Pictures from our Hualien trip is up! I can’t believe our highly anticipated trip to Hualien is already over! But I’m glad that everyone a great time, hanging out, eating together, getting wet and enjoying the beautiful Taroko scenery. Let’s do a quick review of the three-day tour.

After arriving in Hualien by Tze-Chiang Express, our trip started with our first dip in the water near the Shakadang trail, during which, thanks for the ever-scheming Chi, we made sure that Eugene and James were well watered before our intense hike. We then took a short rest stop at the scenic Bu Luo Wan.After a scrumptious meal, we had a time of sharing our baby pictures (and pictures with CC’s grandmother and Emperor Eugene) as well as our first FNP outside of Hsinchu. After that, we did our Myers-Briggs personality tests, and found some shocking similarities such as CC and Penny. Although ISTJs and ISFJs seem to dominate our group, we’re thankful for the other personalities, such as the ENFPs and the INFP healers, to keep our group interesting.

After starting off Day #2 with a time of studying the Bible, we visited some of the most breath-taking spots in Taroko such as Swallow Grotto and the Tunnel of Nine Turns. We then had sandwiches for lunch, as well as some impromptu post-lunch entertainment. Next we stopped at one of the most intriguing locations—the Water Curtain Cave. It was quite unusual to see mini-waterfalls right inside the caves, and we made sure that Chi had a close examination of the water. Our next stop was at the local night markets, where we filled up on the coffin bread that Kan highly recommended, had a shot at archery (though only Balduran was good enough to win anything), and witnessed the rifle competition between our US army and Taiwanese army representatives. We topped off the second day sharing about each of our life journeys, which was probably the most meaningful and memorable part of the trip.

We continued on the last day of our trip with some paddle-boating at Liyu Lake. We though that the chain-linked your ships was a tactic used only during the Three Kingdoms era, but apparently it can be used with paddle boats too, as some of the sisters painfully found out. Kan also decided to do a dive with Chi, but decided to bring Len along as well. :) We ended our trip with a BBQ and play American football at the windy Seven Star Beach.

What a packed trip we had! Many thanks to Kan for planning such a wonderful trip for us.

If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment and share with us!