Day 3: Goodbye to Gjeongju and all its beauty.

The last day we decided to return to Bowmun resort. When we went the first time and rented the bikes, the children wondered why we hadn't rented the mini ATVs. So we decided that it would be wise to end the vacation as the Best Parents In The World, and go back for the ATVs. We went first thing in the morning. We were probably the first customers of the day, which in Korea is a big deal. The guy gave each of the kids a vehicle and we had one solid hour of fun driving around the courtyard of the lake. The crowds were thin in the morning so the kids could feel wild and free on their ATVs. And I thoroughly enjoyed a country that didn't have liability laws and issues that would have then prohibited my children from having the kind of fun that they did. Who lets 4 year-olds drive motorized vehicles? Seriously, is was some good times for the Earnest children.












But when the hour of motorized fun was up, the Korean Duck boats were calling my name! Hearkening back to the Boston Duck Tour of summer 2007, we laid down our 9000 Won per boat and peddles around the lake.

The duck boats. A personal trip high light.

And when the crowds began to swarm, and we had had all the fun that was going to be had at Bowman Resort, it was time to say good bye to Gjeongju and all of it's Cherry Blossom beauty and head back to Osan.

The trip would not be complete without one last stop at yet another beautiful Korea rest stop. This time with the most ingenious playground I have ever encountered. Enlarge the photo to see the playground surrounded by adult size exercise equipment stations. You will see me in the photo on the elliptical machine. I dare say that if all playgrounds throughout my 9.5 years of child rearing were this ingenious, I would be much skinnier! It was hard to pull myself away from such a delightful setup. But I was getting tired of being an American tourist in Korea, and the cacoon like comfort of Osan Air Base was sounding like a welcome sight after our little foray in the country.

To our first sucessful spring break in Korea. I saw a new side of the country going down to Gjeongju. I'm very pleased we went.

And now it's time to get back to the present. Spring break, checked off the list...

Day 2: Vacation Recap Resumed

Day two in Gyeongju was mostly spent meeting Buddha. There are two very famous temples in Gyeongju. The first one was Bulguksa. Our guide book told us that the park like setting that we would pass through to reach the "shrine" was of such beauty that it "would make Van Gogh swoon."

Here are Jane and Ruby at the bottom of the park as we began to make our way up into the temple.

Here we passed by silk worms stewing for lunch. George said he would try one. I forbade him.

It is hard to capture all the hiking and walking that is involved to reach Buhdda. But I suppose it's all symbolic really. The weather was ideal, so spending all day long hiking in parks and up beautiful staircases wasn't a hard sell in my opinion.

Here is the family after hiking to the very highest point of the temple. The guide book also told us that these buildings are so beautiful that they find themselves on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage List. I'm not sure what that list is, but the buildings are definitely beautiful.

Petting the golden pig for good luck on the long decent back down to the car.

The next stop was to Seokguram Grotto, also on Unesco World Cultural Heritage List. Here Buddha was constructed in the mid-8th century into a cave at the very top of a mountain. To imagine the tremendous task required to build such a shrine in the mid-8th century had me prepared to respect this site as a reverent place for those of the Buddhist religion. And watching an old lady walk the full mile up the steep mountain road bent completely in-half due to severe osteoporosis, just to visit this Buddha, certainly made an impression on the children.

Hank and Darin with the entrance to the grotto behind them.

Resting on our way back down the mountain. Jane and Ruby were very interested in meeting Buddha. When they talk about our trip still to this day, it often involves a lot of discussion about Buddha living in mountains. I think it's sweet.




And our final stop on Tuesday was to the Korean coastline. Although the water was freezing and the approach full of rocks, our kids were unphased as they went straight for the water. The girls even requested to be clothed in bathing suites. If we were going to be at the beach, we were going to DO the beach.

Baseball, water, and sand castle building.

Oh boy do we have a soft spot for an afternoon spent at the beach.

So that was day two. Beautiful weather, hiking to visit Buddha, and ending at the beach.

Pause the vacation recap for a moment...

Because it was Easter. On Saturday it was also the boys baseball opening day ceremonies. So we were all up and at it pretty early Saturday morning for some good old fashioned baseball fun.

Then later in the afternoon the girls with George wanted to participate in the base sponsored Easter egg hunt on the Great Lawn of Turumi Lodge.



The girls were so excited that cousin Lisa (my cousin) had sent them bunny ears. They felt appropriately festive for the fun on the lawn.


Too bad we seem to have entered into a time when it's hard to capture a cute photo together. Here are the intakes and the outtakes, all mixed together. It's hard to decide which is which. So many things seem not to happen around here these days (like the laundry), but I did get a burst of energy and sewed together these Easter creations for the girls. Jane's outfit is an exact duplicate to the one we made for cousin June on her birthday in March. Jane has been coveting it ever since we mailed it off.

And as I have been blog surfing across all my family sites and seeing all the beautifully posed family photos abounding, Henry heard me lamenting that we didn't have such a photo. He told me not to worry, that I should just post an apology on the blog that said, "Sorry we don't have a nice family photo, but we had lots of fun for Easter."

Thanks for the tip Hank! I'm so grateful to have him in our family. Here is Henry on Easter as photographed by Ruby. I feel like all of our traditions were sort of only half-heartedly done this year. But much to my great enjoyment the boys had some moments of very reverent learning as they seemed interested this year in understand what the true meaning of Easter is. Nothing makes me feel more satisfied than seeing my boys learning about the Gospel. I am grateful I have it to teach to them.

Happy Easter.

