For the honeymoon we went to an island south of Korea. I wanted to go back packing through China but the wife wanted nothing to do with that. So here we are. We had a rental car which was a good idea until I backed into a small boulder. No dents but it did put a nice scratch on the car. When we took it back there was no problems, I guess they saw worse. As for the island it was beautiful. Went to a few waterfalls, some caves, cliffs, and some really nice views. Had a really nice time would like to go back again if time permits.

Well I finally made it to our wedding day. If you look to the left there is Minhee and her mother. Her mother is wearing a hanbok(한복), traditional korean dress. On this day my mother, uncle bob, aunt sue, and about 40 friends came from my side, but since Minhee's father is a servant of the korean government about 750 people came, they wanted to invite more but it was hard enough to find a place that could accomadate to that. The wedding itself lasted about 20 minutes. If one should ever have a wedding in Korea it would be wise to take all handphones as people come in. Here I am with Minhee. Boy she is lucky to be married to such a handsome guy as myself. The hardest part of the whole wedding I think was picking out the tux. And after all the effort and time I put into it, the wedding planner decided it was best to go with her choice than mine. Probally was for the better since she does it for a living and this is my first. The picture to the left is of Minhee with her cousins and her oldest brother. The picture above is of Minhee with her two brothers. Her younger brother is to the left and her older brother is to her right. Here we are after the wedding. We had a cake and got to cut it with a huge sword. I don't know what ever happened to that cake sine it disappeared after it was cut. The 'great mystery' of the day was who was going to catch the bouquet. Wasn't that hard to guess who was going to catch it since there was only one person. I guess that is the norm. Had to do the classic of picking up the bride. For a few weeks she was joking by saying she was going to gain as much weight as she could. She could have gained 20 kilos and there still wouldn't have been a problem. We had a western style wedding but also had a little korean element to it. After the western style wdding was finished we proceded to Paebaek (폐백 ) which is the payment of respect to the each side and when the parents give advice to their son or daughter. The picture to the left is when my mom got to throw some nuts at Minhee. For every nut that we caught in Minhee's dress we will have a child. If that is the case I will be very busy.

Not that far from the city I live is a city called Kyoung-Ju (경주). Kyoung-Ju is a city filled with history, temples, tombs, and some really unique things. The first place we saw was the temple called Bulguksa (불국사). If you should happen to see a picture of a temple chances are it will be this temple. About a 10 to 15 minute drive up the mountain from here is suekgulam (석굴암). What this is is a temple that is built into the side of mountain. From the outside it looks small but once you go inside it opens up, and in this pocket is a huge statue of Buddha which is blocked off with a glass wall. Pictures are not allowed once inside and one must take off their shoes. On Buddha's birthday, visitiors are allowed to go beyond the glass protected area and walk around the statue. From here we went to Gampo(감포). Gampo is a very small city but it has a wonderful beach on the sea of japan. Its fairly clean and usually not a lot of people so one can actually enjoy the sea.

Here we are getting ready to go to Daegu. Nice hot day calls for some afternoon beers. Now as the story goes my Uncle Bob likes pottery. He found a piece that he liked at a store less than a 100 yards away from this bar, since it was still early in the vacation we decided we would wait and buy one later. As it turns out never saw another piece like that one.

KTX which is the bullet train of Korea cuts the travel time from Dague to Seoul by at least 60% (speeds up to 300km/h) but it has some small seats. They also have a deal that really nobody knows about. There are blocks of four seats with tables, if one should buy all four of these table seats you can save up to 34% which means you get a free ticket. When we arrived at Dong-Dague Station MinHee's father was waiting for us. He was reviewing all the english he had studied for over the pass few weeks, but a soon as he met everybody, he forgot everything. Oh well there will be a next time.
Korea is a small country but what makes its even smaller is about 70% of it is covered with mountains, which creates a high population density rate. It also creates some wonderful parks and things to do. Here we are at Palgong San(팔공산) ( san means mountain). We were going to ride up to the top but we had to meet Minhee's family for a traditional chinese meal in Korea. I wish I would have had a camera for that restaurant, the food kept on coming and coming. As it does at most places.

