The Earth is Filled with His Glory

In December, our city's zoo received a very special gift, two pandas. In January, on the first day of our Asian New Year Holiday, over 100,000 folks lined up to see them. (Our city is hoping over a million people a year will come to visit them.) Since we had been privileged to see pandas before in Washington, DC, Atlanta, Beijing, and Hong Kong; we waited until a weekday morning in late February :)

We saw a variety of animals from all regions of the world, but we most enjoyed seeing the animals native to this island (especially the Formosan macaque or rock monkey).

Our favorite part of the day, however, was definitely the Butterfly House. We stayed for quite a while watching the butterflies eat, fly, and land.
Esther and Jack even had several butterflies land right on their bodies. We were all amazed at the many colors, shapes, and sizes. Our island has over 400 different species of butterflies.

A few days later, we also had opportunity to visit a local mountain and get a look at the beautiful plants, trees, and bushes Father has place on our island:

Star Fruit trees
Papaya treesApricot blossoms
Jasmine Tea Flowers

Of course, what's an outing without food! We were pleasantly surprised to find one of our favorite foods, steamed bar-b-q pork buns, available at a snack stand at the zoo.

But, if you're not into this kind of Asian treat, you can always go down the street for pizza.

Peking Duck Pizza....Elizabeth's favorite! Here's hoping it's available on the college dining hall menu next fall.