Day 2-- Seoul, Korea

We got going around 7 this morning after a great nights sleep. I slept so well and didn't even budge or wake up at all... thanks to my magnesium gummies! Usually with the jet lag I wake up around 3am wide awake-- not this time! Our hotel doesn't include breakfast so we looked for a place to grab something close to our hotel and we found this really yummy smoothie place, so we each got one of those. Then just down the street from there we found this place that made fast food egg type sandwiches with ham, etc. It was good, but it was sweet, which I was not expecting! But it tasted good and sufficed for breakfast. We went to a museum, but it was closed so Todd said we'd go another day. We took a picture in front of the king who did a lot of good things for Korea and was the one to standardize the language and make the modern alphabet (if you call it that?) with all the characters they currently use. He did a lot of good things for Korea! We took the subway (Megan got preferred seating!) and visited one of Todd's areas where he served on his mission. He lived right next to the chapel there. (His house was the little one story brick building next to the chapel-- it's hard to see because of the brick wall in front of it) It is near the university, as well and we stopped by campus to take a quick look. The light pink and white cherry blossoms are in FULL bloom and we enjoyed them on all our walks today! Interestingly while we were just chatting in front of the church where Todd served, a man came up to us and told us what we already knew-- that it had closed. He spoke pretty good English but he really wanted to talk to us about Elder Holland and express condolences that he had passed away. He wasn't a member of the church, but apparently several years earlier he was taking the missionary lessons and played basketball at this church with some members. He said he had met Elder Holland on one of his visits to Korea and that he had felt so much love from him-- he felt like Elder Holland truly cared about him. I thought that was a pretty cool thing that he had had a one on one experience with Elder Holland, and that an apostle of the Lord had made him feel so loved! He never did join the church because he goes to the Presbyterian church, but he wanted to make sure we as Americans knew that he was saddened by Elder Hollands death. He offered to take a picture of us and then we said to hop in a selfie with us as well. I just remember that he said his name was Han. (Todd later explained that that was his last name.) I didn't catch his first name. We had a pretty cool conversation with him... I wish we could've invited him to church or something. Then shortly after that, Todd took us to the church right by the university that was built later and we walked inside just to look around and the missionaries were having a Zone conference! I wish we could've given them the name and address of this man that we had just spoken to because we'd had such a nice interaction with him! We ended up meeting the Mission President and a few of his AP's and a sister. They were making hotteok-- a type of Korean sweet pancakes (I thought it was more like a scone), for the rest of the missionaries who were in a choir practice in the chapel at the time. Todd immediately walked up to them as told him he served in Korea 10 years ago and introduced all of us. They invited him to help them make the pancakes and then they shared some with us and they were literally so good-- and SO FILLING! they were made with cinnamon sugar that was placed inside the dough before they fried it and they flattened them with a tool as they cooked in the grease. They were so nice to share them as they took a bit to shape and fry-- and they probably needed to make a lot for the rest of the missionaries! But they were so hot and yummy. I think it would be an easy thing to replicate. Brooke especially loved them! They served them by folding them and putting them in a paper cup. Then Todd took us to lunch and the food did not dissapoint again! (Again-- he made sure it got good reviews!) After lunch we were SO FULL as we'd just eaten heavy hotteoks and a HUGE lunch. We got talking about getting a foot massage while we were here in Korea because we kept seeing signs for them. Finally, we decided to actually do it and it was so AWESOME! They gave us such good foot massages after our feet soaked in warm water fora bit. They were about a half hour and the guy that did my massage went pretty hard, but once I got past the initial pain, it felt really good. We went pretty hard on my arch! We felt so good and relaxed afterward. To finish it off we did the water with the fish that eat all the dead skin off your feet. After a few initial squeals (it tickled and some of them nibbled a little harder) I got used to it. I have heard of this but never had the guts to do it-- until today! Megan wasn't loving it at first either. Brooke and Ben waited for their massages because they only had 4 therapists, and they said they could hear us in their room during their massages! Afterward, we were feeling so relaxed. We went back to the hotel and Todd said the plan was to relax for a 1/2 hour or so and then we'd go to dinner. Well, dinner never happened because we all fell asleep! I woke up and knocked on their door (Todd and Megan and Brooke and Ben were sharing a room), but they didn't answer so I figured they were either out getting something to eat because Bill and I had fallen asleep OR they were in there room asleep too! It was the latter. Everyone had fallen asleep! So we all had an early night in. I knocked a few more times between about 7-8pm and they were OUT. We decided that there would be no more "resting" at the hotel before dinner in the evening after a long day of walking-- too tempting to fall dead asleep. Todd bemoaned the fact that we had one LESS Korean meal due to our oversleeping! (I was perfectly fine after having the hotteok and a huge lunch!) It was a fun day even if it got cut short!

Day 1-- Seoul, Korea

We landed in Seoul after traveling since early yesterday morning. We landed around 3:30 local time. It was about an hour transfer in a nice van to the hotel and was included in the price! We got to the hotel around 5pm. It was fun to look around and see the sights as we traveled to the hotel. We are staying at the Hotel Koreana the whole time we will be here in Korea. After unpacking and settling in a bit we wanted to keep moving until bedtime tonight so Todd took us straight to our dinner-- which was traditional Korean BBQ! This was one of my favorite meals of the entire trip! It was so good and just enough heat to make what was in your mouth taste soooo good! The flavors just blended so amazingly together! Todd did his homework on all the restaurants and they are all rated 5 Stars and this one deserved that rating-- so good! And so fun to eat communally and taste all the different spices and things they gave you as dipping sauces, etc. The best part was that at the end of the meal I didn't feel stuffed! We found the BEST shave ice place on the walk back to the hotel... it was shave ice but with frozen milk instead of water... it was seriously so good and so different than anything I've ever tasted and it had fresh fruit mixed in. We shared a large strawberry and mango and they both came with extra sweet and condensed milk to keep adding as you ate! We tried the bean paste fish on the way back to the hotel... NOT my favorite. It must be an Asian thing because I remember trying these with Beckie Rasmussen when we were there with her and Greg in Tokyo in 2020. We made it back to the hotel around 9 and decided to all go to bed so we could be ready to hit the sights tomorrow and hopefully sleep well tonight!

Logan is Officially TWO!

The boys wanted to play with the little ducky game I gave them for Logan's birthday yesterday... apparently they've been obsessed with it! As soon as they got home from church this morning, they wanted to play with it! Also, apparently when it's your birthday you can polish off an entire can of whipped cream! (That's what the cheeser grin was all about! Megan clarified later that he didn't actually eat ALL of it--hahaha!) This guy is such a little cutie pie! Later on, we had them over for Sunday dinner and got to celebrate AGAIN! It's crazy how fast time flies... I cannot believe it has been 2 years since he was born! What a sweet little boy! And what a cute family!! It was a fun evening with all of them here!