Cantonese from the south. Generally when Americans think of Chinese food, Cantonese style is what dishes come to mind.
To my knowledge, in Phoenix, there is not a single Northern style restaurant, which is a shame, as I like it better.
I mention dinner not because of the food, but because of the entertainment.
My mother-in-law has been complaining that Michelle is a poor orphan because we’re so harsh on her. (Gosh, we make her put her own shoes on and hold hands when crossing the streets, what brutes we are!) She’s been spoiling her rotten, and her increasingly bad behavior lately can be tracked right back to one thing: She’s runs to grandma every time she doesn’t like something we tell her to do. Grandma promptly does it for her and bribes her in the process.
Tonight at dinner, the restaurant staff (wisely) gave Michelle a set of plastic dinnerware instead of the china everyone else got.
Grandma promptly noticed that Michelle’s dishes looked “old” – not “dirty” or “broken”, just “old” and so she took them away from Michelle and gave her a set of china.
She promptly took the china bowl and slammed it down in the china saucer and then took the china soup spoon and started banging it inside the bowl. The owners realized they must have accidentally given the wrong dishes to her and tried to swap them, but now Michelle (and her nut grandmother) wouldn’t let them. Michelle just wanted to be troublesome and grandma still felt the dishes looked old.
Later, Michelle kept climbing all over grandma with dirty, messy hands, which, as grandma is a bit of a clean-freak, amused the heck out of me. I was hoping she’d pull her wig off in public.
If the day hadn’t been long enough, Irene and I were going to go to the night market, but the rain finally came and we (somewhat relieved) didn’t go.
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