November 7, 2014
Arrival In Taipei
Our flight itinerary was as simple as we could wish for - a short hop down to San Francisco, a reasonable break between flights, and then a long 14 hour nonstop to Taipei. It began early enough - we left home at 4:30 - but we got a good night's sleep the night before and awoke feeling well rested. For a pleasant change we were chauffeured to the airport by my sister Elizabeth who generously forced herself out of bed early on our behalf. Check-in went smoothly, as it always has since we started traveling with our foldable Bike Fridays. We got them mostly because excess baggage fees have gotten so unreasonable, but it has been a great added benefit that they're so easy to manage in transit.
It seems like there's always some last minute mishap though and this year it was Rachael's turn for a change. Taking inventory again after check-in, we realized she had forgotten her rain jacket at home. Fortunately the PDX terminal has a terrific array of shopping outlets that open at 6. There was just enough time for her to check out the options at Columbia Sportswear, if she hurried. She did great - at 6:05 she came running down the hallway with a big smile on her face and a perfect, reasonably priced jacket in her hand, and we quickly dashed off to our departure gate.
We arrived in Taipei without incident at 6:30PM (the next day, as we crossed the date line), and were greeted by the van driver from our hotel. By 8 we were checked in to our room and out on the streets of Ximending, a large and mostly pedestrianized shopping district for our first brief outing in a new country and culture.
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