road trip to Hualien

so. I want to tell you about my vacation. but I want to tell you about my vacation without sounding like a guide book. [that last post about Taipei was a little... stiff and boring.]

I read this post on blogging and it reminded me of the constant struggle I had with the baking blog. do what you know will generate page views or do what you love. be what "they" want you to be or be yourself. and I really, really don't want to fall into that here.

it's harder than you think. the easy thing to do is plaster on a fake smile and write clean and clinical, just the bright and shiny highlights. but... that's not real. I should come clean about the last post and our trip to Taipei. the truth is that most of the exhibit went over my head and after we had lunch I felt sick so we went home early. that's real.

so the truth about our drive to Hualien? it was a blast. the scenery was incredible and the roads were terrifying. we drove inches from the edge of a cliff where the barriers had been wiped out by the recent typhoon. we went through cave-like tunnels without knowing how to turn on the rental car headlights.

we ate road trip junk food. we stopped at some really creepy restrooms. we cracked up over the construction scarecrows planted along the roadways. we made fun of each other. we laughed until we snorted. we stopped at every scenic overlook to take pictures... except the one that was washed over the cliff in the typhoon.

we discovered halfway through that we didn't know where our hotel was or even the name of it [none of us can read Chinese.] once we got to the city, we stopped three times to ask for directions - thankfully Peter speaks Chinese. and then once we found the hotel we discovered it was a motel... one that rents rooms by the hour. when we checked in they asked if we were staying or "just resting". it was horrifying. and hilarious.

it was, in short, everything a road trip should be.

[more to come on hiking, dumplings, and failing to charge your camera batteries]