 Have I mentioned how much I *LOVE* living here on Yongsan? There is always something going on here on post. Last Monday night Hubby and I went to Collier Field House for another *FREE* concert put on by MWR - The Charlie Daniels Band! I remember listing to Charlie Daniels when I was a little girl, I always loved they way he played the fiddle. Monday reinforced to me what a great fiddle player this man is. He told us he has been playing as a professional musician for 52 years!  Charlie Daniels is a huge supporter of the military. He tells us all he has been to the 'sandbox' 3 times. He even wrote and sang a song about 'when I get home from Iraq'.  Charlie and the band played for us for 1.5 hours, and then stayed to sign autographs! (I had to get home, so we didn't get and up close and personal with him.)   ...IN MY HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMGoodness...you can just imagine the comedy of errors that happened after I caught a glimpse of him in the mirror while I was locked in my *tiny* bathroom. Right after I took this picture I stomped on him! This past weekend we were looking for an easy mountain to climb, since this is only the 3rd mountain for the kids to climb. I had narrowed it down to two. Achasan & Iwangsan, after doing more research I realized Hubby and I have already done Iwangsan, so we decided to go with Achasan. The official website of Korean Tourisum says 'Mt. Achasan is an easy 30-minute hike, which is perfect for beginners'. Since we were doing such an easy mountain we invited our friends the T's along. Our friends were game however the did tell us they needed to be home by 4PM so they could go to bible study. I told them no problem, this was a quick hike and we were leaving our house at 11AM. Here are the kids at the begining of our hike.  These guys passed us about 10 minutes into our hike....not something you really want to see.  The top wasn't very far away....  Hubby and I at the top.  I know I have told you about the work out parks that are all over Korea, but I don't know if I have told you they are all over the mountains as well as in the city. If you feel like you aren't getting that great of a workout just hiking, never fear, soon enough you will happen upon a workout park where you can take a break from hiking to do sit-ups, pull-ups, weight lifting and more. In the next picture Hubby is torturing Boy 1 with sit-ups!  Since the hike was so short, (it only took us about 20 minutes to get to the top) we decided to continue on another path. This is what the website said...' It takes about one hour to go up and down the summit of Mt. Achasan. If you plan to start at Mt. Achasan and climb down Mt. Yongmasan, it will take about 2 to 2 and a half hours. " We didn't really know where we were going, but we knew we were not ready to stop just yet.  The views were beautiful.  At one point we ran into this man selling scarves, backpacks and more. Humm..I wonder how he got all this stuff up here...    Hubby showing up all the old men at another 'work-out' spot....   Along this path, about 2 hours into our hike, our friend Tammy mentioned she had not seen any other people in quite some time.  Then in this area, as we were trying to steer the kids away from the slick rocks and towards safety, Tammy hit one of those slick rocks, lost her footing and down she went, and HARD I might add. I thought we were going to have to call those rescue people we saw at the beginning of our hike. Luckily, Tammy was able to get up and continue on, thank goodness, although I am pretty sure she had a nice big bruise on her bum the next day.  Finally after about 3 hours of hiking, our scout, Boy 1 yelled out..."I see cars"! And all the little people ran!!!  Too bad we came down on the other side of the mountain & had no idea where we were. The good thing about hiking in Seoul, no matter where you come down, you always end up in the worlds 2nd largest city, so really you cannot get lost. We ended up at a very populated tourist attraction, so we hopped in a (2) cabs and headed back to the subway station.  At this point we were all famished and the T's had missed their bible study so we stopped in at a local Korean restaurant for lunch.  I'm not sure it the T's will ever go on another hike with us again...we got home at 5:30PM.
Moral of this story: Hubby should always wear his super cool Suunto watch so we will always know where we are. (Although it was way fun and we were NEVER once scared that we would not make it back.) Oh, and maybe next time we should pack a few snacks. If you know me at all, you know how much I LOVE Vietnamese food. I could eat bun or pho soup all day long, breakfast, lunch and dinner and never tire of it. (Well, maybe eventually.) Last week this little restaurant opened up right outside the Kimchi Pot gate, so Hubby, Boy 3 and I rushed over for a quick lunch. It turned out to not be so quick, I have no idea why, but they were very apologetic, and brought free drinks to us.  Once our food finally came it was delicious, AND very inexpensive I might add. Only 7,000 won for this noodle bowl! We also ordered spring rolls and Vietnamese chicken wings for the little guy.  Hubby went back a couple of days later for lunch & reported that the pho soup was VERY GOOD. I can't wait to go back and try it! To get there, exit the Kimchi Pot gate, look across the street to the right and you will see Le Saigon. The place isn't very big - seating only about 20 or so.  Oh baby, these muffins are so quick, easy & tasty you can make them in the morning before your kids head out the door for school! They are a one bowl recipe so the mess isn't big either! Gotta love that! Here they are fresh out of the oven.  I got this recipe from Cat Can Cook website & adapted it just a tad.
