The haze and clouds were just right today to see the sun coming up over the mountains, the city, and the 民俗公園 at 6:00 this morning.

This was my breakfast this morning. The buffet was crowded with what was apparently a Japanese tour group. It was like this several mornings when we ate breakfast. The Zhong Ke Hotel is very popular with Japanese tourists. Amongst other things, they had these yummy 小籠包 today (they said they were 煎包, but they weren't pan-fried).

We were going to eat an early lunch with family today, so we had to wait until 11:00 for Meihui to pick us up. To pass the time, we went for a walk in the park where we saw a guy with a beautiful parrot (which he turned loose for a moment of freedom), an exercise group (which Mei-O joined, but it was some sort of real slow exercise, and they didn't move at all for the minute she stood there, so she left!), this statue of a muscular guy throwing a top, this piece of public art, and a bunch of other things. Eventually, we went back to the hotel to await Meihui.

Meihui's two daughters, her older daughter Wenxin (温馨, standing, center, who was down from Taipei where she works as a Japanese translator) and her younger daughter Wenshuang (溫雙, an illustrator) and her husband, 阿璋, joined us for lunch at 稻鎮 經典台灣菜 (Daozhen: Classic Taiwanese Cuisine), a relatively new restaurant that Wenshuang really liked. (When they set my place setting, I was the only one who got Western silverware!) Check out our feast! There were also some nice views out the restaurant's large windows.

After lunch, Wenshuang's husband drove Mei-O, Meihui, Wenxin, and me to the grand opening of the new Han Shin Intercontinental Shopping Mall (漢神洲際購物廣場), just past the baseball-shaped Lilo Center Restaurant next to Taichung's baseball stadium. A huge crowd showed up, and while we went in and walked around a while, there wasn't really much for us to see; it looked like any other big mall, so we didn't stay long.

We were pretty far from home, it would've been a long walk, but fortunately, Han Shin was sponsoring shuttle buses to various parts of the city, and this one would take us pretty close to the hotel. The driver was taking a break, so while we waited, I took this selfie, then, once we got on, this one. Then off we went.

As we walked from the bus stop to our hotel, Meihui made sure we walked by this 小籠包 maker. She said we needed to watch him make his wares (0:23). He was pretty impressive. We had to wait for a batch to cook. When they were ready, ...

...we took them back to our hotel and had them for dinner (they were good!) And that was it for today. As the evening came down upon us, I watched the activity in the park while Mei-O made some ginger tea, then we watched some TV as we drank it before heading off to bed.

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