Yang Ming Shan

My cousin May Gu (that's just her nickname, mind you) and her daughter, Shing Shing, came over this afternoon to go out to dinner. Yi Ming came over, too, after getting her hair done. Ray took the two of us to get our pictures taken for our ID cards before meeting everyone else at Yang Ming Shan. My aunt and uncle, May Gu and Ray's parents, were coming, too.

Yang Ming Shan is a popular place, famous for hot springs. There are a ton of tea houses and restaurants up there since the view of Taipei is really nice from there. We went to a restaurant called The Top (it should be Roof Top since that's what the translation really is). It's a nice little place nestled into the side of the mountain with pretty spectacular views. I didn't have my camera otherwise I'd have a couple of pictures to show.

All the covered tables were taken so we had to sit out in the open. It wasn't too bad. There was a bit of wind but the weather was really nice. Everyone was a bit cold but the weather was exactly what I was used to so it felt good. May Gu ordered so much food: veggies, tofu, pork chops, oysters and clams and a whole hotpot of seafood. We'd gone through everything but half the hotpot when it started raining. The unfinished food was packed into boxes and we went somewhere else for dessert. Everyone was trying to decide head down which side of the mountain and I was, like, 'Don't ask me. I'm just a foreigner, haha.' They decided on Tianmu and we settled ourselves at a Häagen-Dazs ice cream parlor. Good stuff.