3 or 4 large mashed bananas. I like to use the bananas that are just starting to turn - you know the ones that my kids won’t eat. ¾ cup sugar 1 egg 1/3 cup melted butter 1 ½ cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup walnuts or your favorite nuts if desired Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix mashed bananas, sugar, eggs and butter together. Then in order add flour, baking soda & baking powder. (I use salted butter so I don’t add more salt, but if you use unsalted, add ½ tsp salt now.) Mix all ingredients together until just combined being careful not to over stir. Pour into greased or lined muffin tins and bake in for 20 minutes! Makes 12 normal size muffins or about 36 mini muffins. You kids will love you even more if you make these for them! I haven't played BUNCO in years, so when I was ask if I wanted to be in the new neighborhood group that was just starting up, I jumped at the chance! I LOVE Bunco and I have been meaning to start up a group myself, but it just never happened. So, thank you TH for starting this group & hosting our first Bunco here in Korea! I had a ball! Now I'm sure some of you have played this new game, LCR, it goes along with Bunco, but I had never heard of it. To play, you need 3 single dollar bills. If you have never played LCR you are missing out on a ton of fun! Here we all are about to get our LCR on.....  To play LCR, you have 3 dice. Each side has a different letter or dot on it...it has an L, for left, a R for right, a C for center and a dot - if you roll a dot you get to keep your dollar. You play until you are out of dollars passing them L, C or R the person with the last dollar wins the pot.  And it comes down to two!! (Check out M's face in the picture above, the girl in the pink on the left corner ;-) T (the one in the brown) rolls a dot...next up, S rolls a C....  Which means T won the pot!!!!!!!!!!!   I am so far behind this blog that it is making me crazy. Kind of like my entire life right now, I feel like I am running from one thing to the next without taking a breath. I thought once the kids went back to school things would slow down, but no, I feel I am busier now than ever. So, this wine cruise happened 2 Staurdays ago. I had been looking forward to it for quite some time. BBQ dinner buffet, wine tasting, live music & cruising the scenic Hann River. Sounds delightful, doesn't it? WOW, what a disappointment this was. I should have done more research. It was another one of those "all American" things. The BBQ dinner - I thought they meant Korean BBQ, nope, American BBQ. The food was actually good for an American food buffet in Korea. I thought the live music was ON the boat....wait, what boat? We were at the 700 Club, yes, I felt like I might be going into a church of sorts at first, but no, it was the 700 Yacht CLUB, no boat. There was a catamaran parked outside the Yacht Club, and a couple of smaller sail boats, but nothing taking passengers on a 'cruise' down the Hann. The band was playing upstairs at the Yacht Club and they were pretty good.  The sunset was nice....  The raffle came and went, and we won nothing.  Overall it was a fun night, just not the night we had expected.
Recently on Hubby's birthday Boy 3 and I picked him up from work and took him to lunch. Hubby wanted to try a restaurant we had walked past a couple of weeks earlier, Bluefin Tuna. We were not disappointed! Bluefin Tuna is a great place to go if you like tuna sushi & sashimii!  The prices were good and the tuna was fresh! This is a place we will go to more often!   To get there, go out the Camp Coiner walk out gate, turn left, then right down the first alley, go till you get to the main street (the one Camp Kim is on) turn left...walk a few blocks and you will see Bluefin Tuna on your left. (It is pretty close to Outback Steak House)  Just remember if you decide to go, the Camp Coiner walk out gate is only open at lunch time, AND it closes at 1PM. Don't make the same mistake we did and forget. We got back to the gate at 1:15PM and had to make that long haul on foot back to the Camp Coiner drive out gate, then over to our car. However it was a good walk and since we ate far too much!  I just love this picture. Boy 3 is always asking to 'pet' his dad's hair, so whenever Hubby carries him he 'pets' Hubby's hair the whole time.
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AuthorProud Army wife and mother to 4 wonderful children. I love to cook, travel, work out and scrapbook life’s adventures when I find the time. We just got orders & are heading back to the states in March 2010. I'm bummed that our time has been cut short, but proud of Hubby for the reason why. Archives
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