Taiwan Day 15

Today we got back on the bus and headed to the Taiwanese cultural center in Yilan, which is about an hour away from Taipei. But the traffic was heavy since this is a long weekend for something like Memorial Day when people travel to go visit their ancestors' graves. It took us over 2 hours to get there. Good thing Evan fell asleep for part of that when hubby moved to sit next to him. Hubby has been designated the "sandman" doing most of the "tackle and hold down" at nap and sleepy times. It's a really nice park with a big stream, grassy areas, stage shows, bunches of stores where kids can participate and make stuff the traditional way, like candles, soap, painting toys, etc. There's a hotel/resort type place in the back. It would be a nice place to go with slightly older kids who would enjoy these activities. Oh, there's food too, of course. Evan is now good friends with the cousins. They've all been really awesome with him, holding his hands and looking out for him. 

We left the park at about 4:30ish. And went off to do something rather unusual. Yilan has some springs. There are lots of hot spring hotels everywhere. There's this place with a couple small shallow pools of lukewarm water. There are small, what looks like ordinary gold fish in them. You pay NT$100 (~US$3) to soak your feet in them. The little fish would nibble the dead skin off your feet. It tickles a lot at first, then you sort of get used to it. These were hungry little fishies. Hubby got a pretty large following. Fish were all over his feet and calves, like little spikes coming off them. Evan put his feet in the water too and giggled and giggled when the fish were nibbling on him. He would squeal and lift his feet up when it got too ticklish. We let the fish nibble on our feet for half an hour. Everyone had a fun time and nice smooth feet at the end.

We started heading back to Taipei after that. Again, the traffic was heavy. Evan would not nap during the 1-1/2 ride. Good thing he had a good nap on the bus earlier. We rushed back to the hotel to give him a quick shower then met everyone for late dinner at 8:30. It's pretty late by our standard, but hey, we're on vacation. We had peking duck and a lot of other yummy food. Evan ate, but mostly played with his food. Couple of times he started doing something he wasn't supposed to, and I would threaten to make him sit next to hubby. Then he would sort of stop, until he found the next trouble to get into. 

Good thing we didn't have another meltdown tonight, just a little bit of loud crying at bed time. We're figuring out that good naps are rather important. Tomorrow, we head back to the States on the dreaded long flight. At least it'll be 11:30 hours, instead of 14:40 going to Taiwan. Wish us luck!

I had a little misadventure with my little camera, so I'll have to get pictures from Sis and Bro and post them later.

 Peking duck dinner.

Our last lunch in Taiwan.