To scoot about in Taichung

Saturday, Erin, Kristi, Laura, Libby, Lien and I went to Taichung.  We were going to rent scooters in Fengyuan and drive there, but there were no open scooter shops to be found.  So... by train we went.  Lucky for us, there was a scooter rental place right next to the train station in Taichung.  The first thing that they asked us for was our international driver's permits.  Which we don't have.  The two scooter people talked to each other in Chinese and then asked us how long we will be in Taiwan.  We said six months.  They talked amongst themselves again, and then said that we could rent their scooters.  Yipee!  I was a driver again, and Kristi was my passenger.  Laura has her own scooter now, and Lien was with her.  Libby also rented a scooter with Erin.  Libby probably had the most interesting scooter experience.  Her first time driving a scooter was the night before on a deserted road.  Taichung has few deserted roads.  Heavy traffic and crazy drivers were her match.  It may not have been as beautiful as driving to Guanziling, but it was still very fun!

We found a restaurant where the seats and benches were swings suspended from the ceiling.  It was so cool!  The food was really good too, but Kristi and I (we shared a meal) were so surprised at some of the portion sizes.  Our salad had about four little pieces of lettuce.  Our dessert (Italian pudding with fruit) had a mere sliver of kiwi, not even a sliver.  We were amused.

After lunch, we went to the Tropical Rainforest greenhouse at the botanical garden near the National Museum of Science.  It was really beautiful.  I loved the variety of plants and flowers.  We will have to go back and do the museum another time because it was going to close soon by the time we went to purchase entrance tickets.

Costco was our final destination for the day.  I had pizza and mango smoothie and it was glorious.  Traveling is always fun, but the scooter riding just tops it off.  We got lost a lot, but it didn't matter, because we were on scooters.  Love it!