Days 8 and 9: Loving Busan

This is a long one, sorry in advance! We flew to Busan (on a $17 flight!) first thing Tuesday morning. From the moment we stepped off the airport bus to Haeundae Beach, the area our hotel was in, we loved it. If Seoul is the Manhattan of Korea, Busan is the L.A. The vibe and style are much more laid back, there are a ton of resort-style hotels, and the streets were decked out with lights for New Years celebrations.

We got a great deal on a really nice hotel since it's off-season, which was a very welcome relief after 2 nights in a shared-room guesthouse. We didn't have very much time in Busan, but packed our days there with as much activities as possible to get the most out of our time there.

Day 7: 24 Hours on Jeju Island

We only had one full day on Jeju Island before heading to Busan, so tried to cram as much in as we could in 24 hours. Jeju is a small island off the Southern coast of Korea marketed as the "Hawaii of Korea". Its the #1 honeymoon destination for Korean newlyweds, and we were met at the airport with rows of palm trees. In keeping with our trip theme, we visited both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a tacky museum.

Our main goal was to make it Mt. Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea with a volcanic lake on top. We understood that there would be some snow on top of the mountain, so rented cramp-ons for our shoes from the hostel.

Days 5 and 6: Seoul Fails

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Seoul with Ryan and although we had a great time together, some of our plans didn't quite turn out as expected.

Our main plan for Saturday was to take a trip to Dragonhill Spa, a well-known bathhouse with multiple floors of baths and saunas. There was even an exercise room complete with a mechanical horseback riding exercise machine shaped like a real horse! Kim and I were excited to go and even got Ryan pumped for the adventure, but when we arrived it was closed for renovations.

We were a little bummed out, but we (mostly me) decided to take advantage of being in the Inchon neighborhood and visit the nearby National Museum of Korea. Maybe a bit overambitious, we tried to walk the 3/4 mile to the museum. After wandering aimlessly for a while, we gave up and rode the subway one stop to the site. What did we ever do without Google maps?

Day 4: Happy Christmas!!

Yesterday was Christmas - my first away from home and definitely not traditional but was still a fun time!

We started the morning off with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for some Christmas-themed doughnuts before opening the collection of cards and presents we had in the hotel room from our families. We spent the entire morning just relaxing in the room before heading to Itaewon for lunch.

Day 3: Christmas Eve in the City of Seoul

We met up with Ryan on Christmas Eve to spend the holiday weekend with him in Seoul. We took the subway from Suwon to Seoul and checked in to our super swanky hotel - complete with a super high tech toilet.

We're in the Myen-dong neighborhood, which is the high-end shopping district. It's starting to feel like Christmas with Christmas pastries and American holiday music blasting everywhere. Michael Buble anyone?

Day 2: All Around Suwon

Our second full day in Korea was a healthy balance of cultured and touristy - we visited both the World Toilet Museum and the Hwaseong Fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We weren't able to meet up with Ryan today so spent the day exploring around Suwon.

First stop was the Toilet Museum, and we had the most difficult time getting there. We misunderstood the guy at the front desk so took the bus line in the opposite direction and ended up at a bus depot at the end of the line. When we finally turned around and got to the right stop, we had no idea where the museum was. But a nice barista at a nearby coffee shop directed us and we finally made it.

Day 1: Insadong and Suwon

Our hostel in Seoul was in Insadong, one of the main shopping districts. We took a walk down the main strip before checking out, but almost all of the shops were still closed at 10 am! I did stop by Starbucks for a Toffee Nut Latte, and we passed a Dunkin' Donuts, Subway and Clark Shoes outlet too.

We wandered through a park with some elderly people exercising and lots of cool statues- but we couldn't really tell what they were because all the signs were in Korean. We stopped by Jogyesa temple and accidentally walked into some type of ceremony, but the architecture was awesome.

Made it to the ROK!

Kim and I officially made it to South Korea! 18 hours of flying, a bus-ride, and over 24 hours since leaving the house, we're in our hostel in Insadong.

We cut our San Francisco-Seoul connection extremely close because, well, sometimes food is more important :) Misreading the boarding time on our tickets didn't help much either.

The plane ride was as enjoyable as sitting in one spot for 12+ hours can be, and customs was a little crazy but the bus ride and checking in were relatively painless. I just need to get used to taking my shoes off inside. Off to Suwon tomorrow morning to meet up with Ryan!

All You Need is Ecuador

At the beginning of 2015, CJ and I sat down in a coffee shop and mapped out our school schedules for the year. Turns out we had one full week where neither of us had in-person class obligations (CJ still had online classes but you can't win 'em all, right?).

 

We wanted to go somewhere exotic, new, and most importantly cheap. After a few minutes of Googling Ecuador seemed to fit the bill. We took the jump, bought the plane tickets (the most expensive part of our trip), and started brushing up on our Spanish.

