Yilan, Taiwan

What? Somewhere other than the Taipei area? The weekend of June 29 and 30, we went on a trip to Yilan along Taiwan's east coast with my dad, stepmom (Joanna) and brothers. Some really pretty scenery.

Considered the East Bay where we saw many fishermen

The water was really clear and pretty!

Fishin'

And fishin'

Another scenic shot

Cheese

The only group picture during our trip

This one is my favorite

On an observation deck looking towards Neipi Beach

Neipi Beach

Here we are at Neipi Beach

In the East China Sea!

Paul is amazed that his feet have disappeared

Oh, there they are

I was trying to take a photo of the ship but also got Paul's claw

I learned how to stack rocks in Cambodia

Enjoying our time on the beach

Not sure what Paul is so mad about with his hands on his hips

The water was quite refreshing

Bye bye beach

After the beach, we headed to experience the carbonic acid cold springs in the Su'ao Township.

This is the public area

Dad got us a private room

This special (one of only a few in the world) bubbly water was frickin' freezing Mr. Bigglesworth

Feeling relaxed after our cold bubbly soak

Paul and dad

After a great dinner where we stuffed ourselves (again), we headed to Joanna's sister's where we were staying the night. But before turning in for the night, we had to experience another night market. This is Thomas' favorite thing. Night markets and stinky tofu. As if we hadn't had enough to eat...we sought out more food.

Luodong Night Market

Selling fruit

These night markets are always so busy

I finally decided to give stinky tofu a try after being harassed by Thomas

Paul captured my reaction - need I say more?

But Lincoln and Thomas love it

Wait, we need more to eat! This is a most special ice dessert...

Called ice snow!

Will really full bellies, we called it a night. The next day we headed to the last day of the 2013 Fulong International Sand Sculpture Art Festival along Fulong Beach. It was hotter than I can even describe. Here are some of the sand sculptures we saw.

That sand sculpted baby is creepy back there

Why?

Meeeooowww

This one was my favorite - look at the detail!

Pretty cool looking, huh?

Here's the big picture

Sunny days...

These aren't the droids you're looking for

Paul can hardly contain his excitement for the sand sculpted Star Wars characters

I liked these scenes as well

I thought Paul was kind of impressed

But he really wasn't

This one reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are

Another cool scene

Here's the shot from a distance

This is the other side of the beach

After lunch, we headed to some hot springs to boil some eggs - see the theme of constant eating?

People were cooking corn and eggs...

We used butterfly nets to boil our eggs

Paul and Thomas making some eggs

Waiting

We also dipped our feet in some hot spring water

This was the temperature of the hot spring for the eggs - not for our feet

A perfect hard boiled egg

Delicious

Here's the last thing we did before heading to dinner...

It really tickled...and boy, did they like eating Paul's dead skin

Look at them eating' Paul up

Really, tons of them