The Hyatt Jeju

I found this hotel on Orbitz and got a good deal on our room. The hotel is located on the southern part of the Jangmun Resort area right on the water. We enjoyed waking up and looking at the ocean each morning from the room's balcony. The balcony was also a great place to hang out while David was falling asleep at night. Normally, we wait it out in the bathroom - not very romantic especially if you are trying to eat dinner as well. The large koi pond in the lobby area drew David like a magnet. He would watch it as we rode up and down the elevator and tried various times to catch a fish. Breakfast places are not common in Korea and rather than trying to find a place, we ended up having the ridiculously expensive breakfast buffet at the hotel. I must say it was a very nice set up and it ended up being our best meal of the day. There's also something luxurious about eating breakfast by the ocean. We commented more than once that David was indeed living the good life. How many toddlers enjoy breakfast by the ocean? The beaches connected to the property were pretty nice too. So, we had a pretty good start to our vacation.

Jeju Island Part 1

We knew we were going on vacation in September after a big peninsula wide exercise. A worked 2 weeks from 2 PM to 2 AM so he was ready to get away. We decided to head to Jeju Island - the Hawaii of Korea for 3 nights and did not do any extensive planning for this trip. Jeju is south of Korea, a 50 minute flight from Seoul or a 5 hour boat ride. We opted to fly. Also, the day before we left I woke up with a fever and stayed in bed nearly all day. Our vacation almost ended up not happening. I felt well enough to go but had 2 more nights of fevers in Jeju which limited what we actually did. Getting there was pretty uneventful except that David understood a little more that we were actually getting on a plane and flying up to the sky.

We arrived to a very drizzly and wet tropical paradise and quickly got our rental car from Avis. The car came equiped with a GPS which just required you to type in the phone number of your destination and it would route you there. Unbeknowst to us, the GPS would also warn you when your were approaching the speed cameras and cautioned us to slow down. At first we didn't know what it was doing - allowing A to go exceed the speed limit and follow the flow of traffic and other times it would beep annoyingly. We learned to follow the GPS.

Our hotel was a pleasant surprise and most of our pictures are actually of this resort. You can see the pics in the next post.

Playground

There are two playgrounds in our apartment complex. David has gotten brave lately and just climbs up and goes down the slides. One of us is always right behind him. He loves the swings and wants to do everthing by himself. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. It's interesting how I've started to look for playgrounds and construction vehicles where ever I go. If I don't spot them, David will.

Summertime fun

Well, we've officially been out of the country for 6 months. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. We arrived in the middle of winter and now it's so hot and humid that when we wake up in the morning and look over the rice paddies, all you can see is the mist from the humidity. Since it's been so warm, we haven't done too much travelling. Also, it's when the Koreans go on vacation so they've been out on the roads. Instead, our time has been spent hanging out at home. and around the apartment complex. Central air is also non-existent in most Korean homes. We just have an air conditioning unit in our living and the master bedroom which we use sparingly since electric bill can exceed $400/month. So, some days we just go w/out a shirt and use the fans.

The weather is wonderful for all the gardens and flowers we see. David is particularly fond of the bees which of course congregate around the flowers. He's very careful not to touch the bees. We've taught him that "bees, owee" so far, no one has been stung.

We've also discovered pat bing sue which is a Korean desert. A bing sue is a shaved ice with fresh fruit and sweetened condensed milk poured over it. Pat is sweet red beans. The one is the picture is a particularly tasty one which we got at our local Paris Baguette. In addition to the sweetened consensed milk, there was also some pomegrante juice poured on the shaved ice. Yum!

And finally, to beat the heat, we head to the playground first thing in the morning.

Weekend fun

We've been a little busy during the week w/work and exercises and playgroups so we ended up just hanging around here on the weekends. It's also been really hot and humid so one of our new favorite places is the Camp Humphries Splish and Splash water park. For $6/family, you can't beat it. It's only about 30 minutes away although we haven't perfected how to get back yet (long story). David loves this pool so much. The pictures don't quite do it justice since there are also two big adult slides, a section for older kids, a wading pool that is 3 feet deep, and a normal shaded playground area. As we were leaving, he said bye-bye pool without any prompting. An afternoon here ensure a good night sleep for all.