  

With the hassle of school and work (and some fun summer weekends), we didn't have a ton of time to plan. Which ended up being a blessing in disguise - we spent more time wandering and exploring instead of following a jam-packed itinerary. Here are some highlights:

Hawaii: Paradise Found

One of the perks of having a brother who lives on the opposite side of the world? The halfway point is Hawaii. Which meant meeting in the middle for a family vacation led us to a week in paradise.

We spent 5 days on Hawaii, the big island, and before flying to Maui. I was only able to stay in Maui for one night before heading back to work, but my family stayed about 4 days. I'd seen plenty of pictures of Hawaii and in some ways it was exactly what I imagined - beautiful beaches with palm trees blowing in the wind. But there was also a ton of history, hiking, and unique ecosystems that I didn't anticipate. My family isn't the best at sitting around at a beach or pool for more than a few hours, and Hawaii was the perfect mix of activities and relaxation.

We flew into Kona on the big island and drove by fields and fields of volcanic rock before arriving at our condo. Hawaii still has active volcanos that  completely change the island's landscape every hundred years or so.

 

'Arry Potter!

The first book in the Harry Potter series was published in the U.S. in 1998. That's seventeen years ago. It took me until 2000, when I was in 3rd grade, to finally read it but I spent the next seven years patiently waiting for each subsequent book to come out and devouring them in less than a week. I was sad when I finished the last book, and even more said when I watched the last movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on opening day with my dad, brother, and sister. It was the end of the era and I may or may not have had a few tears in my end as the credits rolled ;)

The point oft this long rambling love note slash rant is that I grew up with the series and think I've earned the title of 'Harry Potter Fan'. So of course I was beyond the excited when my dad asked if I want to join in my dad and sisters' tradition of spending a long weekend in Orlando during her summer vacation. I've never been to Universal Studio's The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so was ecstatic to fully embrace my fandom (obsession?) for the weekend.

Weekend in Seattle

I've stuck pretty close to home so far in my life - I went to undergrad at my state school, University of Maryland, and now live in neighboring Virginia a little less than an hour from the house I grew up in. Although I love the area, and still have tons yet to explore, I'd like to move to another part of the country once I finish grad school. CJ shares the same goal, and we've spent so much time talking about moving to somewhere like Seattle that we thought we better visit to see if we actually like the place :) Bonus was the two National Parks in driving distance.

This trip came only a few days after our final exams and projects of the spring semester, so we didn't have much time for planning. Other than our hotel and car rental reservations, we ended up winging it, which surprisingly didn't turn out too bad. There was one extremely questionable airport motel, but we made it out alive. All's well that ends well, right?

Bourbon and Horses in Kentucky

Never ones to pass up a visit to friends and family in a new (to us) place, CJ and I jumped at the chance to visit his uncle and family outside Louisville, KY this spring. Neither of us had ever been to Kentucky, and I don't know if we would have planned a trip there on our own, but it was a great opportunity to visit with family and explore a little bit more of the country. CJ's uncle, his wife, and their then almost one-year-old son moved to Louisville earlier this year and we were excited to see them and their new home.

We didn't have many plans going into the trip other than spending time with family, but after a weekend full of historic houses, horses, and bourbon, I think we definitely got a good taste of Kentucky. Here are some highlights.

Lawton, OK and Wichita Wildlife Refuge

Before we knew it, it was our last day in Oklahoma. This was it - Wildlife preserve or bust. We'd heard so much about the reserve (mostly from Yelp reviews...) and didn't want to leave the Lawton area without visiting it. Ryan hadn't been either, so it'd be something new for him too.

Ryan wasn't able to leave base until early afternoon so CJ and I spent the morning do literally everything we could find to do in Lawton. Well other than Cracker Barrel and the movie theater ;) We drove to Fort Sill to check out what the base was like and got to walked around the artillery museum. There were a ton of missiles and tanks set up outside, dating all the way back to WWII. Crazy how big, and powerful, some of these are.

Wichita Falls, TX

Our second day in Oklahoma was the first day we were able to see Ryan. Being in training still, his plans can change at any time, and we found out a few minutes before we were supposed to meet for breakfast that he wouldn't be able to get off until the afternoon.

Not wanting to waste a morning of the trip, CJ and I did another quick Google search to find a place to spend the morning. I'm a sucker for checking things off my list and really wanted to visit Texas for the first time, so we decided to drive the 45min  to Wichita Falls, TX. After an obligatory stop as the "Welcome to Texas" sign, our GPS told us we made it to Wichita Falls.

OKC

Although it stinks that my brother lives halfway around the country and we don't get to see each other very often, its great that he gets to live in and visit so many places during his time in the Army. He'll be heading overseas in a few short weeks, so CJ and I took advantage of the long MLK day weekend to visit him in Oklahoma. He warned us that there wasn't much to do near the base and, to some extent, he was right. But a few Google searches and asking around to friends gave us enough ideas to fill the weekend with. We had a ton of fun and were glad we got to spend a weekend with Ryan.

Since Ryan wasn't able to leave base the first day of our trip, we spent it exploring Oklahoma City. Planning ahead isn't exactly our strong point, so we spent the first few minutes after our plane landed searching "things to do in Oklahoma" online.