Family Day at Keelung

Over this past three day weekend, we took a day trip to my favorite town from when I served my mission here: Keelung.  It's been over 13 years since I last set foot in Keelung, and I'm happy to say that my favorite things were still there.  Even better, the putrid smell of rotting fish mixed with salty sea water and human waste was almost completely gone (perhaps just a good day).  In either case, we had a fine day.

Keelung (the actually spelling of which is Jilong) is a small city set  around a beautiful harbor surrounded by hills on Taiwan's northern coast.  I spent almost 5 months there as a missionary, which was one of my happiest times.

When we first arrived, we took some time to walk about the harbor, which had been renovated since I served here.  There was a nice boardwalk surrounding the harbor surrounded by hand painted fish flags.  Very picturesque.

 Nearby was a museum on sea culture.  Although we didn't go in, we did buy two small fish flags and let the girls pant them.  The activity was under a red tarp, so we all look a little red as a result.

While walking around, we stumbled across a cotton candy artist.  Cotton candy is Heather's favorite thing, so we stopped, watched for a while, then bought some.  He didn't just make cotton candy, he made artwork of it.  Here's just samples of his handiwork: a duck and a rose.

Our final activity for the day was hiking up Zhongzheng Park, which is build on the side of a hill, the top of which overlooks the city.  At the top is a large pagoda (in the background).  It provided a nice lookout point of the city.

 On the way back down the hill, we played on the park's playground, which featured large cement animals.