To Taiwan as the Summer Ends

 Summer wasn't quite over yet once we returned from the eclipse cruise, but we only had a week to pack everything up, finish what paperwork we could, and say our goodbyes. This included a day where the packers came a day early to start packing, while we had 2 kid playdates, met with the realtor, and one adult friend come over... needless to say, packing mistakes were made. Oops.

Then, we set to the skies!

The paperwork shenanigans deserve their own post. So, I won't go into them too much yet, because there's two tales to tell: human and cat. To put not too fine a point on it, due to mail delays we do not yet have our cat, and will be returning for her soon (cross your fingers everything goes right). 

But we are in our new home, and Teacup has started her new school. 

It is a 16-hour flight, and we are 12 time zones away, so the jet lag is real and painful. Also, there is a whole new round of paperwork--but good news! I got married! To my (same) husband! Again!

Basically, adding me to the household registry is considered the equivalent of a courthouse marriage. (Achieved through showing them records of our US marriage)

We have also been eating delicious food already, lots of takeout as we don't yet have a microwave (coming soon) and some experimenting with local dishes.

Breakfast sandwich --ham and cheese croissant.
The ham is sweeter and almost sausage-like. Kind of like a sweet country ham.

Turnip cakes. These are everywhere in Taiwan and very good.

Common breakfast dish--eggs in a savory wrap, cooked

Pokemon Mezastar: Not currently available in the US! Teacup enjoyed playing and got to keep the handful of tokens she won from the videogame. Also strategy to keep her entertained and sane and enjoying the first few days.

I started the family tradition of Sunday morning pancakes, and I wasn't going to let moving countries stop it! I couldn't find baking powder or soda, but luckily I managed to find a local pancake mix--it was sweeter than US pancake mixes, almost cake-like.

Getting over jet lag and picking up living supplies included a day of going to a nearby mall. Teacup noticed the slime studio and wound up taking a slime-making class. We did not actually get the supplies we originally went for, but Teacup DID make it past 7pm that night, so we consider it a win.

One the morning we found a random popup street festival in our local park. In exchange for visiting 10 booths in the fair, we got some prizes--this included 2 bags of random local greens from nearby farms. I experimented and made some lemon-garlic-pepper amaranth greens for lunch. They're pretty good! Also, the bread is more cake-like than it is in the US. It was fluffy and very sweet whole wheat bread.

I have a recipe in the US for a delicious pasta sauce my husband loves. Unfortunately, spinach, oregano, canned kidney beans, and cloves were not at the local grocery store, nor was my usual pasta sauce; and beef is very expensive. So I decided to start experimenting with local ingredients. Instead of beef, ground pork; sweet potato greens in place of spinach; much more onion than previously; Prego as a base... I have more experimentation to do before it's ready to share, but it's not bad.

My husband and I also went out for dim sum one day, trying one of the sit down restaurants at the mall (and yes, we had a bit more luck with our shopping list time, too!). 

chicken congee

shrimp dumplings, shumei, steamed egg buns

turnip cakes and steamed cabbage

Sweet egg custard bao

Egg custard filling!

Mango porridge dessert

While at the mall, we came across a random tea tasting, and joined in. We got to enjoy a couple of delicious raw puerhs.

While a lot of our time has been the usual moving/ paperwork /settling-in stresses (and some less usual ones), the food is good, and we're having fun experimenting and making ourselves feel at home. 

Now just wish us luck on getting the cat.

Eclipsing the Rest of Summer

Two years ago we saw a total eclipse in Ohio, our second totality and Teacup's first. We immediately decided we wanted to see another, but what if the weather was cloudy, as some other regions had to deal with? 

"Wouldn't it be great if we could watch from a boat? Then we could just steer to clear weather!" my husband mused.

Well.

Turns out there is such a thing. So we started planning the budget and put down a deposit.

And thus we spent the 2026 summer eclipse on a cruise. 

Also, amusingly, it seems that Royal Caribbean was not prepared for how popular an eclipse Cruise would be, nor did they expect so much excitement for totality... but after enough passengers complained that advertising a cruise as an 'Eclipse Cruise' meant they ought to give us totality, they invited an astronomer and a meteorologist, and altered the itinerary to maximize totality. There were no eclipse-themed souvenirs offered on board. They have already planned a cruise for the next eclipse and I have the strangest feeling that cash-grab oversight will be corrected by the next eclipse sailing.

So the first thing we did, as the cruise left from Southampton, was spend two days in London. Well okay, the FIRST thing we did was check into a nearby airport hotel, accidentally lock our luggage and then spend 30 minutes trying to figure out how the suitcase lock worked, and then crashed into jet lag sleep. But the second thing we did was head to London, drop off luggage at the next hotel, and then go sightseeing.

