Day Tripper, Yeah

"We drove and drove and drove some more, and that was our vacation." ~ Disney Land commercial

Thursday we drove to Taipei - we saw Dan Shui Harbor where the river meets the Taiwan Straits and we went to the ShiLin night market
Friday - We went to the National Palace Museum containing artifacts for "4 thousand years"! What a claim to fame! We saw some very cool colored china, jade pieces (one famous one that looked like a cabbage and another that looked like a slab of meat), very old books in chinese, etc. China claims to have had moveable print in 618 AD! (they also claim the Americas which they discovered in 1421. When the ship returned to China 3 years later, China was in political wars and the discovery went unnoticed and the records were lost).
Next we went to the Grand Hotel. "The only hotel in the world modeled after Chinese palaces" It's huge and uses very striking colors; red, yellow, green which set if off from the mountain. There were many restarants from which we chose one for our lunch! It was like eating at the Ritz! lol
We went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial around 3:45. We walked up the many stone steps to the Memorial Hall and waited for the hour to watch the changing of the guard. It was so amazing. All the tourist got very quiet as we waited. There were two guards facing each other on the opposite sides of the room. It began with the two guards banging the butts of their guns on the floor. The sound echoed throughout the marble hall and we feel silent as we heard the other guard approaching from outside. I can't describe the rest of the movements except to say that watching 5 men walking, stomping, calling, clicking in exact unison was amazing. Mom took videos on her camera which we'll be sure to post when we get home.
At 5:30 we were at Taipei 101. The sky was very hazy, but we decided to go to the top anyways. We rode one of the fastest elevators in the world. It took 37 seconds to go from the 4th floor to the 87th at a speed of 1010 meters per minute!! At the top we walked around the observation deck, listening to an audio tour, and eating ice cream. We saw the world's largest mass damper which is also the only one in the world open to the public(nearly evey tall building has one to counteract the sway of the wind). It does an excellent job and I was grateful for technology. However I could still feel it sway! Mom didn't feel it, and Aunt Melody only a little. But I one point I was standing in the middle of the room, apart from anything else, and I lost my balance!! lol We walked up two flights of stairs to reach the 91st floor. There is an open air observation deck. We saw people on the east side watching the Moon rise. October 6 was the Moon Festival, the night the moon is the brightest in the year. (see my dad's blog)
Saturday we drove under a tunnel that took 18 minutes to go through! We drove along the coast to Heulien and then into the Taroko Gorge. We watched an aboriginal dance and spent the night at an stone church.
Sunday, we left at 9:30 and arrived at 8 pm. It was supposed to be a 6hour drive. We had to go slow on the hairpin turns and there was lots of traffic for the 5 day weekend. We were all glad to be back. Thank you for your prayers for safety! There were a couple times when we were on the mountain trying to pass traffic in a one car lane. Cliff on one side and ditch on the other. Pictures forthcoming of the gorgeous views!

Off to Hong Kong in the morning. Probably no computer until I get home. Toodles!