This morning we dusted off our biking muscles and went for a ride down to the ocean and this is what we saw:

Pier 2 is an outdoor sculpture park and art gallery space next to the harbor. It's one of the places we visited on our first day in Kaohsiung, over five months ago. A new set of sculptures is being installed, including our new friend, the motorcycle samurai.

My favorite sculpture is still there, The Monk and the Beast.

After the art park we headed to the water's edge. Next to the ferry to Cijin Island, one of our favorite haunts, is this beautiful pedestrian bridge.

The harbor entrance was busy, as usual, with ships coming and going and Chinese tourists watching the action. It was a gorgeous morning, despite the smog, just right for a photo opportunity.

Even though we'd been planning this move for a long time, I don't think at my last birthday I really imagined that on this birthday I'd be standing in short sleeves, half a world away, living the adventure.

Part of the adventure is the job, too, so we finished the ride with a stop at school to pick up some work. Across the street from KAS there was a make-shift stage set up with some kind of performance going on. It included a pretty impressive array of incredibly loud firecrackers.

There were tables of food, a brazier for burning ghost money and people with burning incense sticks bowing towards the performers. It's times like this that I wish I had a local guide to tell me what's going on.

This evening we had friends over for dinner and it was really nice. Getting together a few days before school starts up again was a good way to get back in the right mindset for work and we've made some good friends whose company I really enjoy. All in all, this has been a wonderful birthday.