Memorial Day Weekend

If you know anything about my husband then you know that sitting still is not an option; especially during a four day weekend. Up until this past weekend I really had nothing exciting to post about, but we had so many fun little adventures this weekend I could type until I pass out you die of bordem.

Friday night we stayed pretty low key and went out to dinner at a typical Korean restaurant.  The Koreans typically serve the main dish accompanied by many tiny little dishes filled with weird and exciting things. A staple is always kimchi ( a fermented cabbage or something that is covered in spice and supposedly one of the worlds healthiest foods) . To me, kimchi smells like sour rotten food and does not taste much better. In this photo the kimchi is the dish right above the silver bowl (which is thankfully just white rice). The other thing you can always count on finding during one of these meals is garlic in the raw. If you ever get up close and personal with a local, it's no secret that they eat raw garlic at every meal.

The main dish at these types of restaurants is bulgogi, basically raw meat that they bring to you to cook at your table. We think that the locals think we are idiots because we never get to cook it ourselves, but we see other Koreans doing it. The meat ranges anything from beef (what we got here ) to duck to chicken. This particular one was cooking in some sort of broth around the sides with vegetables.

Saturday we hopped on the subway train, only 4 blocks from our apartment, and rode to the city of Suwon. There we visited Hwaseong Fortress. The fortress was built in the 18th century by a King to protect and honor the remains of his father who had been locked alive inside a rice chest by his own father because he did not obey his command to commit suicide. Sounds rough. The fortress began by climbing a gigantic set of steep stairs on the other side of this wall.

Once we reached the top the view was breathtaking - until we saw the rest of the fortress wall.

 You can see how long it is about 3/4 the way up this photo. I'm re-exhausted after looking at this.

The entire wall stretches about 4 miles in length. But the sites along the way made it well worth it.

A very small piece of some of the beautiful hand paintings done on the ceilings of the structures.

One of the main entry points to the fortress. These entry ways used to be protected by iron doors.

A look from the outside of the fortress shows how tall and intimidating the structures really are.

One of my favorite photos from Suwong.

We finished off our big hike at Bulun Sutalk; a bar that came recommended through one of our travel books. It was a very eclectic sit-on-the-floor kind of place and the food was amazing.

 We've found that almost all plates that are served here in Korea are meant to be split. No wonder Americans are so overweight.

Again with the plentiful side dishes.

 However, we did not go here. Maybe next time.

 Sunday we traveled to Seoul via public bus and met up with some friends at the Seoul Zoo. Afterwards we enjoyed an 8-course dinner on the 56th floor of a building overlooking the city of Seoul. Sadly I forgot to take any other pictures because happily I was enjoying an abundance of red wine.

 Our groups' bill totaled W 3.9 million. How's that for a fancy dinner?

Monday we drove our luxury SUV out to the closest beach, about 1 1/2 hours away. It was our dogs' first time at a beach and they were in heaven! They attracted locals like they were circus freaks and ran and played until we made them leave. Tyra chased tennis balls for hours and Rusty.. tried to eat the waves. I'll leave you with these "awww"-worthy photos until next time!