New Years Eve 2012

This NYE we decided to risk going down to the base of Taipei 101 and watch the fireworks from there. It's a risk because we've heard horror stories of not getting home until 4am, and this is all for a fireworks show that lasts 3 minutes. Not 30, three.
We doubled with Brandie and Jeremiah and our guys did some serious research into the situation so that we knew the exact streets that would be closed off and at what time. They wouldn't be reopened until 3am so we wanted to park close but not too close.
We drove downtown and spent some time finding the perfect spot, hoping enough cars would join us so that we wouldn't be towed, risked it and parked. We walked a few blocks in to dinner.

We couldn't have picked a better spot to have dinner than basically at the foot of 101. We were just across the street. We had a late dinner at a delicious sushi place and took our sweet time eating, not wanting to wait out in the cold for too long.

At 11:55 we walked out into the streets that had been slowly filling with thousands of people. It was strange to see these streets -always swarming with scooters, buses and cars- only full of people. We didn't have to wait long for the show to begin:

After the brief but awesome show we walked several blocks back to our car, waited in minimal traffic due to our guys' superior navigational skills, and were home before 1:30am. We've seen it from afar every year but it was definitely worth the effort to see it up close. What an amazing way to ring in the 2013 with my baby!