Our Staycation part 4...final part...

Day 13: Rest day
Day 14: Seoul Zoo
Day 15: Winding down and garden
Day 16: Forest Park
Day 17: Out to dinner

As you can tell, we were definitely winding down on our last week of staycation.
I can easily say that camping was everyones favorite, but it was all a lot of fun. We enjoyed it! :)

~~Seoul Zoo~~
Most all zoos are alike...this one had animals and all that. :) So...no need to say anything about it.

   Hello there!

 A yummy tasty treat......perfect for a warm day!

Why is it that the white peacocks are the only ones that "open" when you have your camera and when you don't have your camera the cool colorful ones "open"????? I like the white ones too....but, I just like the colorful ones better.....and they never perform :)

 Ever been licked by a buffalo? I can now say that I have!

 Kade sitting up there like he's Macho Man on his chariot.

~~Garden~~

 Hey...hey...hey!! It's actually bearing fruit!

 awwww....a witty bitty cucumber!


~~Forest Park~~

 Makes me think of something from Dr. Seuss.

Watch out city slickers! The hillbillies are coming! :)
They had a splash fountain there...that's what the swimwear is for. :)

Bella loved the fountain. Kade only liked it until it started getting really high and powerful. I am so totally doing it next time we go and I'm gonna take Dakota in with me....it'll be awesome! :)

Go Daddy go!! Go Bella go!! ;)

This park use to be a landfill, so it was "eco-y" I guess you could say. It was sort of "modern-y" and...well you know what I'm saying. :) They had this big metal guy that you could climb through....only through the leg though. Very interesting...

Bella at the foot....

 

Oh yah!! High class dressing there. Woowee!! This guy must not be married. :)

~~Dinner night~~
We had a restaurant picked out, but walked around all over the place and couldn't find it. So we settled for another restaurant we came across. Maybe someday we'll find that restaurant. :) The restaurant we settled for was good. Although we didn't get to sit on the floor like we planned...we'll get to do that soon. :)

While walking around we asked this group of people if they knew where the restaurant we were looking for was. We asked them because they were speaking English to each other. :)


They were so helpful. They got out their touch screen phones and started tapping. One guy called the tourist office and asked them. One lady asked another nearby bystander. Though they tried hard....they couldn't figure it out either. :( That's when we finally dicided to settle for something else.


Our coals with the potato things cooking. I say "potato things" because I'm not sure what kind of potato they were....but they were in the potato family. :)

Bella boo

Dakota and I. Loved having Koda with us!!

Well that concludes the whole staycation. 

God bless!!

K.K.M.D

Jeremiah 23:24

Our Staycation part 3....

Day 9: We packed for our backpacking camping trip. We packed 2 huge backpacks that Dakota and Dad carried, a medium sized one I carried, and a small one that Bella carried. We also went to K-16, the near by base Dakota works at, to do our grocery shopping there....just to see Dakota in action. :)
Day 10: Got up early and started towards Wonju, the city where Chiaksan National Park is, It was an 1 1/2 hour train and an 45 minute bus ride to Chiaksan National Park. We wanted to camp at a rustic campground that was further from the entrance, but that one was closed down, so we had to stay at a different one. But, it was still a lot of fun. We got settled into our campsite and went for a hike.
Day 11: Because Dakota had to get back to work, we hung out at the campground for the morning then left to come back home.
Day 12: Went out to Namdaemun Market.


~~Packing and K-16~~

 Yay!! There he is!!

 Way to go!!...big bro. :)

~~Headed to Chiaksan, got settled, and did some hiking~~
We went camping overnight at Chiaksan National Park, we took everything in backpacks and used public transportation. The only thing I sort of missed was having a chair to sit on, but Indian style is more fun than carrying lawn chairs. :) "Only pack what you need!!" was our motto....
Dakota slept under the stars in a hammock and the rest of us 5 slept together in a teeny tent.
The train ride there was pretty fun. It had been a long time since I rode a train....besides a subway which doesn't really count as a train . :) Once we got to Chiaksan we pitched our tent and ditched our backpacks.....and went on a hike.

 We passed a ton of rice fields on the way there.

All tuckered out!

The guys under the blue tarp are building the buildings you see behind them! They were using chainsaws, hammers, chisels, and carving tools.....that's pretty impressive!!

There was a little river that ran right beside the trail that we hiked in the park. Love God's creation!


Kimbap eating squirrel! :) (Kimbap is pretty much korean sushi....just a little bit different.)

Cooking dinner....

 Loved having Dakota with us!!

