June 16

It had been raining for the past few days and so that really cooled things off on Friday. So Saturday morning when it was cool and cloudy again we decided it would be the perfect day to go back to the beach. On our way to the bus stop we saw a few parades from the temples starting the dragon boat festival celebrations. Unfortunately, I forgot by iPod, so I didn’t get any pictures.

While we were waiting at the bus stop we met an old lady there. An old man then walked by who was selling little noise makers. The old lady really wanted to buy them for all of our kids – she said it made her so happy just to see us. She ran and stopped him and then tried to pay, but didn’t have any small bills. So then she ran to the closest store to get change. She almost missed her bus, but barely made it back in time. All this kindness that we have been shown here really motivates us to be kinder and more helpful to others.

We got to the beach and the weather was perfect. There were a few more people there – maybe about 30 or so. There were two guys out surfing, but then no one else was getting in the water. We all jumped right in. We swam for about an hour or so, but then some coastal police showed up and whistled us all in. They said the waves were too strong and we couldn’t go swimming today. I think they were being way too cautious and thought the waves were pretty mild, but they took my picture with one of them showing me the pamphlet that said no swimming so they would have a record of talking to me just in case they caught me swimming again. Since we couldn’t go in the water we started building some sandcastles and collecting sea shells. A couple small Taiwanese girls joined our kids in building the castles.

That night we decided to go back to the food street and try to get everyone’s favorites. However, it started to rain pretty hard and most of the shops weren’t open. Just as we were about to give up, the rain lightened up and we were able to find a few options. We got the onion pancakes, some taro fries, some fried chicken, some fried balls with pancake type dough on the outside and different sugary pastes on the inside, the custard pastry puck things, a rice/meat vegetable dish, and some tian-bu-la.

Just a fancy gate for a temple.


The onion pancakes. All of the children love these!


These were the fried pancake ball things with a sugary filling on the inside.


The fried chicken. They put it on top of cabbage and corn and then put some of their Chinese mayonnaise on top of it all.


A parade going by in the rain.


Elliott with his noise maker.