Seoul Forrest

I have a few adventures from this past summer that I want to get you caught up on...

All around Seoul there are parks where families can spend the day and get away from the craziness of the city.  They have done an awesome job making the parks beautiful and full of fun activities.  One day this past summer our family decided to take a bike ride to one of these parks named Seoul Forrest and explore it. 

Riding bikes in a city is a crazy experience.   

This is a major highway that we had to ride right beside. 

 We stopped on this bridge to watch a water show.  This bridge, the Bampo Bridge, is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the "World's Longest Bridge Fountain".  They play music and have a water (and lights at night) show at different times during the day.  It is actually a double-deck bridge with cars driving on 2 different levels.  Here are some cool facts about the bridge:

• It is 1140 meters (3740 feet) long
• It features almost 10,000 nozzles that run along both sides of the bridge
• It has over 200 lights on it that at night light during the water show
• It shoots out about 190 tons of water per minute
• It crosses the Han River and pumps water directly from the river

We happened to be riding across during the water show and stopped to watch.

Korean parks have awesome play grounds.

You can climb all around the inside of this huge person.

Sitting on top of the snake.

Climb the rope up...

...slide back down.

A fun stepping bridge over the stream.  In the front of this picture you can see the cool water activities they had at this park.  You had to turn the crank to get the water up to the top then it would flow down the troughs back into the stream.

Here Taylor is turning the crank.

This particular park had a beautiful (and free!) butterfly house.

The flowers were beautiful inside of the butterfly house.

Playing on the rocks.

It also had an area of water fountains that shot up from the ground that kids could play in.  The girls loved it.

"Hurry mom, take the pictures.  We are missing all the water!"

And off they go.

Dad patiently waiting for them while they play in the water.

The Koreans make a day of it and set up camp for hours.

We found a small restaurant to eat some lunch after the fountains.

And finally back on our bikes to ride home again. 

This was an awesome park that is just a bike ride away from our house.  We love living in the crazy city but every once in a while it is nice to get a break from it as well.

Catch Up Time

It has been almost a month since I have last posted on my blog.  I am sorry it has taken me so long.  I have many adventures to share with you and I will try to get caught up again in the next few posts.

My mom came to visit us for a month from the middle of September to the middle of October.  We had a great visit with her.  I was able to take her around to many of the major sights in Seoul and we did TONS of shopping.  She had lots of time to spend with the grand kids and was a big help to me.  Since she came for such a long visit I was able to incorporate her into many parts of my life over here.  She helped volunteer at the elementary school store, she was a chaperone at the school sock hop, attended a change of command, went to the Fireworks festival, she picked up kids from sports practices and went to a few dinners with us.

Here are a few of the pictures from her visit.

She rode public transportation...

Shopped in the markets...

Ate all kinds of Korean food...

Fish Market

The man that cut up our fish for dinner.

Attended the International Fireworks Festival (with a few million other people)...

The Koreans make it a day when they attend these festivals.  They set up tents and small camping stoves and stay all day long.

Our sheet on the ground looks pitiful compared to their tents.

The sunset was beautiful.

We were to far away for me to get any really good pictures. 

There is no way to describe how many people were at this festival.  I am not exaggerating when I say millions of people attend this festival to see the fireworks.  For the most part the crowds here don't bother me over here, but this is a bit much for me.  I don't know that will be attending this festival next year.

Paid a visit to Dr. Fish...

This is one of my favorite pictures.  She was laughing so hard.

Attended a ROK Marine Corps concert...

Not often you see a US Marine riding the subway in his uniform

The ROK Commandant's wife, Mrs. Lee.  If you remember I try to get my picture with Mrs. Lee at every event I am at with her.  Two days after this event her husband had his change of command and so this was my last opportunity to have my picture taken with her.

ROK Marine Corps Band

Spent time with the girls...

One of the highlights of her visit was a dinner we were able to attend.  This year is the 60th anniversary of the ROK-US alliance and so there were a few different ceremonies and dinners to celebrate the milestone. One dinner we were invited to had a few very distinguished guests at it.   Chuck Hagel (Secretary of Defense), General Dempsey (Charmain of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and the President of South Korea, President Park along with countless military generals and officials from the Korean government were just a few of the people at our dinner.  Honestly it was a bit surreal to be at a dinner and be surrounded by secret service men and all this security.  We had to go through metal detectors before we could even get into the dinner.
I didn't get any awesome pictures that night, but it was an evening I will never forget.

All good things must come to an end.  Saying good-bye...

Thanks mom for coming to visit us.  We had a great time and miss you already.