After a fine breakfast of Taiwanese breads and pastries, we headed out for an exciting adventure with Valerie’s mom’s childhood friends. One of the friends picked us up in a van and drove to an old street in New Taipei City where we saw a 104 year-old elementary school. Afterward, we drove up a mountain to eat a large lunch with specialty tofu made from black soybeans. For dinner, we met another of Valerie’s mom’s friends at a restaurant near the top of the Taipei world trade center. The view of Taipei from the restaurant was spectacular and the dessert selection was quite enjoyable as well.

In the morning, Valerie and I took a taxi to pick up a bunch of pineapple cakes to bring back to the US. Afterward, we took the MRT to Tamsui to meet with more of Valerie’s mom’s friends who treated us to a full lunch of Taiwan-style seafood. On our way back to the MRT station, we walked along the Tamsui beachfront, which had the highest density of tourists of any place we’d been to in Taiwan so far. On our way back to downtown, we stopped by the National Palace Museum, which is famous for housing many of the national treasures of China. We saw lots of bronze-age bronze, historic pottery, old furniture, and other various treasures. Oddly, there was very little gold, which surprised me given the prevalence of the color gold in Chinese culture.