While we were planning to visit Orchid Island off Taiwan's SE Coast, but travel to this island is a bit troublesome and the pieces did not fall into place. However, we still had a nice holiday along Taiwan's east coast in the city of Hualien. A friend of Hsiu-ling's offered us their holiday house and the Hsiu and the kids headed down on the 4th of July.
Hsiu-ling's charity Tzu-Chi is based there and all three spent a few days doing volunteer work. I came down over the weekend and took a few days off to explore the city I had only passed through a couple times.
We traveled to one of the few bathing beaches along the rocky east coast of Taiwan. Aileen, Nat, and I splashed for hours in the surf while Mom rested on the beach
Hsiu-ling twisted her ankle and so the kids and I and our guide (the husband of Hsiu-ling's friend) visited and hiked through Taiwan's famous Taroko Gorge without her... steep towering marble monoliths covered with foliage and a chalky blue stream running down the middle. It is really one of Taiwan's wonders.
The day we left we visited a lovely water lily farm....wow the colors, just amazing. Check out the slideshow above for the full show!!
