Trip of a lifetime

Whew!! We set out last week for a marathon road trip around Korea, and 8 days and 1200 miles later, we are back! It was *amazing*, a dream come true. We hit every province, the most southern part of Korea to the most northern.

These are only a few of the 800 pictures I took, but believe it or not, I had camera problems and so 2-3 days are missing completely.Click on the slideshow, make it full screen, and then click "show info", because the explanations of what things are will show up then.

Rowan had a gymnastics meet in Jeju Island, so we started the trip out by driving down the west coast to Mokpo, to catch a ferry to Jeju.We spent 3 days on Jeju, but due to the meet didn't see whole lot except the beach. But, since the weather finally warmed up, that was just fine with us! Then we took the ferry back, and drove to Boseong, an area known for its green tea fields and festival going on in early May. We did the festival, and then drove south to Yeosu, a southern coastal town. It was a festival there celebrating Admiral Yi, inventor of the famous Turtle Ship, so that was neat. At this point, both my camera (which had been having issues for a while) and Gryphon's point and shoot (the photos with big dates are from it) both died. So, no Yeosu photos. Worst of all, we climbed a gazillion stairs (anything worth seeing in Korea involves stairs)to the tippy top of a rock out in the ocean to Hangilram temple. It was so fantastic- steps carved into sheer cliffs, and perched at the top, a temple. The view was stunning, if pretty frightening! But, you'll have to take my word for it or Google it, because I have NO PICTURES! Next we drove up to Kyeongju, which is a city that is practically entirely a historical museum. It is the ancient Shilla dynasty capital of Korea, and really wonderful. After Kyeongju, we drove over to the east coast, and up, up, up to the top, where we spent time in Seokcho, visited the DMZ observatory, and then drove home through Soraksan, Korea's highest and most lovely mountains.

Along the way we ate regional foods- the food pictures and post will come later. I was in heaven, I tell you. Korea has some fantastic food!

I can honestly say we really know Korea after this trip. And we didn't get lost once!