Linus Bama Style BBQ

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go eat at Linus BBQ in Itaewon and let me tell you it was worth it. The owner of the store is a Korean man who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. After learning that we knew it was going to be good. What fellow Alabamian wouldn't want to eat some good ol' Barbecue, anyways?

To get to Linus BBQ park at Gate 5, by the gas station, turn left as soon as you walk out the gate. Cross the very first cross walk you come to and head straight down until you see McDonalds. To the left of McDonalds there is a stairway leading down to several shops. Pass the shops and go straight to the opposite end exit. You will come out right in the dining area of the restaurant. Turn to the right and find the hostess booth. The hostess will take your name and you will stand in the alley way waiting for your table. Opening hours are from Mon.-Thurs. 11:00 a.m.-3:00p.m. / 5:30 p.m.-10:00pm. Fri.-Sun.- 11:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. / 5:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m. .

We got there on a Thursday evening at 5:00 p.m. And there was already a growing line of people. Luckily, we were sat at a table quickly. The hostess and our waitress spoke English and we didn't have any issue ordering our food. The menu was given to us in English and the words were burnt into a slab of wood. We chose the meal that came with pulled pork, a rack of ribs, brisket, and four sides along with your slider buns to make a sandwich. The four sides were Bacon Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Slaw, and Fries.


They do give you a pitcher of water to drink when you sit down at your table but we ordered two Crack Teas and two Lemonades. The Crack tea was almost like an Arnold Palmer and the Lemonade, to our surprise, was blue and was mixed with carbonated water.

We were in heaven when our food arrived. The pulled pork was amazing on a slider with BBQ sauce and slaw. The ribs just fell off the bone. You know, the ones you can eat with a fork? The Brisket was so amazing that even Gracie agreed.(and she's our picky eater) The Bacon Potato Salad was really good but if you don't like the taste of onions you may not like this side. The Baked Beans were spicy and reminded us of the Ranch Style Beans in the Black can we buy at the Commissary. James loves Baked Beans so he was all over that. The fries were really tiny but they gave you so many that it made up for it.

The meal itself was 82,000 won plus adding in our drinks, our bill came to 106,000 won and worth every penny. We had enough left over for Lunch the next day. We are already planning a trip back when Brody comes home because he is a Brisket man.

Our Infertility Story

I have been going back and forth about putting our story out there for many reasons. First off, the blog's name is A Traveling Family. No one wants to read about us wanting another child. They want to read about far off places that they might want to visit one day. Then I remembered why I set up this blog in the first place. For readers to have a glimpse into our lives. I want readers to know our good times and our sad times. Another thing is the hurtful comments I might get out of putting our infertility story out there. The ones that say "You already have kids. Isn't three enough?". Or having loved ones call you dumb. (This has actually happened and has burned us from telling everyone) The people that are suppose to be your support system. The ones that know you are hurting but still want to make you hurt even more. I have just told a handful of people for this reason. I am afraid of putting this out there for the public but here goes.

I have always wanted to be a mother. I never strived to be a teacher or a doctor. I knew my calling in life was to be someone's mom.  James agrees with me that his calling was to be someone's father. He always imagined himself being a dad. In 2009, after having our youngest, we decided that James would get a Vasectomy. We were young and naive with judgmental people breathing down our necks telling us three was enough and we didn't need anymore. We were so worried, at the time, about what other people thought that James went ahead with the surgery.

At first, it didn't sink in that we would no longer be able to have another child. We had a toddler, a baby, and the next year Brody would come to live with us. We didn't really have time to think about it.  We went from having one child to pretty much three over night. After moving to North Carolina from Alaska, I started to feel an ache in my heart. I didn't understand what the ache meant at that time.  I started feeling sad and I didn't know why. Our marriage suffered some heavy blows at this time. I was sad and felt like something was missing from my life. From our lives. I really did some soul searching. I finally realized that something, someone, was missing in our family.

I was so afraid to tell James how I felt because he had went through physical pain from the surgery because he thought we were done having children. I was afraid he would think I was crazy for even thinking about having another child. I thought he was like everyone else and thought three was enough. That's where I was wrong. He isn't like everyone else. He is my husband. In some ways, a male reflection of myself. I told him how I felt and to my astonishment he felt the same way. Through tears we talked about how we were feeling and what we could do to try. To try for our family, no matter what others may say.

The next few months were kind of a blur. We drove up north for James to have the Vasectomy Reversal. People were swarming us with questions on why he was having day surgery and when a few found out they still told us we were dumb. Even though we knew this was a long road ahead for us, it was a breath of fresh air to know we were on our way to having another child. A year went by and nothing. Every month was filled with sadness. I felt like I was grieving for a child I had lost even though it never had existed. I finally went to the doctor. I was diagnosed with PCOS. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome affects your hormone levels, your menstrual cycles, and ovulation. I won't go into all the details but basically I wasn't able to get pregnant as quickly as I was with my other two pregnancies.

