The Many Adventures of M&M

mnmhull

The Many Adventures of M&M

Hi! We're Matt and Mandi (hence the 'M&M") and we caught the travel bug years ago. We had the opportunity to live in Germany back in 2007 for three years and loved it, and we're moving to Taiwan now (2017)! I've decided to resurrect this blog for our family, friends, and random strangers to follow along on our newest adventure.

If you're at all curious about where we stay when we travel, please check out my TripAdvisor profile at http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/mandi2doors.

If you want to know when we've gone on a new trip you should subscribe to our blog! Click on "Subscribe"and enter in your name and email address to receive an email whenever I post something new. They won't send you any junk mail and it's a great way to keep up with where in the world we are. (If you're just catching up on our trips it's best to start and the end and read backwards, as this blog lists the most recent postings first.)

Thanks for reading!



Asia » Taiwan » Taichung November 15th 2017

So today is Day 1, Matt and I together in Taichung. Our apartment is great...2 bedrooms, 2 baths, tiny Taiwanese kitchen (no oven!), and a laundry porch. We're on the 24th floor of a 28 story building and there are 6 parking levels below ground. It's brand new and very modern, but more on the apartment later when I'm unpacked and can take decent pictures lol. I got up early (for me), around 8 or 9. I wanted to get out and see and do stuff so after sitting around for a little bit and waking up, I got dressed and we went to an American-style diner called Early Bird for breakfast. I had Eggs Blackstone (Eggs Benedict with bacon and tomato) and Matt had a breakfast burrito. The owners are American and they're a dog ... read more
Mandi getting comfortable

Asia » Taiwan » Taichung November 12th 2017

Wow...so it was a long trip getting here! My flight out of Nashville on Friday morning was at 6am so I left the house at 3. My sister, Stacie, came with me to the airport (she should be nominated for angel status for this) because when I got to the airport I had 3 large suitcases, a small carryon suitcase, and my laptop bag...and I had to return the rental car first lol. So I dropped her off at the curb, helped her wheel my bags inside the sliding doors, and she sat with them all inside the airport while I returned the car. Once I got back to her I checked in for my flight. The whole reason I booked Air Canada for this flight is because I knew I would have extra bags and ... read more

North America » United States October 18th 2017

Well, I haven't moved yet but Matt has, so I thought I'd do a quick post just to update everyone. He arrived in Taichung last Friday, October 13th and gave me a video chat tour of the apartment. We're going to be living in the Beitun District (just in case you want to Google and learn more about the area we'll be in) and our apartment is on the 24th floor of a 28 story building. There are also 6 stories of parking underneath the building. It's a BRAND NEW apartment...there's still paper on the floors in the hall outside of the elevator and plastic over some of the fixtures. The inside is 2 bedrooms and 2 full baths, which is great. It's all tile throughout, except for a strange little raised area with desks where ... read more

Asia » Taiwan October 4th 2017

If you know me then you know I'm a researcher. Any time we plan a new trip, I'm researching where we're going, the best way to get there, the best place to stay, etc. The dog gets sick and I'm researching what's wrong and how to change his diet and nutrition to best help him. So when Matt said "They sent me the job offer for Taiwan!" I went into full-blown research mode :) I read blogs, got on Facebook forums, read travel sites and government sites. Here are some of the fun things I've found about our new home for the next couple of years: While just about everything is written in Chinese characters there, we're going to see some things that will be familiar. In ... read more

North America » United States September 28th 2017

Well...family, friends, and random strangers that somehow found this post...we're off on a new adventure! If you haven't heard yet, Matt has officially accepted a job in Taichung, Taiwan! He will be moving there in a couple of weeks (yep, this is quick!) and I'll be following about a month later once I finish things up here in Colorado and get the dog settled. I'll be visiting friends and family in Tennessee and Ohio during that time. For those of you who have never met our dog Marshall, here he is :) Marshall already has an updated rabies shot and we've made sure his microchip is compliant with Taiwan's import policies (it needs to be a 15-digit ISO chip...his was 10 digits so we got him chipped again. Let's hope that works for them!). He still ... read more

North America » United States » Alaska » Denali June 15th 2013

This morning we woke up after a MUCH better night's sleep than the previous night and made it in plenty of time for breakfast. Marnie, our B&B owner, and her husband are selling the bed and breakfast and plan to move to California for their retirement and be near their daughter. We learned a lot about utilities in Alaska over the breakfast conversation. Electricity, heating fuel, and water are all expensive in Alaska. Their standard electric bill is hundreds more than ours is in even the middle of summer when we have the A/C cranked. Yikes! After breakfast we settled up our account and hit the road. A few miles north of Fairbanks is a section of the Alaskan Pipeline that's above ground and has a parking lot for visitor's to park and see it. It ... read more

North America » United States » Alaska » Fairbanks June 14th 2013

So remember how I said that I wasn't sure whether it would get any darker? That's a negative...it got lighter! I woke up around 4am and the sunlight peeking out around the room darkening blinds made it look like it was noon outside. Of course, my brain knew that breakfast wasn't until 8:15 and I could sleep until at least 7 so I went back to sleep. I can't say it was the best night's sleep I've ever had...it really is strange how the light just really wants you to wake up, but I did rest and was able to get up and function just fine in the morning. Breakfast was great...there are two other older retired couples staying at the B&B on their way to a cruise and were a lot of fun to chat ... read more

North America » United States » Tennessee » Nashville June 13th 2013

So Matt has been home from Afghanistan for three weeks and we're leaving on our post-deployment vacation. We realized that we've seen so much of the rest of the world but really not that much of America, so we're staying domestic for the majority of this vacation. We're spending 10 days in Alaska, 4 days in Seattle, and 2 days in Vancouver. We left today to fly to Fairbanks, which was going to take three connecting flights...Nashville to Dallas, Dallas to Seattle, and Seattle to Fairbanks. We left the house at a little after 10:00am to drive to my sister's...she's going to take my car for the duration of the vacation (along with the dogs) and drop us off at the airport, God bless her. On the way to the airport I get a text message ... read more

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Australia Zoo September 1st 2011

This morning Matt got up at o'dark-thirty with Rowelly. He was letting us borrow his car for the day to go to Australia Zoo, which meant that Matt had to drive him to work. Better him than me. Rowelly has an SUV and the roads here are narrower than the States. Combine that with driving on the wrong side of the road and that would just be a recipe for disaster if I got behind the wheel. I've driven on the left before but it's always been a compact rental car...not a huge, nice SUV that belonged to someone I knew. Matt came back from dropping off Rowelly and I got up and got dressed and ready. We went to breakfast with Rowelly's brother, Keith. We had actually met Keith before this trip...he had come to ... read more


Sunday morning (the 28th) we got to the train station bright and early and settled in for our 4 1/2 hour train ride from Sydney to Canberra (pronounced "CAN-brah", not "Can-BEAR-ah"). It was pretty uneventful...I got breakfast from the dining car and Matt had gotten pretzels and juice from the vending machine before we left the station. I read most of the way and Matt stared out of the window trying to spot kangaroos. We got into Canberra Station around 11:30am and saw Dan, Ali, and Jackson right away waiting for us. Matt told me to go ahead and he'd get the bags so I ran right out and gave Ali the biggest hug I could...without squishing her 8 1/2 month old pregnant belly :) It's been almost 4 years since we've seen each other and ... read more
Jackson eating dinner
Having a snuggle on the couch
Ali and Jackson at breakfast




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