Kinmen

What does this mother of four have to do to get one night, I repeat, one night away alone with her husband?

I'll tell you what. 

I had to agree to eat Fear Factor caliber food, wake up at 4:30am and run further than I have in at least 5 years, not to mention stressing myself silly arranging care for our children. All in the name of love, baby.

Nathan and I recently went on an overnighter to Kinmen Island. We were able to go with our friends Carrie and Ross and we thoroughly enjoyed our 28 hours (you better believe I counted them) away from our crew. We went to Kinmen for a race and so we were with a Tour Bus group and kind of at their mercy that first night. But it was fine, while everyone else went in to hear like an hour long pitch on Tea that we don't drink, we enjoyed some adult conversation instead. Uninterrupted, I might add.

Seesters! Look what I found! A rare and exceptional Asian Afro coupled with what I suspect is a straight ponytail of extensions. The juxtaposition of the puff vs. the pony really had me pondering. Real or not real? It's still a riddle to me. An afro on an Asian... doubtful. But the color is unmistakably what you get when you bleach very dark hair. Just ask my sister, ha ha! No but really, it's a conundrum.

(In his head I imagine he's got a loop of Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful' with the line-  "Humidity won't bring mee-ee down!")

ANYway. Eventually they took us to the race site. Heretofore I was not excited. But I started feelin it a little at this point. Nathan went in and worked his Nathan Magic and got he and Carrie signed up for the 1/2 Marathon even though it was full. 

Next we were all herded to dinner. Now, how do Asians carb-load you may be wondering? 

Uh huh. They set this gem down in front of me. And guess what surprise is under the whip topping and sprinkles? I'll never tell.......    

Okay fine. Shredded cabbage. I know, I can't explain the thinking on that either.

But wait! There's more! And it's gray! 

I don't eat gray.

S.O.S.! 

It was at this point I questioned just how much I loved Nathan. Thankfully I thought on it so long I didn't have much time to eat the array of horrors in front of me. I ate white rice with a few tentative bites of "fish" and "pork". I was still hungry when we left.

We headed to our hotel which was slightly nicer than I was expecting so that was a pleasant surprise. We had two twin beds, it was very "I Love Lucy".  Except the beds were hard as rocks as usual. You might as well be sleeping on a box spring. Or the floor. But again, it was clean.

Wake up call was 4:30am. Breakfast was not so gross but not really good, either. Lesson definitely learned to bring our own food for this kind of stuff! 

It was the perfect weather for running. Overcast and warm, with an occasional cool breeze. The four of us were 4 of 7 non-Asians that we saw which was kind of fun. It made me realize how cool it was to be  there. 

We enjoyed watching all the other runners do their warm ups and stretches which are nothing short of comical. Lot's of gyrations, some slapping, unabashed hip thrusting... it's good stuff.

Before I knew it the race had started and I was officially running my first race ever. Never mind that the 4.5K was called a "fun run"-which me and my huffing and puffing resent, btw- it was still a race. 

And even though I had never actually ran that far in my practice runs my goal was to not stop running. When I discovered about 8 min. in that at least half of the course was uphill, I was even more proud of myself for meeting that goal. All 4 of us met our personal race goals so I'd say it was a success.

Carrie especially had success -she came in 2nd place for her age group! She was pretty frustrated when she realized she was beat by only 42 seconds, and had she only known she would have kicked on the after burners. After all, her legs are about twice as long as little ms. snuck into first. 

I love this picture because while both women are giving the "V" for victory per requirement for any picture on this side of the hemisphere, Carrie kinda looks like she's giving the other lady rabbit ears... was that on purpose? :)

Next our taxi driver took us somewhere "special" to buy some of the peanut candies Kinmen is famous for. I had to include a few pics because this is typical. We pull up to some suspicious looking building and are told we have arrived. We went inside and checked out the goods and where they were made. I didn't see any hair nets or gloves, for the record.

This little old lady was cute. Her family was behind this peanut operation *punny* and Nathan bought candies to take back to his assistant and other Chinese friends who might appreciate them. 

After we went back to the hotel and showered up it was time for lunch. Maybe it was just because I was starving by now but lunch was a few notches up from dinner. 

There was still some less than appealing dishes swinging around the lazy susan though. ie:

We tried to rent scooters to drive around the island but they were all rented out so we settled on our quirky taxi driver. 

First stop was to get some fruit, Carrie and I let the boys handle it.

I was starting to rethink that choice when Nathan got back in with a bag full of plums. I think this speaks to his hunger level as well- we were supposed to be getting on a plane shortly- who did he imagine was gonna eat all those plums? lol

Our driver took us on a tour of the island. We saw some riveting sites including but not limited to his Elementary School, High School, meeting his Wife etc.
We did get around to a war museum where I realized exactly where we were. Kinmen is technically Taiwan so I assumed it was right off of the main island's coast. I was shocked to see we were literally on mainland China's front porch. Crazy.

If you are interested ^ is a little info on Kinmen's importance in the war. From what I gathered, if Kinmen had fallen, mainland Taiwan would have as well. It was neat to learn a little more history about it.

Before we headed to the airport we stopped at the beach. It's hard to resist the urge to do the Crane, of Karate Kid fame, when you are on cement stumps on a beautiful beach.

So, it wasn't exactly a romantic gettaway. But the scenery was lovely, the race was fun and the company was great. And if all else fails, we did see that Puff v. Pony. It made my day anyway.