Big city, little family: Another great weekend

Hello everyone! I hope you had or well having a tremendous weekend as I have had another good one!

This weekend my step son came down to visit for the weekend. Like most families the month is winding down and so is our monthly spending funds. The last weekend before payday is usually pretty boring, staying inside and trying to entertain ourselves with tv or movies. Which we, like most families, watched the ever so loved Disney film Frozen! I just love love love Olaf! Anyway what I thought was going to be a boring last weekend before payday ended up being pretty awesome!

Saturday we went to the war memorial and toured just about everything we possibly could. We had been to the outside before but I had never gone through the inside to see all the short films and the museum. I cannot get over the how high tech they made the museum. I found myself saying several times this is nothing like a museum back in the states! They even have a short 4D film you can watch, unless you have a baby with you then you cannot watch it. They had a picture of a canteen in a photo box and the glass actually had moving images. Now maybe they have some of this stuff back in the states but I have never seen anything like it. They had a box with images that seemed to come to life... (the best example I have is the Cleveland rain forest when they have that big box and it shows a rain forest slowly being cut down).... anyway it was kind of like that but it was like a mini play being acted out right in front of you. And yes they had an English button so I knew what they were saying. It was pretty pathetic acting but......... entertaining! Here is a short clip of the moving images on glass..........

The big canteen in the middle was a still picture then the soldier getting water was actually etched in the glass. It was seriously pretty awesome!

Sunday we went to Bukhansan (san means mountain ) to hike. It was nice. I have been pretty sick with a sinus infection but it mostly only really knocks me down in the evening. However today it kicked in on the subway. I have been feeling pretty sluggish and icky all week with it but it is manageable during the day.... up until today. Once we started our hike I found it difficult to breath as my sinus' decided to start draining. LOVELY I know! I explained to Collin that I was having a hard time breathing and he said ok let's get up to this small village and take a break. So I made it to the village and was contemplating our return home. Then my loving husband said, "ohhhh a water fall, let's go there!" So we went, and it seemed the further we went the more I started to clear up. No arguments here. We passed another giant Buddha and prayer buildings although much smaller than last week. We of course rested and took pictures and had a monk walk right between us dividing our family on his way to another building. I know this is where ignorance comes in but I honestly did not realize so many Buddhist were still active in Korea. There where pile of shoes outside one of the prayer buildings and like last week many people where there to pay their respects to Buddha. I just didn't realize the magnitude in which this religion was still carried out.

It is tiny but you can see a monk walking towards the giant Buddha.

A prayer building

Once we were beginning to head on with the trail to the waterfall I saw steps leading up to the same giant bell that is found in all of the Temple area's. It is a big bell in a very decorative structure with a huge log dangling down that a few select people would gather around to ring in a slow steady pattern. I walked up the steps to get a better picture as most of these bells are not accessible to get a good photo of them. I almost wish I hadn't as when coming down from the bell an Ajumma was sitting a cross the path giving me a nasty stare. I looked at Collin and asked him if maybe I missed something. Maybe I wasn't supposed to go up there. He agreed that there were not any signs and it seemed OK and that maybe she was just afraid that I was going to attempt to ring the bell or something. Here is the picture of the bell.........

We were getting closer to where we believed the waterfall was and to more Ajumma were headed our way. Collin nicely inquired if we were headed near the waterfall as I heard him say, "Pokpo?" The ladies quickly replied and I heard only 1 word I recognized "eggie" (Please know that I have no clue how to really spell these words) When they passed Collin explained that they said there was no waterfall and that it is too dangerous for the baby (eggie).

Last week during our hike many Koreans feared we were putting our daughters health and life at risk walking the trails. As everyone who knows us knows we would never do anything to cause harm or sickness on purpose.

Collin and I pretty much laughed it off as we figured it was nothing to be concerned with and we were right. Very soon we reached the waterfall....... or what should have been the waterfall......

Mike standing OFF the trail where the waterfall should have been.

The waterfall would have made this view breath taking as you can see the mountains already do a pretty fantastic job of that on their own.

We soon found our way back down and ready to start the mile or so back to a cab. I was very sad when our journey ended and mentioned to Collin my sadness as I was hoping for more. I knew we took it slow because I wasn't feeling good but I told him that, that was just my warm up. Then I couldn't stop chuckling to myself as I realized that 2 months ago that would have put me threw the ringer and this month it was a warm up! I felt great and was ready to take on the world after that.

So after words to try and keep me content we at least got off the subway at Itewan and walked home the rest of the way.

Once home I had home work to finish and now I am sitting here and realizing my legs are hurting! I might have felt at the time it was a warm up but my body is thanking me for not taking another step!

I hope you enjoy a few pictures including a couple from last weekend!

Have a great week!