Heart and Seoul

Still here in South Korea, and still enjoying time with our newest grandson and big brother. Everyone is doing great and I'll have more to say about our little men another day, but today I want to talk about Seoul. 

Hubs and I spent three nights in the city last week to give the family of four a little time on their own and also give me a chance to see the sights. I absolutely loved Seoul! The city is clean, modern but still old world in places, friendly and so interesting. Also, the women here are beautiful, and oh so chic! I wish I could pull off trendy the way some of the Korean women do. 

My daughter lives less than an hour's train ride from Seoul Station and we booked tickets ahead of 

time online so easy peasy.  More or less. Once we got the hang of the system it was easy peasy. Bonus they assign you a seat which I appreciate. 

Once we arrived in Seoul Station we hopped the metro in the direction of our hotel, got a little turned around and ended up taking a cab a short distance. People like to say English is everywhere, but not true. Yes there is some English here but there's also a fair amount of pantomime and finger pointing at menu pictures or your neighbor's plate to get what you want. 

We stayed in Aloft Seoul Myeondong and I would highly recommend. The location was perfect, and the staff was wonderfully helpful and kind. Probably the best front desk experience I've had in a hotel in a long while. From our hotel we could walk to several nearby metro lines and to many of the city's best known sites. And walk we did. According to my phone app we walked 20 miles in three days which was probably a good thing because see below-

Once we were settled into the hotel we made a bee line for one of our favorite foods-Mandu aka Korean dumplings aka pure deliciousness. After lunch we ventured into the subway and more or less figured out which line to take (with a bit of help) to get us to our destination-Gyeonbokgung Palace. 

The original 'Palace of Shining Happiness' was completed in 1394 and was the main royal residence of the Joseon Dynasty.   

Side note-traveling somewhere new always reminds me how much I don't know about so many things particularly in this part of the world.  

In the early 20th century much of the palace was destroyed, but since that time the original palace continues to be gradually restored. 

The complex also contains the National Palace Museum of Korea and the National Folk Museum, the latter of which we visited and really enjoyed. 

On the down side, we've all been fighting colds and in my case the cold is winning so by late afternoon I was running out of steam. We went back to the hotel to rest before walking to dinner at a nearby spot the hotel staff recommended, then called it a night soon after. The end of a fun full day in this fabulous city. 

Tomorrow Seoul Tower (or how I always end up riding a cable car in a foreign city) the lantern festival and more...

...because there always is on From This Side of the Pond. 

Anyang Hasseo aka Hello

Greetings from the land of the morning calm. Obviously not America-ha! I don't always write when I'm traveling, but since I've got people and dogs in my house this trip it feels okay to blog in real time-ish. I'm
alwaysusually behind here on From This Side of the Pond, so 'real time' is a relative term, but I'm determined to get some words penned before Christmas rolls around and fall happenings feel like old news.

My daughter just told me I'd probably spend the first three paragraphs explaining why I haven't written lately, and another couple talking about the flight over and by then the post would be so long I'd  feel the need to wrap it up without ever really getting to the heart of the matter, which is this-

A brand new baby boy to love.

In South Korea, which is a long way from the Palmetto State but still! He's here and he's perfectly perfect with his head full of dark hair and  the most deliciously squishy cheeks, and we are already head over heels.

His mama is a rock star y'all. Giving birth is always a bit scary, but giving birth in a country not your own where English is not the language of the day requires a heaping helping of faith, strength, and courage, and her well runs deep.

So let's talk for a minute about the trip over because my daughter knows me and she's right when she says I'll overstate it. She also knows doling out a million unnecessary details is kind of my jam, and isn't that why you read here?

The days leading up to our trip around the sun were only slightly crazy. 9,717 miles since October 2nd kind of crazy but whatever. Here's how it rolled out...

The week before we were due to fly east hubs, Daughter2 and I drove to Maryland for the wedding of a boy whose family we've known and loved since our kids were small. We spent the Friday night before the wedding with hubs sister and family, then attended the very lovely ceremony in Annapolis on Saturday. We got up at the literal crack of dawn Sunday to get Daughter2 on her flight back to South Carolina and hubs on his flight to South Dakota for a long planned pheasant hunt and me on the road for the drive further north to my mom's in NJ. I was more or less 'in the neighborhood' and believe it or not this made the most sense.

I know it all sounds nuts and it kind of was, but we tried to just take it one trip at a time, vowed to enjoy the moments as we lived them, and never allowed ourselves a look at the month in it's entirety so as not to lose our minds. We mostly succeeded.

Hubs arrived back in Maryland Thursday afternoon and hopped in the car as I buzzed the airport arrivals lane, so we could hit the highway home. We made it back to SC just before midnight, spent Friday doing laundry, unpacking, repacking, having my hair done (priorities!) and then were back up with the birds on Saturday for our flight to South Korea.

Bring on the Morning Calm please.

We were able to get a direct flight out of Atlanta and a mere 14+ hours later were in the airport in Seoul waiting on our driver for the hour and a half ride to our daughter and son-in-law's home. Easy peasy. And bonus, we beat baby boy here which was such a blessing as we were able to stay with the mancub while his mom and dad brought his brother into the world.

We're Tired. Yes with a capital T. Jet lag is for real when you're in an upside down time zone, and five days in I'm still waking up at 3 AM and nodding off at 7. But!! we're here and we're so grateful for so much.

For the miracle of new life, and for strong willed little girls who grow up to roll with whatever life brings...

For new experiences and the blessing of time...

...the way our hearts expand and grow right along with our people.

Rearranging That To-Do List

It was a beautiful fall day here yesterday, and even though we have no business doing anything but taking care of what feels like a million things that need taking care of, we decided instead to carpe diem. 

Because sometimes you just must.

I find a walk in the woods is the best way to clear my head and should regularly be at the top of my 'to do' list. Pretty sure the world would be a nicer place if we all spent more time in the hushed stillness of God's green earth.

Hubs and I packed a lunch and headed to nearby Whitewater Falls because we haven't seen those up close and in person yet. We only argued a little as to which blue blaze trail marker was the correct blue blaze trail marker, and of course hubs was correct because he's always correct in matters of direction. Why does he even ask me which way I think we should go when he knows I'm always pointing left when we need to go east or up when we need to head south? He likes to talk about where the sun is in the sky and blah blah blah.

Let's just walk, k?

For the record, I don't mind getting a little lost, figuring it out as we go, maybe seeing something unexpected, and just enjoying the sun on my face and the silence of the forest. Hubs however is a man on a mission and we must get to those falls in a timely manner or die trying.

We began the day at the Upper Falls overlook which is a short easy half mile trek (plus 154 steps) to magnificent.

Did I mention we had the pup with us? He only wrecked my zen a little and had an absolute ball. He ran most of the way all day long and could have done another six miles if hubs and I had said let's go.

We did not.

Because the lower falls trail (once you're on the correct path, ahem) is steep and we were tired. I'd visited the website to get some approximate directions prior to leaving home and the lower falls hike was described as roughly two miles in and out. We must have hopped on from a different starting point because our hike was roughly six miles in and out.

We moved the car to catch the lower falls trail which was a mixture of an up and down wooded path, rocky in some spots, a few downed trees to climb over or slip under in others, tree roots to trip you up if you weren't careful, and a brilliant blue sky overhead reminding you no matter what you're walking through beauty is found when you look up.

I thought we'd see more color here but autumn is rolling in to the Upstate ever so slowly this year. It has been hotter than the double hockey sticks and temperatures plus the humidity level have only recently begun to settle down.

One of the prettiest spots on the lower falls trail was right here-

In fact one of us would say it was their favorite part of the day-

He would have been happy to stay right here all day, but we still had a mile and a half-ish to go so we crossed the bridge and carried on.

And as we walked I thought about some stuff. Thinking deep thoughts and hiking go hand in hand which is one reason I enjoy hiking. It's hard to think deep thoughts when you're staring down your to-do list and see a floor that needs vacuuming and clothes that need washing and suitcases that need packing.

Soul searching comes naturally when you're away from it all.

It happens when you're walking along a mostly flat, mostly clear path until suddenly you're not. You encounter rocks and roots that can trip you up and irritate, and the easy pace you were enjoying begins to feel like a slog you need to just get through.

Your destination begins to feel further and further away, but if you put your head down and press on you'll discover those rocks and roots and irritating big and little things you had to get around or over were part of your journey to something beautiful.

Life, y'all.

Then your hubs the planner whips out his little camp stove and makes you a cup of hot apple cider on the spot...

And you're so glad you didn't quit before you got to where you were meant to go.

The Big Easy

Way back when, before we knew our baby girl was moving to South Korea, before we knew our baby girl would be having a baby in this calendar year in South Korea, we made plans to spend a long weekend in New Orleans with college friends.

And even though we're trekking across the world later this fall we still spent an extended weekend in New Orleans last week because why not?

Several in our group hit a milestone birthday this year and we wanted to mark the occasion(s) with a fun trip. Some of us (me included) had never been to New Orleans before but we did have one friend with us who had an office in the city so he steered us in the right direction in terms of where to stay, what to eat, and how to enjoy.

First things first..it was hot. We have humidity in the Palmetto State, but yowza this town takes it up a notch. They pretty much take everything up a notch in NOLA including the butter, the cream, the cocktails, and the crazy, but the humidity is for real y'all.

We stayed in the very lovely Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter and it was a great location for accessing all that we wanted to do.

And by 'do' I mean eat. I was looking through my pictures and more than half are snapshots of my plate with some delicious something or other front and center. Case in point-waiting on their BBQ shrimp in the photo above, and my baked apple with a praline oatmeal topping from our breakfast at Brennans below-

A whole wonderfully delicious fish at Emeril's restaurant (NOLA)-

Sampling one of the famous hurricanes from Pat O'Briens-

Too sweet for me (the Pimms at Bar Napoleon is more my cup of tea), but I'm pretty sure the law says you have to taste a hurricane while you're here.

The law also says you can pour the leftovers in a to-go cup and walk around town with it which seems kinda crazy, but hey that's New Orleans. 

Speaking of crazy, let's talk crazy good and pause for a moment to give the beignet it's due. Not sure there's such a thing as a perfect food, but the beignet has got to be awfully close.

The food in this city is fabulous and many well known chefs got their start here. We were a group of ten so booked our dinners in advance and most of the nicer restaurants offered reservations. 

There's always some sort of celebration happening in New Orleans which means the town is hopping and the restaurants are busy. If you go, book ahead for the more well known venues. My favorite was Commander's Palace which is something of an institution here. They still like for men to wear jackets and boy do they know how to celebrate a special occasion.

We had five birthdays in our group and there were balloons on the table and big hats for the honorees. The service is five star and the food wonderful. I ordered their famous bread pudding souffle for dessert and was not disappointed. Hey, how about a picture?

In other foodie news, we all signed up for a cooking demo one morning at the New Orleans School of Cooking, and this I highly recommend. So much fun! Our chef (Harriett) was funny and had a wonderful way of engaging the audience in what she was cooking.

We ate as the morning went along starting with a delicious corn and crab chowder, pralines, a shrimp creole and the grand finale-bananas foster, which came to fame at a New Orleans eatery.

It was okay I guess.

Harriett  managed quite the flame and then sprinkled cinnamon on top which caused it to sparkle. We definitely plan to try this at home, but will likely do ours outside.

Six of our group also spent a day trekking out to Oak Alley Plantation and really enjoyed the visit. It's about an hour outside New Orleans, but our bus driver was really good in sharing information about the city and it's history as well as the surrounding area.

My first time driving over the mighty Mississippi.

We took a guided plantation house tour (after we hydrated because did I mention the heat here???) and they do a good job contrasting the hard life of a slave to that of plantation owner.

The slave quarters are still on site too and you can peek inside several buildings.

We walked the grounds afterward and spent the rest of our visit in awe of the giant oaks. They're beautiful!

Such a fun weekend! Besides all of the above we also managed a short visit to the WW2 Museum (really well done), a walk around the Garden District, a trolley ride, and as always happens when we're together, lots and lots of belly laughs. Cheers to 40 years of friendship!

And here's to 40 more!