Taipei, Taiwan + Rockport, Washington
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Alison is obsessed with daily Om, which has workouts, courses, and inspirational articles, and it offers a pay-what-you-can feature! Lulu is obsessed with her Frieling French press, she has mastered the work from home coffee situation thanks to it’s high end quality, it keeps your coffee warm for a long time, and it’s easy to use!
Alison is wishing she could afford to take “that food blood test”. More than just a blood-type diet, we think she is referring to a food sensitivity test like Everlywell, it tests what foods are maybe causing even mild reactions in your body. You could do an elimination diet and figure it all out over hte course of maybe like a year, but we all know Alison would not put that effort in, so someone give her the $160 she needs to take the test!
Lulu is wishing for the ChiliBlanket, an item that may just cure her insomnia and assorted sleep issues once and for all. It’s a weighted blanket with an optional temperature control unit that can keep you cool and calm. She loves the Buffy cooling bedding, but can’t resist the added benefit of the anxiety-reducing weighted feature.
Lulu is starting off her day exceptionally well by selecting Villa 32 as her accommodation. This exquisite stay has on-site hot springs, both public and private, as well as EN SUITE hot springs. Villa 32 has both European and Japanese style suites. She booked the Sakura Suite, which has a hot spring in its courtyard area. With her booking comes a complimentary welcome dessert, as well as a complimentary breakfast, fresh cookies, and seasonal scented fruit tea. This spot is meeting the both the comfort-centric and foodie parts of Lulu’s MO, so she is very happy with this choice. If not available at the hotel, Lulu plans to wander until she finds the traditional Taiwanese breakfast she’s heard rave reviews about, what amounts to a glass of soy milk and an egg sandwich!
Carton King is a themed restaurant (there are loads of these in Taipei!) centered around cardboard. It is considered the preemptive paper themed park in Taiwan, and you can take a cardboard construction class, where she learns to build a mobile phone holder, a bedside table, stools, maybe a pinball machine? Yes, that’s right.
Continuing on the themed-restaurant route, Lulu heads to Hello Kitty Cafe. Lulu was surprised to learn that Hello Kitty is not from an Asian country, but was actually “born in the suburbs of London. She lives with her parents and her twin sister Mimmy who is her best friend. Her hobbies include baking cookies and making new friends. As she always says, "you can never have too many friends!”” Always one to explore in style and be on theme, Lulu came prepared:
Lulu wants to do a bit of shopping, and since Taipei is known for jade, she’s aiming for some stunning stone somethings. However, it is considered bad luck to buy jade for yourself, it should be given to you. So Lulu heads to the Taipei Jade Market where she buys matching jade earrings and gives both pairs to Alison, hoping she gives one of the pairs back to her.
For dinner Lulu heads to Wind City Moon Restaurant, about an hour outside of Taipei in Zhubei City. It is a converted theater that gives the feel of mid-20th century Taipei. The walls of which depict a general store, dentist's office and other facades of storefronts. She feels like this was a better choice then the Modern Toilet Restaurant. Don’t be eating when you click that link, you’ve been warned!
Alison is headed to Ross Lake Resort, on the lake in the recreation area of the North Cascades National Park that was created by the damming of the Skagit River. They book out a year in advance and they have 4 different cabin styles to choose from. Spacious living/dining set ups, full kitchens, various arrangements of bunk beds and twin beds. Some cabins have wood-burning stoves, others have electric heat. Towels, bedding, tableware, pots and pans are provided, but you have to bring your own food, there are no restaurants. No other businesses or hotels on the lake and no road access make this a perfect off-the-grid getaway, or the perfect work retreat setup…
We’re talking $120 per person per night in most of the cabins, so this is oh so doable! Alison buys out the entire resort for the purpose of creating a retreat for her podcaster friends, calling it the Rockport Work Retreat. In addition to #Team10K, this year’s attendees will be Laurie Brown Kindred of Bad Right Breast, Rachael Gallagher of Everyday Thin Places, friend Andrea Canny (stay tuned to her socials for her upcoming podcast), and of course our favorite new-to-podcasting woman…Michelle Obama.
Since there is no road access, the podcasting crew gets to the resort via the Seattle City Light Boat, Once they’ve arrived they spend the day in team-building-female-bonding outdoor activities, like fishing, hiking, and kayaking.
Ross Lake Resort has all the equipment available for fishing, which you can do right from your cabin door. There’s apparently plenty of rainbow trout to be had! There are loads of trails through the North Cascades with breathtaking views, including Sourdough Mountain, Devils Loop, Desolation Peak, Beaver Loop. Moving on to kayaking (which the resort has plenty of for rental) Alison plans to get double kayaks, and do a sort of speed dating but instead of someone to go to dinner with you get another podcaster to brainstorm with!
Once they share a meal, the crew is gifted with some tools for their evening session - a Podcast Planner book from Amazon for $29.97 each and a personalized Mont Blanc PIX Black Ballpoint Pen for $225. An awesome “goodie bag” and an awesome retreat!
CHECK OUT THE CHARITIES WE FOUND IN THE CITIES WE VISITED:
Skagit River Bald Eagle Interpretive Center
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