Oahu 2011 (Part 1)

This is a long overdue blog post  that I have been wanting to share with you all as our time in Hawaii this year was incredible. But when you are too busy to keep up with your own life its hard to keep others updated as well! It will be done in a series as I do not have all of my photos with me while I am currently traveling to the States. 

In Pyeongtaek we happen to live right next to the intercity bus terminal so that makes it really convenient to walk next door and hop on a bus to the Incheon Airport, I really love not driving around here!! On our bus ride we noticed a store that was having an "Opening Sale" which included clowns, stilt walkers, and a hippo. 

Our flight was about 8 hours in total and we had a layover in Japan and due to the international date line we hardly had any jet lag. Woo hoo! Since we were on Oahu for 10 days we decided to rent a Jeep and after about 45 minutes of trying to figure out how the hell to get the top off we finally departed for some much needed retail therapy! Zak is worse off in Korea than I am with clothing sizes, I can usually fit into a Korean Large (lar-gie that is) but given Zaks height he cannot find anything outside of basketball shorts that fit him in Korea, so we definitely took advantage of our empty suitcase and American stores while visiting Hawaii. 

After a day of shopping we decided to whip out our kayak that traveled with us and take it to Kailua Beach where the waters are known for their sea turtles and is one of the best kayaking spots in Hawaii. We traveled to the flat island which is a bird sanctuary and eventually we did spot a sea turtle on our way back to the beach!

It is hard to explain how beautiful these waters truly are!!

A panoramic of our view from the Flat Island

Wrapping up our day at the bach we went to our favorite bar "Tropics" wich is located on the resort (Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki) so here is Zak with his favorite drink, "The Back-scratcher" and yes, every drink did come with a back-scratcher!!

To be continued...

Han River in Seoul

Probably one of the most beautiful places I have visited in Seoul is the Han River. It flows directly through Seoul and is often used in terms of direction... i.e. "It's above the river". We always pass over the Han when going to Seoul by train but up until recently we have not actually spent a day by the river. This past week we decided to embark on an adventure taking our bikes on the subway to the Han river. Usually it takes about 90 minutes on the subway to get to Seoul but about once every hour the "express" subway comes through and you can hop on it and be in Seoul in an hour for only 1,800 won (roughly $1.65 with the current exchange rate).

It was such a beautiful day and the weather is definitely starting to get hot here in Korea, I think its only a matter of days before we are into the full fledged sweltering heat of the Korean summer.

Once reaching the Seoul area we got off at "Singil" (신길) on line 1. There was a nice path over the walking bridge and through Yeouido to get the the Han River.

And for the record, Korean kids have the best playground equipment...I think Zak would agree...

Once we got to the Han river we enjoyed the nice bike path along side of it where you will often spot the natives in their elaborate over the top biking outfits to go along with their ridiculously expensive bicycle, which is only used/worn to bike on this bike path. Its status to have a nice bike and matching riding team here in Korea, I am thinking Zak and I need to come up with a team name and have shirts made. 

A few photos on the Han:

The Han is also host to many festivals during the year including the one we visited earlier this year, the Hi Seoul Festival:

If you get a chance I would pack a lunch and spend the day relaxing at the Han!

                       Hope you are enjoying your week, thanks for reading! xxx

Time to catch up!

The semester is finally over!! What a long semester that was. Now I can catch you all up on our life in Korea before we head off for vacation in Hawaii this week...

This is the first time I have ever seen a cherry blossom and they were everywhere for about 10 days, and then all of the sudden they are gone! We were able to check out a cherry blossom festival on Yeouido Island which is a very small island in Seoul...which happened to have thousands of people on it this day!

Later in the same week Zak and I went to see one of my favorite artists, John Legend, in concert at the Ax Hall in Seoul. 

Waiting to enter Ax Hall 

Ahhh the anticipation was killing me!!

And yes.. people do read  books at concerts in Korea..

This is when he was singing a cover to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" :sigh: In love.

We had such a great time, if you ever have a chance to see John Legend in concert you should because he puts on an amazing show. 

Life has been so busy lately, I completely missed April.. where did it go?? And now it is already time for us to go on vacation and I have to schedule time to pack! I guess that means we are ready for some wind down time, and we are really looking forward to it. Zak is taking his inflatable kayak with us to Hawaii.. seen here..

It just so happens to fit in a suitcase, yet is heavy duty enough to take on class 5 rapids. Wish us luck on our baggage weight limit!!! ha ha. 

Thanks for reading xx

Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Earlier this month my friend April and I ventured to Nonsan to check out their Strawberry Festival! I am pretty sure that the strawberry festival is the only thing going for this city, and it is a ghost town the other 51 weekends of the year. However, it brings lots of attention to people in neighboring cities and they come out to try the Nonsan strawberries. It took us about 90 minutes to get there by train (Pyeongtaek to Nonsan Station) and then another 15 minute walk to the festival grounds, which I might add were geniously marked by high flying strawberry balloons!

Nonsan City

Strawberry festival flags they had hanging all over the city, we decided to follow them and ended up in circles. Ha ha.

This picture is a little crazy but on our walk to the festival we ran into some Korean women selling bunnies, ducks, dogs, roosters, and chickens..

Finally we found the mirage of strawberry balloons!

I love how in Korea they dress kindergarten students in yellow suits so they can stick together.

And this trip wouldn't be complete without a random monkey at the "petting zoo", which also included komodo dragons, donkeys, bears, and groundhogs.

What? Did you think I wasn't telling the truth?!? :o)

Mmmm sprinkles on Strawberries!

A large vat of soup!

We then learned that we could make our own strawberry shortcake!! I let April take the reigns on this one since she is an awesome cake decorator!!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week, I am definitely enjoying the warmer weather here in Korea. We are looking forward to a busy summer!!!