My doctor prescribed me Metformin. I asked around about what the side effects were to this new pill I was taking. I got a few answers and a few questions as well. Negative responses yet again. This was not helping our grief, our sadness.  But we kept going forward. We knew that this wasn't going to be easy when we started this journey.  There have been countless tears shed and long talks. There have been days where the negative comments have made me want to give up but James is my motivator. He assures me that everything will work out in time. We will have a child one day. I am so blessed that I have such a supportive partner that is going through the same thing. He gets down about it every month, he gets happy again when talking about our future child, he supports me and makes me feel whole again when I feel a loss every month.

Two years have came and gone and now we have accepted that a pregnancy may never happen for us. Moving across the world has opened our eyes to things. We still have the ache for a child but we aren't obsessing over a negative outcome every month. We have options that we are looking into and we feel that breath of fresh air again. Options. I love that word.

*Close friends and family- While we love if you would like to talk about our story please refrain from talking to our children about this very sensitive subject. They do know we would like to add another child to our family and they are in agreement with it. If the day comes where we are given the chance to have another child we will talk about it with them in an age appropriate manner.

Everland

Last Saturday we took a trip to Everland Amusement Park. Considering it was Saturday it wasn't very crowded with people and we didn't have to wait long in line for any of the rides.  There is a separate Everland Water Park and I assume that's where most of the guests were.  

After you have parked your car remember to take a picture of what section of the parking lot you are in. This will help you get on the right shuttle bus back to your car when you leave.  When arriving in the park, skip the ticket lines that everyone else is going through. Pass those and find the big pavilion that says Foreigners Ticket Booth. We had a 50% off coupon for our tickets and we got in only having to pay 86,000 won. (We were given this coupon at Dragon Hill Lodge at the tours desk. We were told you could find coupons on the Everland website too.)

Everland, in my opinion, is South Korea's Disneyland. It is separated into five parts. Global Fair, American Adventure, Magic Land, European Adventure, and Zoo Topia. 

Global Fair is the first part of the park. This part consists of Guest Services, shops, and restaurants. 

I suggest your first stop be in Zoo Topia. The lines for the Safari World, Lost Valley, and Amazon Express fill up quickly later on during the day. We went on the Safari World and the Lost Valley tour and had a blast. There were so many exhibits to visit in Zoo Topia that we didn't get to see them all. On our next trip we will have to make sure we see the Polar Bears we missed.

Our next stop was European Adventure. We were starving by this point and couldn't find a lot of options near us. We ended up eating chicken on a stick, a corndog, and two hotdogs. The Spicy Chicken on a Stick was very good, Gracie loved her corndog, but Jack and I hated the hot dogs. They were questionable sausage dogs with soft doughy bread that wasn't cooked all the way. 

After eating our lunch we rode on the Sky Lift over to American Adventure. There we ran smack dab into KFC. I think we all felt a blow from that. Along with KFC they had three other American restaurants.  The rides here were geared more towards older kids and adults. Our kids were just under the height limit for these rides. We decided since there wasn't many things that interested the kids in American Adventure we would move on. 

Our last stop was in Magic Land. This was geared more towards children and families. We rode on a kiddie roller coaster where we bought a picture of Jack and Gracie having a blast. At this point it was in the afternoon and the crowds were starting to get a little larger.  We had to wait in line for about twenty minutes to ride Thunder Falls but it wasn't the fifty minute wait that the wait sign had shown when we arrived in line.  Thunder Falls was a fun log ride that went backwards at one drop and got us soaked the last drop that went straight down. Remember to buy a poncho, bring a bag that won't soak up water, or rent a locker. I had to push my bag under two layers of shirts so it wouldn't get wet with the rollercoaster picture we had inside. (It didn't get wet by the way)  There were a lot of kiddie rides and the kids had a wonderful time.

We stopped in to check out Charactorium which is an air conditioned building with lots of computerized games, crafts, and toys to play with. 

We had a great time in all of the five parts of the park but Magic Land was our favorite.  There were tons of rides to go on and even a spooky fun house for the kids.  The bonus was we only paid 10,000 more won to come to Everland for an all day adventure than to the Coex Aquarium that only lasted an hour.  Throughout the year there are different holiday events at the park and we hope to travel back to Everland to experience Halloween and Christmas. We had a great day and enjoyed our trip to Everland and we will definitely be back for a visit soon.