Jeju Island

Arrival on the Island of Sea Women (book title!). This is an interesting island, probably most populated by tourists in the summer but unique, and I’m glad we took a few days to check it out before Seoul. Our corner suite in the Grand Hyatt is deluxe!! The buffet breakfast and lounge dinners are quite nice too. 

Rock formations (Olin’s in front, Christian’s in back) at Hyeopjae Beach on the NW side of island. Driving here is verrrry slow. Lots of 30km/hour school zones, traffic lights, and speed cameras. 

We went to this place called Hallim Park to go in to the Hyeopjae lava tubes and were surprised to find a very enjoyable bansai area (the oldest was 300 years old!) and bird park

Testing massage chairs at Lotte Himart next to our hotel

Where’s Christian?

Checking on Dae’s sore throat. He got sick the 3rd and 4th days of Jeju. Slept a lot. 

Hyeopjae lava tubes

Fell asleep. Christian woke him up. Dae said oh you could have just taken his headphones off and let him sleep and Christian goes “but what about his teeth?” :)

Robot at Lotte Himart

Our Hyatt stay came with club access so we played a lot of Vietnamese poker and a little Catan. We came here for dinner two nights. Haha. 

These statues are all about the island 

Jyeongbang waterfall - only waterfall in Asia that direct empties in to ocean. We came across these ladies cutting abalone and sea squirt and got a plate of it. It was interesting. :)

With jet lag we were up around 3:30 so Christian and babz hit the gym in the hotel 

Market in Seogwipo - city on south side 

Gokarting at Wind 1947. They had a blast 

Some gummies at hotel breakfast 

Haenyeo divers! Did a little presentation at Seongsan Ilchulban beach area/volcano crater area 

Great heated rooftop pool. Was sooo cold and windy outside but it was so warm in the pool. 

The 500 step hike up to the crater formed by the old volcano Seongsam Ilchulban

Corner room!

Zzzzz

Jeju island is known for its oranges/tangerines, women divers (haenyeo), and black pork. We didn’t try black pork. Haha. Never got around to it!

Olin’s first tennis match

Olin’s first tennis match! A sequence of events placed him as number two singles varsity. Haha. The top guy was out that day, and there aren’t too many players that have played before so singles varsity he was and he did great! Lost his singles match 5-4 and won a doubles match 3-1. He was hard on himself but it was fun to watch him hit his baseline shots so predictably the entire time. And his serves were not nearly as bad as he had predicted. They played against Ray Reynolds in Pasco. 

(2nd) Early 16th!

We unofficially celebrated Christian’s bday! Two days early since we leave tomorrow for Korea. It started out with piano lessons and Spudnuts, proceeded to school and track, and finished with Dovetail dinner, BR cake and presents! An Owala water bottle from Olin, A garmin vivofit watch from us (also telescope), clothes from Safranskis, car fun stuff and candy from Portland cousins, a couple cool photos of the moon they took from Henry as well as Dot’s, money from H&h, and money and gift cards from puops. An abundance of gifts!

Piano weekend and a Mobile

Weekend of piano! Christian competed in the Sprint Awards and received an Honorable Mention playing Raindrops by Chopin. Both kids performed their preludes at Onnie’s church on Sunday and played really well! 

All hands on deck. Everybody was excited to help build this mobile for 3rd quarter book project for Olin’s Language Arts. 

First track meet - HHS

Christian’s first track meet! Track is really relaxed and as a spectator you just hang out for a few hours and then perk up when your kid is competing. They were limited to two events so he was in the 100 and the 800m. He did great! Got 12.34 sec on the 100m and 2:20 on the 800m, good enough for 20th place out of 99 and 6th place out of 28. 

NYC with Ev

We had an absolutely grand time in NYC for three nights!  We met up to see Kristin Cavallari (reality tv star) podcast tour which was great but I’d say the theme of the trip ended up being KBeauty, Formula 1 on Netflix, and eating and walking. Besides the places we hit below in photos we also hit: Pastis, Arabica coffee, Ralph’s coffee, Ole & Steen danish bakery, Cava Mediterranean, Dominique Ansel for a Cronut and Kouign Amman, Monica Vinader jewelry (ev got cute small gold hoops), Frankie shop (my new oversized trench), and Gu - the offshoot of Uniqlo clothing store. Mostly we bought a lot of KBeauty and then relaxed every evening around 9:30 eastern standard time with whatever piece of cake we had purchased earlier in the day.

Tempo by Hilton, Times Square. Nice and cozy with a bed for each of us to do our Celluma-ing!

Georgian restaurant called “Cheeseboat” and here is the famous Cheeseboat. 

Dumplings. So many similarities across cultures when it comes to dumplings!

Meanwhile at home :) well fed family

Balthazar lunch!!

Kosette beauty store in Ktown. We visited here twice and spent an hour each time. We also spent an hour in Sephora. Was tons of fun. 

The show!

She was quite pretty in person

Ev’s ponytail

Joe’s pizza. Huge line outside their Broadway location but not their Greenwich location. $4 slices hit the spot!!

Othership sauna and cold plunge experience was unique and quite fun 

Comedy cellar 6:45pm show. Mike Birbiglia made a surprise appearance! He was absolutely hilarious.