Australia(June 2023)

 I am not sure why, but Australia has always been a place I wanted to visit.

As soon as I realized we would be moving to South Korea, it became a 

'when would we go', not an 'if we go' trip. 

After talking with the kids and seeing where they wanted to go and giving our

(at that time) soon to be college kid, the option to rate her must see locations, 

Australia went to the top of our list. 

I really wanted to make it a 14-17 days trip and visit New Zealand, but someone

could not take that much time off work.

So we decided to explore Sydney and do a day trip to the Blue Mountains.

This was the view walking out of the airport!

Beautiful skies and amazing air and I felt at home.

We headed to the hotel and checked in. We were a little early and only one of

our rooms were ready. So we headed to the club lounge for some

snacks and coffee and waited for the other room to be ready.

We didn't have to wait long at all before the second room was ready.

We stayed at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel at Circular Quay

 and it was in the best location.

We had a view of the Harbour Bridge and the old two kids

had a view of the Sydney Opera House.

The first order of business was getting local currency 

and SIM cards for our phones. 

I quickly discovered the shopping was going to be amazing!

We all did a little retail therapy at our favorite stores

before our visit in Sydney was done.

After we got the business stuff out of the way we decided to 

grab some lunch. Normally, we try to find local places,

but I was a little hangry due to a flight delay and no food at the airport that I could eat.  Plus I was

trying to ration my snacks until we could visit a grocery store. I spotted

a Five Guys and that was it. I can eat there and the kids love it, so that become lunch.

After that we headed back to our rooms to clean up before heading out

on a boat tour to see the lights.

Vivid Sydney was going on during our trip

and I wanted to see the city from the water.

We also had a great view from our rooms and could even see the 

drone show from there. That was a great bonus, because the number of 

people were insane.

While the boat cruise we took was not my favorite, because I waited

too long to book, the views were amazing!

The pictures do not do it justice!

I almost booked another cruise, just 

to see it again.

We had been on the ground less then 8 hours

and I had already fallen in love with Sydney.

After the boat cruise was done we headed back to the hotel.

We visited the club lounge for snacks and cocktails, before we

called it a night. It had been a long day and tomorrow was

going to be a jammed packed day.

Seoul Excited!

 I was "Seoul" excited to begin traveling again!

We decided to start small and do a quick 2-night,

3-day trip to Seoul.

We decided to take the train to Seoul, as traffic and parking can be crazy.

We pulled the kids out of school early on Friday and headed to Seoul. The 

train ride was a quick 45 minutes. 

Before we boarded the train we got some Dunkin'!

Greg was not of fan of the Diva's boba tea and I stuck with my 'go to' drink

iced americano! 

 

While we waited for our train a few trains passed through our station 

going crazy fast.

Once on the train we found our seats and relaxed for 

the next 45 minutes. 

Our hotel was a quick 25 minute walk from the station.

We decided to stick with our hotel brand, when it's not

broken don't fix it. 

Normally in the states we get an oversized room that will fit 5,

 but we quickly realized most rooms in Seoul have max of 3 people.

We ended up with two rooms. Our room was an over sized room with a king bed

and our bathroom had a tub and separate shower. We could see the N. Seoul tower 

from our room. The older two got the room down the hall. That room had 2 twin beds.

The best things about this hotel was the bathroom had windows into the sleeping area. Everyone

was a little freaked out at first, but I knew it had a pull down curtain. 

The view from the older kids bathroom! 

The plan was to head out and find some dinner, 

but we ran into a heavier then expected rain shower,

so we opted for some room service. 

The boys had burgers and club sandwiches, but the

Diva had this.

She said it was amazing and I will have to take her word for it.

I had to bring my food with me for this trip.

The rain stopped and with everyone done with dinner

we headed out on foot to the N. Seoul Tower.

It was a nice walk and we passed some great shopping!

Already planning a shopping day sans kids.

We took the inclined elevator up to the Namsan Cable Car

that took us up to the N. Seoul Tower landing

The N. Seoul Tower changes color! I was able to get few pictures

of some of the different colors. 

The outside area at the base of the tower was beautiful!

It had lots of great photo spots and cool things to check out.

The views from the tower were amazing!

The reason we went at night was because I regret not 

going up the Eiffel Tower at night.

I am so glad we did! I'm sure the view would have been great

durning the day, but something about the night

is magical!

We came back down and did a little more exploring.

Lots of locks of love!

The family got ice cream and I got coffee!

 I will be an expert on where to find the best

iced americano in South Korea before our time

here is up. 

After a few more photos we headed back down!

You can walk up or down from the tower instead of taking the cable cars,

but I was quickly over-ruled on that idea. Something about rain, darkness and the path 

possibly being slick,  I just think they were all being lazy!

I did manage to get them to skip the inclined elevator

and do a little walking. 

I got some amazing photos because of it. 

We headed back to the hotel and along the way

I got a cool photo of the Bank of Korea with 

the traffic moving passed it.

Our  hotel was only a few hundred feet away from the Sungnyemun (Namaemun) 

Gate. The gate is one of eight in the Fortress Wall of Seoul, South Korea, which surrounded the 

city in the Joseon dynasty. It is located in Jung-gu between Seoul Station and Seoul Plaza, with the 

historic 24-hour Namdaemun Market next to the gate. 

After a jam packed day we made it back to the hotel around 9:30 pm and 

 almost everyone passed out from exhaustion. 

I am not sure what it is about a robe and slippers in

a hotel, but it always makes me feel extra special.

After I quick shower I called it night,

morning was coming early, and we had a lot to see and do!