Made in Taiwan

We just finished up three days in Taiwan, where everything used to be made. We bought snacks, beer, etc., and are stocked up for an 11 day trip across the Pacific to Hawaii. We made one trip during our time in Taiwan and a few walkabouts around our port city of Keelung. On our first day in Taiwan it was cold and rainy, and since we haven't been in the rain for 3 months we weren't sure what to do with it. We bundled up, got a map, and decided to walk around Keelung. The map had a park, so we walked to the park and just explored the area. We ended up on top of a hill with a big Budah temple and golden lions. We took a few pictures and walked back towards the ship. Jen ate at Starbucks and the kids and I ate lunch at Burger King. At this point in the trip we are starting to hit the known commodoties for food. We've found it much easier if we keep the kids happy. Vivian has done a great job with trying different food, but William likes his chicken nuggets and fries. It's amazing how many restaurants around the world have chicken nuggets and fries. We got back to the ship in the late afternoon and just took it easy and had dinner on the ship. We're getting pretty institutionalized. On day 2 in Taiwan we decided to take a train and metro to a hot springs located about 40 miles away. We walked to the train station, rode the train to Taipae, and hopped on the metro to the hot springs. The hot springs is in an urban setting, and they have public and private hotspring offerings. We went for the cheap public offering and climbed in with about 500 other local Taiwanese people. After about 3 minutes in the hot springs I noticed William and Vivian were itching like crazy. When I looked closer they both were reacting to the water and turning cherry red. Evidently there are chemicals in the water that cause the skin to react, but you then get into the "clean" cold water to purify. William and I purified our skin and we all got dressed and headed elsewhere. Having enough of hot spring action we walked to the thermal valley, got some ice cream, and the girls hit a starbucks. We decided not to spend the night at a local hotel and had dinner in Taipae and retraced our steps back to the ship. On day 3 we decided to take it easy and hang out in Keelung. We walked around, went to a park and stocked up on snacks for the big trip ahead. We are getting ready to be in Hawaii and then San Diego!! In running news I've been hitting the treadmill pretty hard lately and had a PR of 13.1 miles the other day. I hope to really put in the treadmiles on our way to Hawaii. If the ocean is calm I should be ok. Observations of Taiwan * Taiwan is not the modern country I thought it would be. They have poverty a plenty and old fallen down buildings everywhere. I guess everything is not made in Taiwan anymore. * I saw my first scooter accident in Taiwan. With thousands of scooters and motorcycles buzzing around it was bound to happen. All people on the scooters where ok. * It's very hard to run on Taiwan roads. The sidewalks are parking lots for scooters, and the roads are full of scooters and other vehicles. They even drive scooters on the sidewalks that aren't full of parked scooters. * Taiwan gets a lot of rain and is mountainous with a lot of vegetation. Unfortunately most of the vegetation I tried didn't taste that good.