Little Mountain City

Hello everyone!

This weekend, we did some traveling and enjoyed the great weather. On Saturday, Brian and I went to the beach in Keelung together to do a little swimming, laying out, and beach reading. We drove our scooters about an hour north to the town of Keelung (one of our favorites- we spend a lot of time there), stopped at the first beach we saw, and relaxed.

Saturday night, our friend Alana, another American who we met while we were traveling around the island in April, came to stay with us until early Monday morning. Our guest bedroom is coming in really handy lately- last weekend our friends' Heather and Miki stayed with me while Brian was in Guam, and this weekend Alana stayed.

On Sunday morning, Brian, Heather, Alana, and I all headed to Juifen, a little tourist town north of us. The town is built into a mountain, so it's really picturesque and there's about a million stairs. It's a great place to buy Taiwanese gifts because they have a lot of hand-crafted items that you can't get at the night markets. We spent the day eating, shopping, and checking out the little city. Here's some pictures.

Happy Father's Day weekend, everyone! We miss you and can't wait to visit during Christmas! Rachel and Brian

The coolest restaurant with a great view of the ocean below- this is where we ate lunch.

On the train headed to Juifen. On the way there, it was standing room only, but on the way back we luckily got seats for awhile.

The view from atop a bridge in Juifen

Taking a taxi drive from the train station, through the mountains, and into Juifen.

Well this is from another day recently, on top of Taipei 101

The beach in Keelung where we spent our Saturday afternoon. Brian actually got stung by a jellyfish and didn't even know it, until he went to the doctor today to ask about the weird, red rash that was spreading on his chest and ankle.

Hanging out under our big umbrella that we rented for 200NT- 6 US dollars. So worth it!