Seoraksan National Park

November 10-11, 2008 – We headed off for a short but much needed getaway to Seoraksan National Park. It was a beautiful three and a half hour drive through South Korea. Once we arrived we check into the Mt. Seorak Tourist Hotel. It was a nice clean room at a great price with marvelous views. The fall leaves were still striking in all their colors even this late into the month. After getting settled in it was time to take the cable car ride up to the top of the mountain near by. Mark kept saying we were flying while on the cable car. Once we got to the top we hiked the rest of the way up to the summit of the mountain. It had been raining and we were hiking on rock so it was a very slippery hike. Some of the higher mountains were even a bit snow covered! It was quite a lovely sight. As is typical in Korea, there were some women hiking in heels! CRAZY, from my point of view!!!! The Korean women like to hike in style I guess? The next hike we did was the Two Waterfalls hike. The waterfalls were impressive and the hike was not only gorgeous but peaceful also. By then it was time to eat dinner and head back to our room to watch a movie and go to bed. The next morning after breakfast, we hiked the trail that starts behind the very large Unification Buddha near our hotel. It was another outstanding hike up to a prayer hall inside a cave called Gyejoam. The huge boulders all around had Chinese characters carved into them. By the time we got back, it was nearly 2 pm and time to start the long drive home. We stopped at a rest stop for a late lunch on the way out. Overall, Seoraksan was wonderful to get to spend time in God’s amazing creation together as a family.

Thanksgiving - November 8, 2008

Saturday, November 8th, the Somers family (Owen, Lynnience, Alexander and Zachary) and our family took a full Thanksgiving feast over to Moonja and Jong Gun’s home to teach some 20 of their students about Thanksgiving. It was an enjoyable and educational day! The three older boys did a short presentation on Thanksgiving for the Korean students which I recorded and you can watch on You Tube. The Korean students were all good sports about trying the very different foods. They were not sure what to do with the gravy since they do not have anything like it in their diet. Some tried to put it on the side to dip food in which did not work out so well! I’m sure the food was somewhat bland to them since most of their food is spicy. I don’t think any of the students came back for seconds but the Americans sure did! It was very delicious!

Who's the dummy directing traffic?

Two dummies and two U-Turns! (second dummy was driving and not available for a picture)

Happy Halloween!

Andrew "the Ninja" and Mark "the Pilot" checking out their loot!

Last night in China...October 26, 2008

Eating dinner and the kids showing off there finds from the market on our last night in Beijing, China.

Time to come home...

October 27th (5th day in China) - Mark starting getting sick around 0100 on the day we were to fly back to Korea. We stopped counting after the 6th time he threw up, poor little Mark! After breakfast at the hotel in which Mark threw up all over Joseph, we loaded our baggage on the bus for the trip to Beijing International Airport. We flew on Asiana again on the way back to Incheon. Mark only threw up once on the flight! The bus ride back to Osan AB went smoothly and Mark slept thought most of it. It was an incredible trip to China! Thank you Lord for this magnificent experience!

Tian An Men Square & Beihai Park

October 26th (4th day in China) - After another great breakfast at the hotel our bus driver and our amazing tour guide Shelley took us on a tour of Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square was huge and extremely crowded. Afterwards we headed off to Beihai Park which was just a relaxing place to be. We all enjoyed a walk around the park with a choir singing in the back ground. This park was once the winter residence of the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. The Bai Ta (White Dagoba) is a Buddhist shrine built in the Tibetan style in the center on the park. Next we were dropped off at another Market for a late lunch and more bargaining. After about 4 hours of shopping at the market it was time to get back to the hotel, start packing, and have dinner.

I know I have not said much about the outstanding driving skills of our bus driver but he was able to drive or park that bus in places I’d have a hard time parking my car – really! And the driving in Beijing is a whole new level of crazy compared to South Korea because not only are the drivers nuts but the bike rides are out of their minds and everywhere. On our first day, we actually had a bicycle rider that was messing with his cell phone run broadside right into the middle of our bus as we were going into the entrance of the Temple of Heaven! And I can’t leave out our tour guide – Shelley was worth her weight in gold. Not only was her English outstanding and her stories of China and Beijing entertaining, she was just a delightful person with a warm kind personality and a joy to be around.