"We travel not to escape life,but for life not to escape us."
Friday, December 25, 2015
A Korean Christmas
Our first Christmas in Korea was a success. We had such a wonderful holiday and we have really enjoyed our break from school and work. Christmas Eve was filled with Christmas lights and opening our "Secret" Santa gifts for one another. The kids woke up five minutes before seven in the morning which is a new experience since we usually have to wake them up closer to lunch. Christmas Day was filled with toys to play with, new clothes to try on, and lots of food to eat. We ended our day visiting Dragon Hill Lodge so I could try out my new camera. Here are my favorite photos from tonight.
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Han River E-Land Cruise
A few weeks ago, James surprised me with a cruise on the Han River in Seoul. There were several cruise boats on the river lit up with twinkle lights. We had reservations on the dinner cruise and were seated on the top floor. There was a band playing soothing Jazz music and later a Jazz singer joined in and sang American Jazz music.
The buffet had a vast array of food, from Korean to American. Everything was delicious.
While eating, we enjoyed looking at all the beautifully lit skyscrapers and buildings along the river. We arrived at the bridge where we were moved outside to watch the light show. (I was not too impressed by this since it was just water shooting out of the bridge with lights shining behind it.)
At the end of the cruise we watched a fireworks show that blew us away. Korea really knows how to put on a show.
Would I bring the kids next time? Yes and no. Yes, I would bring them to see the light show and the fireworks show but on another boat that didn't have dinner included since it would cost a lot less won. I would not take them on the dinner boat with the price of the buffet being so high. It's hard to pay an expensive bill when picky eaters don't eat any of their food. James and I would love to go back on a second date here. It was very romantic. Tip-Bring a jacket. Being on the river at night can be a little chilly. Or don't bring a jacket and use that as an excuse to cuddle up to your significant other for even more fireworks.
The buffet had a vast array of food, from Korean to American. Everything was delicious.
While eating, we enjoyed looking at all the beautifully lit skyscrapers and buildings along the river. We arrived at the bridge where we were moved outside to watch the light show. (I was not too impressed by this since it was just water shooting out of the bridge with lights shining behind it.)
At the end of the cruise we watched a fireworks show that blew us away. Korea really knows how to put on a show.
Would I bring the kids next time? Yes and no. Yes, I would bring them to see the light show and the fireworks show but on another boat that didn't have dinner included since it would cost a lot less won. I would not take them on the dinner boat with the price of the buffet being so high. It's hard to pay an expensive bill when picky eaters don't eat any of their food. James and I would love to go back on a second date here. It was very romantic. Tip-Bring a jacket. Being on the river at night can be a little chilly. Or don't bring a jacket and use that as an excuse to cuddle up to your significant other for even more fireworks.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, August 3, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Coex Aquarium
This week we had the opportunity to visit Coex Aquarium, inside of the Coex Mall. Finding a spot in the parking garage was fairly easy and we rode up the escalator to the mall. There were signs on every corner of the mall leading us to the Aquarium. Fridays, we thought, were not going to be very crowded but as soon as we were in the ticket line we knew we were very wrong. There were tons of daycares arriving for a field trip to the Aquarium. The little children were so cute we didn't mind running in to them at every turn. They were the sweetest little things with their matching shirts and walking hand in hand.
The tickets for Adults were 22,000 won, Junior High and High School students were 19,000 won, and Children were 16,000 won. Children four and under are able to get in free. The website says if you have more than one child under four you will have to pay for the extra child(ren). The ticket booth has a sign saying you need to bring your children's birth certificate or passport to show the actual age of the child. I guess they have been scammed too many times. Our bill came to 76,000 won.
I wanted a break from the camera so I decided not to film. James was able to take some pictures with his phone for the blog. There was some silly tanks in refrigerators, beds, traffic lights, and more. There was a tank of little Doctor fish that would clean your hands of dead skin. We all got a laugh out of this. Although they had several different rooms to view of all different kinds of mammals and fish we will not be going back. We did not rush through any of the rooms and still felt as if something was missing from the Aquarium. I am sure in South Korea this is a great Aquarium to visit but we have visited larger Aquariums in the states that were much more captivating than this one. 76,000 won plus 9,600 won for parking was just a little expensive on the pocket book when there are so many other, less expensive, things to see in Seoul. Children's Grand Park Zoo is free and Seoul Zoo only cost us about 50,000 won(that's with food, drinks, and a sky lift up the mountain) and was one of the largest Zoo's we have ever been to.
*When leaving the parking garage it will be a tight squeeze. People will make their own parking spots in the exit lane. If a car comes up your lane, one of you will have to back up to get out. Our huge vehicle barely made it through the tight space.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Seoul Tower Lights
Sunday evening we made plans to walk up the mountain stairs of Namsan to enjoy the tower lit up at night. We started our journey walking up the street from our house to Seoul Fortress Wall.
There is a very steep walkway around the wall that leads up to a park with a couple of statues. Once you go through the flat park you go up more stairs until you find a parking lot. This will lead you to the stairs that go up to Seoul Tower. The walk up is very steep and there are countless stairs to climb. With children, the walk took us about an hour to get to the tower.
After arriving at our final destination we were drenched with sweat and needed a way to cool down. Water was handed out to drink and then James found something amazing. Right in front of Seoul Tower were kids of all ages running through water that was coming up out of the ground. The kids ran straight to the circle of mist and cooled down in no time.
The tower was even more beautiful than I could have imagined it to be at night. Just seeing it right in front of me instead of my bedroom window really made me appreciate the beauty of it even more. It was a very lively place to be at night. There were lots of families and couples enjoying the many restaurants,shops, artists, and views. James bought us yummy Churros to enjoy as we looked over the brightly lit city of Seoul.
It was such a romantic spot. I can see why so many couples were there to soak it all in. James and I both made sure to make a note of this. If we ever do get a babysitter while living here this would be the perfect place to go on a date night. When it was time to go we decided not to go back down the steps of the mountain but try a different route on the opposite side of where we came in. This is the walkway to the bus stop. When we arrived at the bus stop we stayed on the walkway and turned right. We found this led right to where we needed to be and was a much smoother way to get down. We even found a few Australians on the walk and enjoyed listening to the them talk to one another. (Every time we go on a trip somewhere we usually find an Australian or two. They are the happiest people on Earth, in my opinion.) Walking down this path, we were back down to the main road in no time.
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