Here we are in downtown Seoul. If you look in the background you will see namdaemoon (남대문) . You might have to enlarge the picture to see it. Namdaemoon is one of the four old gates of Seoul. Around this area is a very famous market, I think it is actually the biggest market in Korea. Well anyways here are a few pictures of both the gate and the market.

The markets in Korea are something worth seeing. You can have twenty stores in a row selling the exact same things but they all seem to have some business going on. From ginko to gi boots it all can be found. Sometimes the smells can be a little brutal and it is best to wear shoes after a rain. After sightseeing here we all decided it would be a good idea to take a walk to namsan tower and see what the city looks like at night. Believe it or not I actually took this picture. Well when we finally got to the tower there was a sign saying the observation deck was closed, found out one could see the city so we went on up. Looked around and found a restaurant with a wonderful view. This picture is not the best but will have to do for the time being. But you can get a good idea of what we saw. Even though this view was from a restaurant with 'korean pizzas' it was still worth while.

Food. I think everyone that came over gained at least a few pounds. There was just so many different kinds of food that we wanted to introduce to them. The three weeks or so they were here they did more and ate a wider variety of food then most people that haved lived over here for a few years. I'm quite proud of that accomplishment, that is what I wanted to do for them and to actually to do it, wow. Started off a little shaky with the food but ended up with none.

In Seoul, there is a good mix of old and new. As you can to the right even in the center of downtown one can find a palace which is a good place to relax, reflect, or sightsee. Being from the country and now living in a big city places like this or even parks are quite a nice refugee during the day. Usually places like these there is nobody around, so they are very quiet and somewhat peaceful. For some reason throughout the country of Korea especially at palaces, temples, and road sides there is an ample army of ginko trees. Why, I have no reason, but am trying to find out. These trees are wonderful to see during fall, they turn to a bright yellow that just stands out and makes a drive on Sunday more interesting. The picture to the left is some of the biggest ginko trees that I have ever seen. According to the plaque these are over 300 years old if my memory serves me correct. If you can remember or if you know post a comment please.

Can you find us? Look hard enough and you may. Roads filled with neon, music, fliers, and of course people. Some people are so stupid that they even try to drive cars down raods like this. Why? Who knows. But these kinda of roads are fun, lots of things to do. From pizza to pa kimchi you can find it. Well of course minus a few c's cheese, camels, and Gabe you know. Its quite interesting, in the past year or so, a traditional drink called makkulli (막걸리) is becoming popular with the younger crowds. Makkulli is a alcholic drink made from rice. As the name is mak(막) which means carelessy, at random, or roughly. Kulli (걸리) which is derived from the verb kullida (걸리다) which means to catch (note the above words do have other meanings than metion above). So loosely tanslating it means roughly filtered rice wine. So as you would expect there is pieces of rice in it. It is usually drank chilled and out of a tea keatle. Strange as it may sound it is actually quite good, myself the first timed I tried it I didn't have it again for quite a while, but now I am a really big fan of it especially during those muggy days.

The following day for us was that rainy day I told you about. Even though the show must go on. The choice was easy for us, since I think none of uswould like to spend the day away sitting inside our hotel room. Let me correct myself, hotel nope more of like a korean guest house. My uncle got the pleasure of bathing in a blue light (must have been on sale somewhere) in his bathroom without a sink.

A little over two months ago I got married. So my mother, Aunt Sue, and Uncle Bob all came over to Korea forabout three weeks. These three unlucky people all got bumped up to first class due to some problems with a gas line, and because of the delay they missed their connecting flight in Tokyo so they got to stay a night in Tokyo free. Depending on the way you look at it, their trip began a little rocky or really nice. First class, free night in Tokyo. So when we finally met, we headed to downtown Seoul. It looked like it was going to rain about half the time but only rained one day out of the few days. In the above picture is Kyoung Bok Kung (경복궁) the biggest palace in Korea. Our hotel at the time was not. We all had a good time sight seeing, but I think if everybody doesn't see a palace for a while nobody will complain. These guys were great. We saw almost everything to see in Seoul, and a great majority of it actually almost all of it was done by walking.

Hello,

This is my first real attempt to make a web page. I made one a few years back but shortly abandoned it due to the lack of not having a computer. Now that we have one I'll give it try again. Not the best page, but I hope it will improve as time goes on.
The whole purpose of this page is to show my friends and family back home where I live and what I do.