Sorry for the late update on summer...

Click this sentence for photos from our 5-day bus tour around Taiwan.

Day 1: Leave Taipei for a drive around most of Sun Moon Lake, stopping at scenic spots, an aboriginal village where we had lemon ai-yu (a jelly extracted from a fig) and temples along the way and arriving for dinner at Ali Mountain, a cool 14 degrees (from close to 30), for the night.

Day 2: Rise at 4am to take a train up to watch the sunrise. I thought it would be pleasant like Haleakala (Maui) a couple years ago on the last family vacation but nope, there was a guy with a megaphone yakking away and vendors selling warm food and drinks and lots of people jockeying for a good photos. After that we rode the train back down to hotel area and walk through an old growth forest after breakfast. Lots of neat tree trunks amidst some newer trees. Back on the bus toward Kenting where we stopped at a nice aquarium with water fountains to jump in (if we were only prepared) before checking into our hotel around the corner from the beach, right on the main drag where we went for dinner and dessert (more ai-yu and ice cream) and browsing all the stands selling stuff.

Day 3: Darn, no time to go to the beach in the morning... it was back on the bus again! We stopped at a park enclosing the lighthouse at the southern tip of Taiwan and walked up and around the grounds stopping for refreshments before walking back down – the sun was fierce! Then it was up and over windy mountain roads to the Pacific Coast and ocean views all the way up to Tai Dong where we stopped at a historical museum before the hotel. This place was great because of the hotsprings where we went after dinner – they had a theraputic pool with areas of jets at different heights to target sore muscles and a regular pool with three areas of varying temperatures. We slept well that night!

Day 4: On the way to Hualien, we stopped at a dairy farm and had ice cream, walked around the grounds, Catie rode a horse, Maggie and Alex jumped into a hamster ball nearly taking out Paul who was snapping photos. We also stopped at an old sugar factory for more ice cream and a quick bite. We stayed in a city hotel that night and walked around the area looking for dinner. After, Helen and James went off to watch Transformers since it was released earlier than in the states.

Day 5: Drove to Taroko Gorge and drove as far as we were allowed before turning back. Walked a few kilometers through caves carved by the river. Neat! Then it was our last long drive back to Taipei. Went out to dinner and drinks and local night market for yet another ai-yu.

The next day we decided we didn’t get enough of Taiwan’s snacks to eat so we took a quick train trip to Keelung Temple Market. We also had beef stew noodles a couple more times before it was off to the states for the rest of our summer vacation.