Sunday Drive

The four of us got strapped into the car at 11:30 Sunday morning and drove off to "Scenic Lavender Cottage" in northeast Taichung County, on the way to GuGuang, the hot springs resort. Maggie and I had seen the signs for this place many times in the past--hell, you can't miss them, there's one every 500 meters. Now, all the utility poles have a lavender band painted around them so you won't get lost.

For years, friends and coworkers have suggested this popular destination as a great place to get away from the city to relax and enjoy the countryside. That sounds just about like what we needed this week. The weather is warm, Gretchen is four months old, and everyone has been a little stir crazy cooped up in the apartment on the weekends.

If you're thinking of going to Lavender Cottage, don't bother. It's the same as any place in town. Huge crowds of people standing in line for caramel machiattos, awkward boys with unusual hair and misspelled t-shirts, homogeneous girls in pirated night market fashions, all talking loudly into their cell phones or posing for snap shots with the obligatory V for Visa made popular by Churchill and Lennon.

Traffic, parking hassles, lines, dust, loudspeakers, herds and herds of people.

We got home at 5 and slept the sleep of the dead.

Gretchen was cute, though.