Happy Birthday Kaylee!

Before I get started here (again) I just have to say I had a super awesome blog post almost completed when my computer restarted itself and when I got back on I was left with only 3 sentences.  bahh! I was mad.  You're lucky I'm going to try again. (haha and now about three weeks later, here it is)

For her birthday on March 2nd, Kaylee wanted to take a quiet trip to Taipei for the weekend.  So she and I did just that.  Not  long after I finished teaching my fifth grade students on Friday evening we headed out on our adventure.  And it was a great adventure. 

Wait, wait, wait... before I begin on our Taipei trip I must share these photos for someone else's birthday, Jason! During MK Miss Amy, a Chinese secretary/teacher asked me to come to her class that afternoon and told me to bring my camera.  Jason's mom had brought a huge cake to share! 

After singing Happy Birthday to both Jason and Miss Kaylee we shared the delicious cake.

Jason is one of my best buddies.  He's one of the sweetest little boys and I love him!

Happy 6th Birthday Jason and 21st Birthday Miss Kaylee!

 Alright, now back to Taipei.  Kaylee and I arrived at our hostel Friday night, planned our trip for the next day, then the next morning headed out to explore the northern coast of Taiwan. Out first stop: 7-11.  A trip is not complete without a good ol' 7-11 breakfast.

We took the metro from Daan to Danshui and then found a bus that would take us along the whole coast.  We planned to travel from Danshui to Jiofun with some stops in between.
Once we were on our bus and headed out Kaylee and I realized that we had no idea when we should get off.  We knew where we wanted to go but had no idea where those stops were.  Just when I was thinking we'd missed our stop and had no idea what we were going to do the old man we were standing to started pointing and saying, "Baisha wan, baisha wan".  Thankfully he must have heard us tell the bus driver where we were headed as we boarded the bus.  So thanks to the old man we made it to our first stop, Baisha Bay.

All thanks to Kaylee for photos of me during this trip.  We were too lazy for camera swapping.  All of the following photos that I am in are hers. 

 

 

Did I mention it was a bit rainy?  It's kind of to be expected in this area this time of year, but I was really hoping for a sunny day.  I wore shorts.  At least the bottoms of my pants never got wet though, right? I think it was very smart planning.

For some reason Kaylee and I thought it would be a good idea to walk to our next destination instead of taking a bus.

We saw all sorts of dead fish. It was sad and really gross. 

My shot of this poor little fish.

Keeping my camera dry and out of the rain. 

 After walking for quite awhile, and with the rain it felt even longer, we decided to take a bus the rest of the way.  When a bus stopped for us we told the driver where we were headed and he starting pointing and miming with his fingers that we should walk, apparently it wasn't too far away.  Kaylee and I just looked at each other deciding if we really wanted to walk.  The driver then motioned us inside a bit more so he could close the door and took us to the next stop.  I tried to pay as we left be he just waved us away.  Thanks kind bus driver for the free ride!

We were walking for quite awhile before we sighted this.  The Fugio lighthouse.

The northenmost part of Taiwan

I'm excited? or mad at Kaylee... 

The trail ended there, but there was no way we were going to walk through that lake of a puddle.

Needless to say we found a better route.

We then found ourselves in a little seaside town. Full of fish, seafood restaurants, fisherman, and boats. Oh and some cute little puppies.

On the road again..

I was very thankful for these bus stop shelters. 

Any guesses as to what these piles are made of?

 So apparently the Queens Head rock is a pretty popular spot to visit and a tourist must see.  I'd seen photos of it and wanted to see it.  This is as close to it as we got.  We saw it from a distance but then wandered through a tent market thing and bought a few souvenirs.  By the time we reached the entrance we could no longer go in.  We were 15 minutes too late.

 So after that bummer we wandered through a few more souvenir shops and then had some dinner at our favorite convenience store.  That's right, 7-11.  We didn't make all the way across the north coast, but it was a great trip nonetheless. We caught a bus headed back to Danshui, spent another night at the hostel and then made it back to Feng-yuan on Sunday in enough to time to get ready and go to church.

Happy 21st Birthday Kaylee!!

oh and that photo? they were piles of small fish. I see them everywhere, but that was the first time I took a photo of them.