Gone Fishin'

Last week, we took a little vacation around the island. It was great Chinese practice because once we left Taipei there were very few English speakers and even fewer people who had seen little blonde-haired girls. We had the opportunity to talk to many, many new people and got to know our surroundings quite a bit better.

The entire length of Taiwan is only about 250 miles. Taipei is the largest city and is located in the very North of the island. The southern tip is a tropical paradise with white sand beaches and the east coast is a mountainous wonderland rising straight up from the ocean. We drove from Taipei down the east coast exploring the vast mountain wilderness and then spent a few days dancing through tide pools and picnicing on the sunny southern beaches. There was also a wicked awesome aquarium that consumed one day. In total it took us two days to drive down the winding east coast where we learned the hard way that Ava gets car sick. Four days adventuring in the southern tip and one day's return journey up the road well-traveled along the densely-populated west coast. We arrived home yesterday refreshed with a new understanding of Taiwan and a ton of language practice.

Here are our pics: