Haedong Yong Gung Temple

Anthony and his family are moving to Seoul in a month, and Anthony's father asked if he could serve as a Busan tour guide for the American travellers.  Mary's boyfriend, Jeon, made the drive in from where he works, and we all meet up at a Buddhist Temple on the sea, the Headong Yong Gung Temple. 

You are first greeted with statues of the Chinese zodiac, and Mary and visit our fellow zodiac animal, the goat.  Apparently this means we're http://www.chinesezodiac.com/goat.php

We, along with swarms of other people, head down the series of stairs to the Temple.

It's a beautiful temple in a beautiful setting.

 Anthony and his father.

Anthony also joins in a picture of Mary and Jeon.

A picture of a glass-fronted display case of old artefacts and the reflected images.

Hard to pass up a picture with two big gold pigs and their big gold bums.

Mary and Anthony chilling with the pigs.

Anthony's dad takes us out for a beautiful traditional Korean lunch.  Unfortunately Jeon's boss called him back to work (on a Sunday! and after making him work on Saturday!) so we don't get much time to spend with him.  Mary knows of a pick-up frisbee game happening later that day, and Arthur and I are super stoked to be able to play some ultimate. We top it all off with a trip to Spaland, a crazy extensive spa with hot water baths, saunas, yoga areas, eateries, massages, etc.  With entry costing something like US$14, we may have to make a return trip...

Big midwestern smiles in eager anticipation of our spa visit.

Chilling in Busan

The next day we take 'er easy and wander around the neighbourhood, finding ourselves in a pastry shop. 

Mary and I pose with fabulous new glasses, looking as smart and sexy as ever.

For dinner we head to a sushi place, and just like the one we visited in Japan, it has the sweet conveyor belt that brings your meal to you.  While we're there, we run into one of Mary's students, a very precocious and energetic Anthony.

First Night in Busan

Jan 7th - early morn Jan 8th

As we get off the bullet train Arthur asks "what does Mary look like?" I reply "look for the white girl" and moments later he spots her. We snap our long overdue reunion picture!

As it is with old friends, it's like no time has passed at all.  We grab a late dinner and decide to "go out for one drink" at a nearby bar. We run into a bunch of her work friends who are out celebrating a birthday, and before we know it we're at a "nori-bong" - your personal karaoke room.

Mary and I rekindle the college flames and rock out to "Baby got back."

Having your own room make singing so much easier, and I have a blast belting out some songs.

Arthur and Anton (a fellow Russian speaker) get in on the fun too.

We're blown away when we discover it's 6am, so we pack it up and head home.  The next morn (er, afternoon) we're greeted with the view from Mary's apartment.

Seoul

Jan 3rd to 7th, 2011

After spending a few days in the air traveling from Minneapolis to Paris to Kuala Lumpur to the Incheon airport, we crash hard at an airport motel.  The next morning we wake up to a bright and surprisingly cold morning, and figure out how to get from Incheon to Seoul. The clean, efficient, cheap metro is an easy way to go.  

Next challenge is finding our hostel from the metro stop, and we chuckle that one of the first sites is a huge red crab on the side of a building.

The neighbourhood looks funky and cool, and we find a place to eat.  No English menus, so we point the the one entree that has a picture next to it. It's lots of seafood and noodles, and it's delicious.

Our wanderings find us in a supersweet coffeeshop that has tons of supersweet books you can read while sitting on some supersweet furniture.  I've never had an latte this delicious before, and the froth is so thick it defies the laws of physics.

South Korea likens itself as the design capital of the world, and there are a lot of museums to showcase it.  We found a little museum in our neighbourhood - the exhibit was in Korean only so couldn't get the full meaning - but there were some fun old signs and technology around.

We're in the University District so there's tons of little shops and young hip people around, and we have fun poking around the place.  Once the sun goes down it goes from chilly to unbearable, and we warm up in a delicious hibachi bbq restaurant.  There's rumours of cool places to quaff some drinks, but we're so tired and cold we crash out early.

Next day we head to Isa-dong, and arty neighbourhood down the way.  We check out a Buddhist temple in the middle of the city, and visit a bunch of funky art galleries.

We find a cool rooftop Korean restaurant for lunch, and enjoy the spicy food and warm atmosphere.

That evening we head to Seoul Square to catch a bullet train from Seoul to Busan.   Can't wait to finally see my old college roomy, MARY!

Home for Christmas

December 11th  12th to 27th, 2010

The phrase "Watch what you wish for" comes to full fruition when my joking statement of "I'm not coming for Christmas unless there's tons of snow!" is met with the closure of the MSP airport due to blizzard conditions.  We've been flying for over 40 hours, from Christmas Island to Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam to circling above Minneapolis, and then backtracking and ultimately landing in Detroit.  Several other international flight were also diverted to DTW, and the international arrivals area is a sea of weary travellers waiting in unmoving lines to talk with understaffed Delta representatives to discover too few solutions.  After several line re-schuffings and several hours we hatch a plan with other Minneapolis-bound passengers to rent a car and drive the rest of the way.  The snow storm is heading towards Detroit, and we're afraid we'll be stuck here for several days (if we can even make it through the line) before it'll be clear to fly outta here.  We finally figure out that flying is probably in fact our best bet to make it home in one piece, and are happy to find out the airlines is putting us up for free at a Hilton, and covering our meals.  We successfully make it home the next day, and I finally get that long overdue hug(sssss) from mom and dad.  And we're (er, Arthur) is immediately welcomed into the wintery tradition of shovelling out the driveway.  

The house renovations are simply beautiful!  I'm loving the open kitchen and find the countertop bar to be the perfect addition.  

Arthur makes himself at home by whipping up some delicious homemade bread.

OMG! I never realized Christmas Island had its own game.  And that it was my favorite childhood game, Fireball Island.

Dinner at our favorite bistro, Pierre's.  So good.

Rocking the UNO game on the fabulous new bar.

Oh delicious peanut butter kiss cookies.  Let's dip you in sprinkles and make you holiday cookies!

Let the Christmas decorating begin!

Making Grandma Wittman's famous meatballs takes a lot of onion chopping.  Finally a way to prevent my eyes from crying...

Happy Holidays from the Wittman family!

Mother and daughter bond over new glasses purchases.  Related, yet different, smart and beautiful always.  The glasses, that is.  What else would be would I be talking about?  ;)

Red Crab Migration

A compilation video of footage and pictures from the red crab spawning at Ethel Beach.