Jack's oldest sister and our niece is in town from Australia for the summer and we decided we should take a big family road trip at least once during her stay. On Friday I had to attend some event in the country with fellow faculty until after lunchtime, but Jack drove there with the boys around 3 pm to pick me up and take us on to meet the other family members in Taebaek, a town on the Taebaek mountain range. Dahin had taken a train that morning with her cousins and aunts, so they had already played in the condo's swimming pool for hours before we arrived in time for a great beef barbecue dinner.
I just had to eat the raw beef delicacy--only trust it if it is served in the countryside because you know it is fresh. Would never, ever do this in Seoul. Yum!
I think Jack and his sister Eunsil look just alike. His sister is the oldest of the five kids, and she's about 12 years older than Jack.
After dinner, we headed to watch a water show in the local lake. The castel facade built around the park was all lit up and looked very beautiful, despite the obvious tacky factor. The light show was actually pretty freaky, with plenty of accompying death metal and strange new age music. Jack's sister Eunyeong said it would have been better with some classic music. I couldn't agree more. Ronan, in particular, was freaked out. He started crying in the middle of the show and Dahin had to comfort him. Poor guy.
The condo where we stayed was very, very nice. It was perhaps the cleanest, most modern condo I've ever stayed at in Korea. Would have loved to have just spent a few days there playing in the water park and hiking. But, alas, when with Jack, one must move from point to point pretty rapidly. Maybe next time we'll just stay put and relax for a day or two.
After a good night's sleep, the kids woke up early and we had a wonderful breakfast of kimchi jigae and side dishes that Aunt Eunyoung prepared. Condo's are great because you can just cook your meals there and not have to spend too much on food while vacationing.
After breakfast, most of us rode the Gondola to the top of the mountain (ski lifts are for winter). Jack and Eunsil wimped out and said the Gondola would be too 'scary.' Oh my God. I thought I was a scaredy cat. Seriously people; it moved so slow and was about as dangerous as taking a walk on a sidewalk in Seoul (mildly dangerous, but chances are you will not die or come close to having an accident). So, Aunt Eunyoung, Komobu, the kids and I headed to the top without the wining weanies : - ) and had some fun doing it.
Ronan takes the opportunity to snuggle with his favorite cousin Jeongeun (apparently he's her favorite, too).
We had a good time riding up to the top and snapping pictures. Then, we stopped at the little snack shack 'starry starry high' (for real) and had fun excluding the wimps who refused to ride to the top over two great bowls of ddeokbokki and some pajeon (pancake with veggies)--yum! They were definitely jealous when we reported on our snack later.
On the way back, Oliver and Ronan were putting their camera faces on. It might be years before I can take a 'normal' picture.
We could see the condo where we stayed from the gondola. In winter this place must be hopping with skiers. Although we weren't there during the winter skiiing season, the kids could not resist snapping some photos with the winter placards and mascotts. Wish we could have stayed longer so that the kids could have gone tubing and done some other fun activities in that spot. But, as mentioned above, the caravan must keep moving.
No comments:
Post a Comment