Some observations from an evening walk along the bike path:

1. There probably is a reason, but to my eye the Taiwanese don't need a reason to set off fireworks. Could be little, loud firecrackers on the sidewalk or big explosions in the air seemingly coming from little alleyways in the middle of the city. I thought they only set them off for certain festivals but there seems to be a festival every week or two. The next big celebration is on October 10 (Double Ten Day) so maybe we're just warming up for that.

2. Even after biking along the same stretch of bike path a dozen or more times you can still miss the 2003 Kaohsiung Tower of Light. It looks like a cross between a high-voltage electric tower and the Eiffel Tower and has a spiral staircase you can climb up about 40 feet for a nice view of the Love River and surrounding neighborhood. I don't know how you miss a hundred foot tower. I guess we just weren't looking up when we were biking.

3. Living on the 10th floor is a good way to get over one's lingering fear of heights.

4. Lizards like to hang out on the funky light posts along the path and catch bugs to eat. The posts are like pillars of light so the lizards are lit from underneath and we could see the outline of their spines like they were being x-rayed.

5. The best fruit smoothie after an evening walk along the bike path is watermelon and pineapple. We have a little fruit shop near the apartment that cuts up fresh fruit, adds some frozen fruit and blends it up fresh and cold. You wouldn't think that at 7:30 at night on October 2 you'd want something to cool you down but you'd be wrong. According to the Weather Channel the heat plus humidity makes the air temperature in Kaohsiung an unpleasant 92 degrees. Lovely. At least the smoothie is nice and refreshing. And we left the AC on in the apartment so it was blissfully cool when we got home. (Perfect temp for Lee, a bit too chilly for me.)