River Climbing

We stayed in a beautiful 'home stay' in Hualien with our room being the VIP room on the 4th floor of the home. I really appreciated all of the steps we had to climb as it was a great workout! We had barbeque for dinner and then pretty much headed to our rooms to crash. Before dinner the kids watched Mama Mia in our room while I took a decadent bath in the slipper clawfoot tub.

The next morning we woke up to prepare for our river climbing adventure! Everyday brought new activities with details not being very clear until the actual moment for the activity to begin. As I'm unable to speak Chinese, I was pretty much forced to just go with the flow the entire vacation which is a challenge for me as I like to be prepared! Fortunately, I was able to find this groove early on...might be a new side of me.

We loaded into a van and headed to Mysterious Gorge where we donned helmets, socks, gloves, life vests, and wet suits. The wet suits were comparable in thickness to what Anna and I wore scuba diving Lake Superior in November...THICK! The adventure was basically climbing a river filled with many waterfalls, ledges, and deep pockets. It was an amazing way to experience the scenery of this beautiful area. In our particular group, Gary at 52, was probably the oldest in the bunch with Connie and I not far behind. It is definitely not an activity for the faint of heart!

We were led by aboriginal men who we all agreed (the girls anyways) were the cutest guys we had seen so far. They were all taller than average Taiwanese with high foreheads and proud, straight noses and angular cheekbones. They were born to the water as they lithely stepped up and down and around our group.

This is Anna after battling one of the fast-flowing waterfalls!

Some synchronized swimming.

Going head first down some rapids!

At this point in our trek we were heading back down the river. The guide is explaining to us (with Jess loosely translating as Anna and I were the only English speaking members) that this is the point where we curl up in the fetal position and just let ourselves pinball down the waterfall. Up to this point we had jumped off of two cliffs that were higher than I was comfortable with, battled raging currents, and was held under violent waterfalls. This unnerved me...I was speechless...until the guide said 'Just kidding!'

Practicing our head first techniques.

Cliff jumping!

Me, Jess, Anna, Connie, Gary, Amingo

Science Park and Lake Placid

This is a view of Lake Placid from an area where free yoga and tai chi classes are held. The Science Park is a beautiful park with man-made Lake Placid located in the middle. There are many meandering footpaths, meditating pagodas, out buildings and such located throughout the park. There is a peninsula with a stone walkway out to a gazebo in the middle of the lake where people would go to meditate.

Anna and Jess doing their best pose!

Water garden with surrounding buildings in Science Park.

These flowers and lily pads are HUGE! We saw a snake one day in the water here.

My morning walks were in Science Park located about five minutes from the Huang's house. Even in the early mornings, there were quite a few people out walking or taking yoga or tai chi classes. One morning a tai chi class included a fat bassett hound dog.

Live in the Moment

It is early Sunday morning and I've already been out for a walk around Lake Placid. It is hot and without even exerting myself, I am sweating which makes it hard to exert myself but I'm trying my best.

I find myself thinking of home more often during down times here. I think it's getting close to time for us to be going home which fills me with mixed emotions. Once we leave here, I'm not sure when I will see Jess again, but I am missing my boys at home. On the other hand, going home means one step closer to Anna leaving.

This is the point in the vacation where it's a bit challenging to just live in the moment without projecting to the future. I am to live in the moment.

Technical difficulties

I'm taking pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. I bought a memory card while on vacation in Kenting because I had filled up my original card. I've been taking a lot of pictures - have I mentioned that?

While trying to upload/download (what's the correct terminology here?) from my new memory card something happened. I don't think that my camera understands chinese. I may have lost all of my photos - not real sure. I'm not going to mess with it anymore until I get home.

Of course if I did lose all of my photos I still have Anna's as back up. I also have all of my memories, which can't be downloaded (or uploaded) but they are still there. And what amazing memories they are.

Transformers

Today Jess, Anna, and I took the high-speed rail from Tainan back to Hsinchu. Amingo did not come with us as he had to go to a temple to burn his clothes because this will help him study harder and get better grades.

The girls and I saw The Transformers instead. Much better choice.

Anna the Cookie Goddess

Before we left on vacation from vacation, Jess and her friends had a party for me and Anna. We all headed to the grocery store for supplies, the girls getting everything they needed for BBQ, Anna and Jess getting supplies for chocolate chip cookies, and I contributed strawberry shortcake as the party was on July 4th.

Back at Jess' the girls wasted no time in getting food prepared - some of them setting up the bbq outside while others began chopping and shredding vegetables and meat. They made an amazing meal for all of us to enjoy and were excited to finish because Jess had promised them that Anna would show them how to make chocolate chip cookies!

The ooooh's and ahhhhh's were as prevalent as at a fireworks display as the girls watched Anna measure and add the different ingredients - they were in awe! One friend was given the task of running the electric mixer. Standing as far back from the bowl as she could with her face covered, she tentatively started the small appliance only to be met with shreeks from the rest of the girls. Anna was a cookie goddess as she showed them how to place the raw dough onto the cookie sheet before placing it in the oven. Hesitant fingers dipped into the raw dough to taste with eyes brightening widely once their taste buds became engaged.

Jess has a great bunch of girlfriends who were very excited to meet her American family and celebrate Independence Day with us!

On our way to Hualien

Beginning our vacation from vacation we left Hsinchu and headed north towards Taipei then east to Hualien. The road east took us through a tunnel 13km long that took 8 years to complete. It connects Taipei directly to the east coast without having to travel over mountains or through small villages on poor roads. Fortunately for travelers, this expedites the journey from west coast to east, but the economic impact this new route has made on all of the small villages that are located on the original road is devastating.

Before knowing about this tunnel, Gary had asked me about the road systems in northern Minnesota. I proudly told him about the tunnels on I-35 created to preserve the view of Lake Superior and to aid in the creation of the Rose Garden/Lakewalk area. I also told him about the two beautiful tunnels along the North Shore. Up to this point in our travels, we had gone through a couple of tunnels in Taiwan so at the time I felt that our tunnels measured up quite nicely for their asthetics and design. When Gary mentioned the 13km tunnel, I quickly did conversions in my head and gulped...suddenly I-35 and the North Shore didn't seem quite as impressive!

We stopped in Suao on the east coast for lunch. Suao is a commercial fishing town with many seafood restaurants located on the wharf. We had an amazing lunch that Connie ordered for us right out of the fish tanks and I was quite surprised at how inexpensive our meal was. The restaurant was your basic mom/pop operation with many of them one after another on the wharf. Employees would stand in the small street directing cars to parking spots right outside their restaurants - often the cars would be parked two or three deep!

Seafood in Taiwan is real seafood...with arms, legs, and eyeballs left intact. After biting into a shrimp, some dark liquid could potentially dribble down your chin. This dark liquid is internal stuff that I really didn't care to hear the description of - the shrimp was very tasty without thinking too much about the brown stuff!

This purple squid was pretty tasty with a texture of al dente pasta. The soup - which always follows the main meal - was a clear broth with shredded vegetable greens and white pieces that looked like rice. After closer inspection, we realized that the white pieces were actually tiny, almost microscopic fish!