Taiwan - Day 8 (shabu shabu)

On our last day we convinced my Grandma to come out to lunch with us. She hasn't been out of her apartment since she fell a couple months back, but we busted out the wheel chair and walked her over to a shabu shabu place nearby - her favorite! Shabu Shabu is very popular in Taiwan - there are 4 places practically right next to each other. But my Grandma likes this one best because they have free ice cream ^__^


This is Maddy's first time going to shabu shabu.

They start you out with a basic plate that's full of veggies, a slice of pumpkin, mushrooms, fake crab meat, potato, corn on the cob, tofu, fish ball, and some other stuff. I was pretty much full on that alone. But they also make you pick a meat or seafood as a main dish.

Maddy got to ride in my Grandma's lap on the way home. She loved it.

Andy and his fiancée (who works with him as an assistant) were supposed to join us for lunch, but they got busy at the clinic, so we stopped by on the way home to say goodbye before our flight.

It was time to leave. It was hard to say goodbye to my Grandma as always, but my mom was staying back for another week, so that helped. My uncle has some connections at the airport and was able to get us into the EVA airways VIP lounge. This was my first time in a VIP lounge, and I have to say it was pretty nice. They had an entire buffet line of hot food - dim sum dishes, rice dishes, fresh fruit - you name it they probably had it. Plus free drinks - soda, coffee, wine and hard liquor (hey whatever floats your boat). Too bad we just had such a huge lunch. The only thing I could manage to eat was some guava.

It was pretty spacious inside with all the comfy sitting and Maddy had plenty of room to run around and explore. Before it was time to leave we stopped by their changing station to give Maddy a quick change. Even the changing station was nice.

As we were heading from the VIP lounge to our gate we passed the Hello Kitty gate and had to take a picture with Maddy.