Buckingham Palace:

Day two we wanted Teacup to see a castle in addition to a palace, so it was Tower Day. As Teacup is still young, and jet lag and travel and walking all day is pretty overwhelming, we chose just 2 big things to do--there is a lot we hope to return to see one day!

Tower of London, Tower Bridge, river boat tour views of London (package deal with Tower of London):

Tower of London Armory

Tower Bridge

Eye of London, as seen from river tour

Big Ben and Westminster, as seen from river tour 

Then for day 3 we dashed down to Southampton on the National Express (missed our train of course, but had plenty of leeway to still catch the next one), grabbed an early afternoon tea, and then boarded the cruise!

Afternoon tea before boarding

On the Liberty of the Seas at last!

Sailing photos-days 1 & 2

sunset

Eclipse presentation by Amy Oliver, FRAS  astronomer. (The AI captions were HILARIOUSLY bad, I had to change photos to avoid inadvertent swearing. But the presentation was great.)

Getxo, Spain

Teacup found definitive proof that mermaids are real in the port of Getxo, in the form of mermaid scales , as you can clearly see. (stop: Bilbao, Spain, but we never got past the port town). We spent all port on the beach here photographing mermaid scales, getting lunch, and then walking along the beach promenade (and eating ice cream).

Gijon, Spain

"Okay, Teacup, Mommy and Daddy want to explore something beyond just the beach today. Do you want to join us, do you want to try Adventure Ocean, or do you want to split the day and do half of both?" 

"Half of both!" 

Our full day:

The water was very clear, also rather cold. I was the only one who wore a swimsuit. We had a most excellent time chasing fish around in the water and trying to herd them. By the time we remembered to eat, most of the lunch places were closed, and Teacup couldn't stand the smell of smoke in the others, and we finally find a place in a hotel by the sea just in time to eat and then reboard. I forgot to get photos of lunch, which is a shame, because it was a delicious stew and fresh fish.

the port as we sailed away 

Vigo, Spain

No beach today, we firmly directed Teacup to exploring town. She was fascinated by a basket weaving shop, enjoyed the streets of the shopping district, and even let us drag her up to the ancient fort overlooking the town and sea.

an amazing lobster rice dish for lunch

outdoor escalators

Eclipse Day!

We caught another presentation by Amy Oliver, this one about how various cultures have reacted to eclipses in history. 

Teacup made sure her stuffies were safe to view the eclipse, giving them a stern lecture to keep their glasses on. Then Gao the dragon was given permission to eat the Sun, since it is apparently a long tradition across many cultures for dragons to do so at eclipse time (but he had to promise to spit it back out!).

yep, trucks

Yep, terrible eclipse photos through half a pair of eclipse glasses, lol. But so fun!! We were shoulder to shoulder on deck. I swear I could feel the boat tilting starboard. The sky was clear, the people were enthusiastic and happy, and when totality occured, there was wild excitement, including the ship horn and everyone cheering! 

La Coruna, Spain

We had a full culture day this port, too. Checked out a nearby park, where there was a craft fair and a comic book fair both going on. 

I feel like I should know who this character is, but I do not.

After the park, a stop to try churros and sipping chocolate (much thicker and richer than hot chocolate!)

Then visiting a seaside fortress

A beautiful sunset sailing away

Sailing day

Did you know you can go ice skating on a cruise? We went skating, and also did a pretzel decorating class (where the instructor had us decorate pretzels to match his story), played in the pools, and caught another sunset. 

Le Havre, France

Since the previous day was a culture day for the parents, Le Havre was a day for Teacup: eating our way across French sweets 

not pictured: the macarons that didn't last long enough for the camera to come out

hot chocolate, baguette, and jasmine- pistachio cake

Adults got to eat too! delicious quiche and salad!

Playing at a rocky seashore with c ool sculpture

Visiting St Joseph's church and seeing the amazing beautiful stained glass steeple

A really nifty cargo container sculpture

Not shown: the patterns we spent hours at, the peach crumble and tasty dinners, the fact that we couldn't make it to a croissant shop on the way back to the shop because the chosen bakery was closed for a holiday and we were to tired to turn around 

Disembarking day & travel home

We booked a bus midmorning the day after disembarking, with just enough leeway that we could accidentally miss our bus and still get to the airport on time. (We made our bus this time though!)

That gave us a day to rest in Southampton (at a very cheap hotel, but it was all we needed), without worrying about packing or chores or paperwork or any moving stuff. 

We wound up accidentally sightseeing a random old fortress/castle at a shopping center while getting lunch.

discovered wagamama, which is apparently a big thing 

couldn't resist bubble tea at Tea-Rex

Wait what's that? Pokestop? Time for some British Pokemon Go!

Then it was time for home, jet lag, laundry, and moving chores.