Our tent....It actually got cold even with all us 5 in there. :)

Dad's coffee brewer....
I love being without some of the modern conviences. :) It's so adventurous and creative. You get to improvise...and I love inprovising and it just spurs my little creative spirit. I just love the simplicity that camping gives especially when you don't pack a truck full of "camping stuff" to go camping....you just take what you need! That is the point of camping. :)

 Bacon!!....

 ....Pancakes!!....

 .......Mr. Smiley!! :)

 Our awesome camp site....

The tree took this shot for us....a self timer shot. :) I love my family!


~~Namdaemun Market~~
With all it's street food vendors, teeny tiny stores filled to the roofs, and crazy moped drivers it is the heart of Seoul....the true Korea. You could spend all day there walking up and down alleys, taking turns this way and that and not see all of it. So interesting the things you will come across. :)





One of the million streets

Warning 1: Watch out for trucks!!

 Warning 2: Watch out for mopeds!

 A great balancing act....

 How many air conditioning units are there? :) Do they need that much?

Mommy and her veggie Hodeok. (a Hodeok is a fried ball of dough filled with either veggies or cinnamon, sugar and nuts...this particular one was filled with noodles and veggies.)

I do believe this is the second to last post about our staycation...I hope we aren't boring you. :)

Well....stay tuned!

K.K.M.D

Psalms 46:10

Our staycation part 2...

Day 5: Korean War Museum
Day 6: We went to Marrioners Park and Tapgol Park, but Marrioners Park was closed down for reconstruction. So we headed to Tapgol Park...which was a disapointment. :( I was expecting a "park", but it was more like a square. :) It was a little gated-in square, with some famous tower in the middle. (The tower was pretty cool) So, we had our picnic in the square. After that we just walked around Insadong.....ending up near the National Folk Museum....which was free and fun. ;)
Day 7: We had a normal Saturday and went to the Lotus Lantern Festival that evening.
Day 8: We rested, caught up on some things and worked in the garden.


~~Korean War Museum~~
The Korean War Museum was preatty neat. They had tons of static displays outside (which the babies loved) and it was massive inside. Like a museum normally is...there were a bunch of exhibits and displays. :)

 Tank driver Bella...

 Tank driver Kade....

 Kade was totally in love with the tanks, trucks, planes, guns, helicopters, and ships.

 A miniature replica of the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon that we went to in the previous post.

 Did you know all these guys come to life at night? :)

 Me and Bella "cheese-ingly" posing with some distraught villagers. (as you can see we were trying to act distraught and afraid. :) ) Bella is actually not to bad.....

Little man giving his mommy a ride...
~~Marrioners park, Tapgol "square," Insadong, the museum...and all that jazz~~
Like I said in the top paragraph...we went to Marrioners Park only to find it closed, so we wandered over to Tapgol Park, only spent a little while there, then went wandering some more and ended up at the National Folk Museum.

Pretty rose

A really cool wedding reception hall we came across while wandering.

The afore mentioned famous tower in the middle of Tapgol Park. It was encased in glass which took away from it's coolness and also made it hard to take a picture of it.

Oooooo!! Our big indulgence! Waffles are a big thing over here....you can get the more elaborate ones, like this one, or you can get the street vendor kind which is a waffle with a filling on top then folded over itself.....we haven't tried one of those yet.

Looking over the balcony from where we ate our waffle.

Now, this is at the National Folk Museum. He's a happy fellow!

They had this cool pagoda blocked off...so we couldn't go to it. :(

So....."asiany"

Some old "antiquey" things.

Dad showing Kade how to play a traditional korean game.

Trying the top out.
It (and the hoop thing) were actually harder than they look. :)

Old meets modern.


~~Lotus Lantern Festival~~
Just another festival....korea is full of them. :)
We went and watched the lantern parade, then they had live music while showering confetti and dancing a traditional circle dance, of which Dakota, Bella and I paticipated. :) The memories will stay forever. :)

Yep, we are in the right place. (note: the front row. :) Koreans are such posers....)

Little man....what a sweet smile!

Oh oh oh!! I was so excited to see this. It's those dragons pulled around by people inside....just like in the movies!!! :)

The parade was almost 100% man power....everything was pulled or pushed. I just totally loved this dragon. :)

Most all the lanterns were real candles.

The showering of confetti was awesome!

Bella getting her usual attention


~~Rest day and garden~~
We rested, listened to a sermon, and played in dirt.

Our lettuce is growing!!!

Our little pea...

Stay tuned for part 3.... :)

K.K.M.D

Prov. 15:1