Pink Grass, Donuts, and Festivals

South Korea has a lot of real cool photo seasons and one

is the pink grass. We needed some new photos of the kids,

so I booked a mini shoot with a photographer. 

We also took some pictures with our phone and had

some fun in the pink grass.

We had to meet the photographer at 7:30am, so the place was not 

that busy. It was almost set up like a little maze that had areas to do photos. 

I think we got some cool photos ourselves. 

I could have spent hours taking pictures of the pink grass 

and a hazy sky that we had that morning. 

 After we got done we headed home with

a plan to head to the Villa to get some donuts 

from a coffee shop that I visit. I have never had the donuts, but every time I get

coffee people are always buying the donuts and it seems to be very popular. 

You will also start to notice a pattern here.

On the way home one child got notice that his Texas friends

were all online a gaming, so he was no longer in the mood

 for donuts. 

Now the 4 of us walked out to the Villa to get donuts,

 but we were a little early, so we had to hang out

and wait for it to open.

We ordered a variety of different donuts and we all got some drinks.

The family loved the drinks, but the donuts were not a hit.

The search for good donuts continues. 

We headed back to the house for while before we headed out

to the Korean American One Heart Festival. 

Before we could even get out of the house the "bat phone" rang and 

someone was headed back into work.

Mr. Man was still playing video games with his friends in the states and this one:

Was using me for transpiration to the festival, so she could 

meet up with her boyfriend.

As you can see our party of 5 turned into a party of 2

Durning the Korean American One Heart Festival the town outside the gate shuts down

one if its main roads and vendors line the streets. The base turns one of its gates into a large walk-in gate so you can move between on-base and off-base with ease.

We spent most of our time exploring the off base options.

Claw games are very popular in that area and when you are only one who didn't 

ditch Mom, you get to play a few times.

Unfortunately our skills need some work, because we walked away empty handed.

Candy fruit is another popular food item here, but it was way too sweet for this guy.

He really just wanted the strawberries without the sugar.

We played lots of games and won many prizes. 

We stopped for a little snack!

The streets were lined with food and game booths, locally made items, community

information and popular trinket items.

This ride cost me a little under $4, but it went on for over

7 minutes. Every time I thought it was

going to be over it was kicked up another notch.

Most rides like this in the states last a minute or two. 

We walked around a little more, tried a few more things, played more 

games, but my hands got too full to continue to take photos. 

We had a lot fun before we decided to call it a day and head home. 

A Day Trip to Suwon

The husband had a Friday off work, so we pulled the boys 

out of school and went out to explore. The Diva opted 

to go to school instead of hanging out with us. 

I don't think her reason was based on academics, but getting

to see all her friends and boyfriend. 

Suwon was a short 20ish minute train ride for us,  after getting off the train we

took the bus to the Janganmun Gate of the Hwaseong Fortress.  

The fortress was built (1794-1796) during the Joseon Dynasty and after walking it I don't think it would be built that quickly in today's era. It was massive and we climbed up and down many many stairs. According to my watch we climbed 41 flights of stairs and I think that is way low. The fortress wall stretches 5.5KM (3.4 miles), but we walked over 4.5 miles. The fortress was built for the defense of the city. As the city was originally inside the walls, the city now stretches beyond its original perimeter.  

We got very lucky and had an absolutely gorgeous day

and the prefect temperature.

It sounds odd to say but the wall was beautiful.

 

After walking for a while we found a little snack bar and restroom. The boys filled up on 

candy and juice and I got some much needed coffee. Then we were back at it, climbing more stairs.

You could see for miles! When we got to the other side of the wall

I could not believe how high up this area was. 

That was a lot of stairs! Not going to lie, but I was 

glad we started on the other side of the wall. This might of

wiped the little one out if we had to climb up them.

Some of the stairs we had to go down, you almost wanted

 to go down on your bum. Some were very steep and large/tall.

Sweet boy did go down a few on his bum. 

We found a little playground along the way and someone had some 

extra energy to run off and I am not sure how. 

The holes in the wall were big enough to fire guns, arrows and long spears if attacked.

It is believed to have been constructed very scientifically. It was built using Seokjae and 

Jeondol (bricks)

We walked the whole wall and ended up back at Janganmun Gate.

We decided to grab some lunch before we continued to explore the city.

We went with Mom's Chicken and did a little blind ordering.

The kiosk did not have a language option, so we tried our best and ordered 

a few thing. We are learning fast that spicy here is a lot spicier than in the states.

Mr. Man's chicken sandwich had a major kick to it. 

With full bellies it was off to visit the Mr. Toilet House.

This placed popped up on a google search and after I found it, it become

a must visit place. Not sure why, but I thought the kids would

get a big kick out of a museum dedicated to poop and toilets.

The outside has a lot of picture spots and the inside is filled with information.

The museum is small, packed with information and free.

The first floor is all about the history of toilets

and how they work and second floor is all about poop.

The second floor is done is a very cute cartoon way, so nothing gross.

The man who built this house/museum was the former mayor of the 

town and was born in a toilet himself.

The 'golden' poop!

After learning all we could about toilets we headed over to an outdoor market to look around

and grab some snacks. 

I really need to get better about taking photos in the market, but  I am alway to 

busy trying not to miss something or lose my people. 

After we got down with the market it was time to head back to the train station and head home. 

This guy was questioning my 12 hour day trip and itinerary filled with lots of walking.

I really didn't appreciate his salty attitude, but thankfully he is a cutie,

so I will let it slide this time. 

We had a great time and packed a lot in, but we still have much more to see, so we will be heading 

back to explore again soon.