How Did It Get So Late So Soon?: Trip to Taipei

I had the privilege last weekend of going to Taipei.

And it was fantastic.

Like New York City, if it was entirely Chinatown.

Only a million times better than that.

Chinatown sucks after Taipei.

Partly this is because there is no LDS temple in Chinatown, NYC.

(Understandably so)

And I love the temple,

so pretty much anyplace with one of those blows everywhere else out of the water.

Our trip to Taipei was mainly for the temple, seeing as we went with our branch.

But actually, we didn't spend much time there.

It was literally the fastest I'd ever been in and out of a temple.

There was no dawdling whatsoever.

We were in and out in about half an hour, maybe less.

Crazy, right?

I thought so, too.

But we did get to spend a bit of down time on the grounds, which was nice.

Those who could took lots of pictures.

(I, of course, was having technical difficulties and so couldn't take as many.

Some of these were borrowed from other cameras.

Thanks guys!)

Side Note: This is also the smallest temple I've ever been too.

Just a random factoid.

Of course, it is still just as beautiful as all the rest

And I loved being here, no matter how brief the time.

After the temple, President Baclayon took those of us who had done baptisms

(and so were done super quickly)

on a jaunt through the neighborhood...

Ok, so actually it was more of a foraging mission to find food because we were all starving!

This sign says "Delicious Breakfast is Always in Beauty Castle"
I'm assuming thats the name of the business, but either way it's fantastic.
As you can probably tell, it was closed when we walked past and we were not able to find out for ourselves whether or not the food lived up to the advertising.

This is at the restaurant we did eat at, featuring Veronica next to a serve-yourself-shelf.
And yes, those are whole fish there next to her.

I didn't take any more pictures in this restaurant,

mainly because by the time we got our food

I couldn't think about anything but consuming as much as possible as quickly as humanly possible.

And because everyone else had similar thoughts,

the food didn't survive long enough to be photographed.

The charming mascot of a bingsha (i.e. snowcone/ice cream/smoothie) place we went to after we ate.

And this was inside...
Notice that beautiful concoction on the counter...

This little beauty here is what Kendra and I ordered...
Mango 'snowflakes', mango ice cream, and fresh mangos...
It's a mango miracle in a bowl.

And there is Kendra, holding the mango miracle just after we bought it!

And, of course!
Us eating that marvelous thing.

After the temple...

and after eating lunch...

and after meeting up with those who were in the temple a bit longer...

We made our way to Taipei 101,

which is the tallest building in Taipei, and most likely in Taiwan as well.

I think it's even on the tallest buildings in the world list,

although I'm not quite sure where it falls on there.

Anyway...

It's a pretty spectacular sight!

Kylie being an Elf
(Like off the movie, if you didn't catch that reference)

We all want to get a picture of everything...
And we end up looking pretty silly sometimes!
(P.S. - This picture was actually taken by Kendra Kimber.
IF we were to be completely honest, I'm actually in the picture behind Jessica.
I only wish I had taken a funny picture instead of the same one as everyone else!
[Thanks Kendra!])

The three of us
- Kendra, Kaylee, Jessica -
were the only ones out of our little group to go to the top.

These were the girls selling the tickets,
but what you should really notice is that incredible picture behind them.
I really REALLY want to go up to the top of Taipei 101 at night.
Someday!

But what is even more stunning than the tower itself

is the view from the top once you make it up there:

Yes, that is the shadow of Taipei 101 that you see there.

This guy is what keeps the tower stable...
I don't actually know how
(We had a limited amount of time that we used to take pictures rather than educate ourselves.)
But there are these rather creepy little cartoons all over that explain it.
I didn't take a picture of those becuase I thought they were creepy looking.
Sorry everyone.

Just before we had to leave,

we found out we could go up another two floors and go outside!!

We found this on the way:

LOTS of stairs!!
Apparently there is a contest every year to run all of these stairs...
(There are 90 some floors?!)
But obviously only someone completely out of their mind would even think about doing that...

And, not surprisingly, we found more amazing views when we actually got out there.

Here is the lovely Kendra, taking them in!