Weekend Summary

So I lied about getting everything up by Tuesday - but it's Wednesday so the pictures are up on the right.

Sarah and I are FINALLY getting our scuba certification classes started tonight. We were delayed about a week since our original start since the wet suits were delayed in arriving. Something about them having to go kill an extra seal since my size was "non-typical" for the region. More on that fun later this week!

The pictures you will see start with a very nice rainbow that I saw on my bus ride home last week. I think it was Friday. Then Sarah and I decided on a nice dinner at a place in town called "Peoples" and it's a Japanese restaurant with pretty good food. The best part of the experience though is going down the stairs to the restaurant location and coming to a HUGE set of doors with no handle. There is an intercom to the right, but we were told that figuring out how to get in is half the fun. Of course my smart girlfriend figured out that if you put your hand inside the rock formation to the right, it sets off the sensor to open the doors. Kind of a neat concept.

Saturday we went to Yanmingshan National Park to the North of Taipei. "Shan" means Mountain in Chinese so it was basically Yanming mountain. We were able to take a train, then a bus to get up to the main area. Then a shuttle bus (or a "short bus") that took us above the fog levels and through some of the walking areas. Funny how the weather can change so quickly when you get up into the mountains! We stopped at the main park area which was full of people and lots of dogs. We watched the sun disappear behind the mountains, then started walking up the mountain, then down the 1.2 km path to the waterfall. Good timing too as it was very hard to see, but still enjoyable. Then another 1.2 km walk to the next closest town to catch the next bus. We stopped at a different area on the North side of Taipei with a University, as well as one of the most amazing city panoramic views I've ever seen. Very beautiful view on a beautiful night - of course our cameras do not do it justice. There was also an interesting mural on campus that Sarah enjoyed!

Sunday was a slight change of pace as we were recommended to the German restaurant in TianMu (North suburb of Taipei) called "Wendell's". It definitely had the Oktoberfest theme setup to go for us. Thankfully we had a reservation and there was a ton of beer to be had. As you'll see in the pictures, I found this a good time to enjoy the Warsteiner by the liter. The food was very good, the beer, imported... thus a little pricey. But once you get past the first liter, who cares right?!?!? There was a band playing German music, the guy even pulled out an Alpinehorn for amusement (he was pretty good at it). We went with our friend Alisa and my coworker Matt and his wife Tara. Fun was had by all, I had way too much to drink... made for a long monday this week!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few weeks of political ads on TV!!! GO OBAMA GO!!!