P.S. Jane and Ruby have recently started talking about Jesus on a daily basis. Asking about where He lives, what He likes, etc., etc. One night Ruby wanted to help me cook dinner. I was tired and not really wanting her kind of help. So I kept telling her to please not help me. She finally said, "Mom, what would Jesus want you to do?" I said I wasn't sure. And she said, "Mom, he would want me to help you." It was hard to argue with that point.

Then yesterday as Jane was getting her hair brushed, she was checking herself out in the mirror. I told her I was all done, and she freaked out because some tiny hairs were sticking up (gotta love the Earnest DNA when it shines forth!). I told her it didn't matter. She said "Mom, Jesus does not have hair that sticks up. He doesn't like sticking up hair". I took a moment to explain that Jesus loves us no matter what we look like. He likes us even if our hair sticks up. She asked me to please get the gel out, because she was going to get those three hairs to lay down flat.

Gyeongju, you were good to us.

Never mind the fact that my three day vacation has taken me about five days to get re-organized from, it was definitely worth it!

We woke up and left early Monday morning anxious to get on with Spring break. After about two hours of driving, a rest was in order. Thanks to the Koreans for making lovely playgrounds at most of their rest stops, the girls always have a fun time. But we were unaware of the fact that it was Korean field trip season. We found that we were celebrities everywhere we went.

Here I am rescuing Ruby from a large and loud group of admirers. She seems un-phased.

After another hour or so, we found ourselves at the lovely Pension 600, in a very spacious (although barely furnished) hotel room. The kids loved the upstairs loft and patio. And the Mini Golf right out the front door was also a highlight of the trip.

The hotel offered a few group classes, so on our first afternoon there, all the kids got to enjoy a pottery class. Apparently our ware will be mailed to us. We're not really holding our breath as to its safe arrival, but it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

After fully exploring the hotel and it's surroundings it was time to venture over to Bowmun Resort. It's a man made lake completely surrounded by blooming cherry blossoms. You can rent bikes and all sorts of other equipment. For our first night in town we chose bikes to explore the lake with.


The bike riding was more fun for some of us,

and less fun for others. In his defense, the crowds were pretty tricky to navigate on bike legs that have been indoors for a long winter.




After breaking at this massive water wheel for a while

Everyone was feeling much happier about the excursion.

The evening ended at Anapji Pond which was beautifully lit at night. The kids enjoyed the intrigue of it's story. It was constructed by King Munmu in 674 to commemorate the unification of the Korean peninsula under Shilla. The buildings burned in 935 and many relics ended up in the pond and rediscovered only when the pond was drained for repair in 1975. So I guess really the intrigue was that I personally didn't know much about why it all burned down in 935. So much of our evening at the pond was spent speculating upon all the various reasons and ways it may have burned. George was besides himself with conspiracy theories. It really was lots of fun (and slightly cold after a day spent in shorts and t-shirts).

So, Day 1 in Gyeongju ended as we drove through downtown spotting a much needed Dominos pizza (To my brother Steve, please recall our family vacation in France one summer when our family was traveling with four little kids probably 10 and under, exactly the same age as my four kids. Recall that all the children (then and now) desperately wanted to eat American food. I hope you will understand), right next store to a fruit stand. Our meals will always be balanced, even on vacation in Korea, so help me.

I can hardly wait for the thrilling recap of Day 2 in Geyongju. Seeing how this one has taken five days to come forth, I'm not making any promises about the next installment.

Last Saturday...

...was better than this Saturday. The stories from this Saturday are only about Darin having to work and me taking the kids and the mini-van to Seoul to go to the temple, only to get lost in the city for over an hour on the way home and calling Darin at work repeatedly in tears, wondering how in the world I should get home. Needless to say, it was not my proudest Korean adventure story. So let's just go ahead and forget it ever happened, and just talk about how much fun LAST Saturday was, when we all went together to the Korean Folk Village.

First of all it was a beautiful day, bright, sunny, slightly coolish but not freezing. Flowers were just beginning to bloom. It was lovely. And it was a Folk Village, and while our cultural histories are so very, very different, there is something extremely universal about a Folk Village. They are almost always full of adults in costumes, acting like they are living in ancient times. Random circus acts, primitive houses and straw huts, hands-on games and chores for the children to try. And of course barn animals. So while living overseas is always an adventure, I'm happy to report the day at the Folk Village was oddly familiar. Take a look:

The adults dressed in ancient costumes:

The silk thread making lady, who was insistent that the girls touched the freshly made silk thread. Which was so fresh that I saw the pot of boiling silk worm larvae from which is was derived. Needless to say, hand sanitizer was in the picture shortly thereafter.

The fake garlic farmer. I couldn't find his informational plaque, but I imagine he is a revered figure in Korean cultural history.

The fake black smith, who was actually forging some tools.

And our personal favorite was the fake ancient pottery thrower, who had to pause his ancient presentation to take a call on his cell phone.

The random circus acts:






The primitive houses:



The hands-on chores and games:









The barn animals:


Which leads us to the one aspect of our day at the Korean Folk Village that didn't seem to ring any bells of familiarity, and that was lunch time.

The food court tables:

The utensils:

The menu:

Please take a moment to peruse the lunch menu. Perhaps you will find something that sounds delicious...like "bran cake with mugwort", the "acorn gelatin", or the "fermented rice nectar". But don't worry, there was always "rice gruel with pumpkin" if you weren't feeling too hungry that day.

Ultimately we settled on the potato pancake (which could hardly pass as foreign cuisine), five bowls of rice and the handmade dumpling soup, which I have to admit was delicious.

A day at the Korean Folk Village:





Proved to be a really great idea for both young and old alike.



And with that complete, it is time to announce that spring break has officially started. After church tomorrow, we will venture to the popular tourist destination of Gyeongju for three days of sun and fun and spring relaxation.

Bon Voyage!