South Korea

• Hwaseong Palace and Fortress, Suwon – Suwon is a city 20 miles SW of Seoul. Its palace wasn’t as big as the famous Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul but it’s still beautiful, against forested hills, and we had the place to ourselves. Also, it had the best public bathrooms (important!). The city is surrounded by an old wall that you can hike. We did this in a previous trip, and it was one of our favorite things in South Korea.
• Sanbon – It’s a bustling neighborhood in southern Seoul with several stories of flashing lights around a car-free walking street with everything you need. My brother was based here so we know it well, and we went back several times for shopping, restaurants, playgrounds, etc. Its subway station is conveniently right on the main street and on a direct line up to Seoul.
• Temples –All of them. We love the painted roofs and style of the Korean temples. They are our favorite in Asia!
• COEX Mall – When it’s below freezing, stay inside! The COEX mall is centrally located in Seoul and is the world’s largest underground mall. It has a fantastic SEA LIFE aquarium and also hosts the Starfield Library, which is open atrium style library with tall bookshelves. It’s a busy place so we went early, enjoyed breakfast, and walked through the library before heading to the aquarium.
• Lotteworld – JK, not a favorite. We trekked into Seoul for this partly indoor theme park and the lines were insanely long. It was crowded for a weekday. We all left a little frazzled and with a few more gray hairs.
• Hiking – Well-maintained trails wind throughout the hillsides of Seoul just steps outside of the high rises. It’s peaceful and a good way to get out of the city feel for a morning.

Restaurants:

• Green Tea Sandwiches- Everyone in my family knows this as the “green tea sandwich place”. It’s been run by the same guy for every visit I’ve had and yet again over 10 years later, he commented on how my brother and I have the same large nose (in a friendly way). It’s basically a fried egg, ham, some cabbage, pickles, and a cheese slice on white bread but it has a green tea spread on it that makes it delicious. It does not exist on google maps. If you want to find it, it’s first on the left after coming out of Sanbon station to the main walking street.
• Shabu Shabu at 소담촌 산본점 – We swish swished our meat, tofu, and veggies in two savory broths. Kids loved choosing their sauces to dip their noodles and accoutrements in. The parents loved the giant bowl of mushrooms.
• Fresh Seafood at Pyeongchon Agricultural Products Market – Upstairs above the fish market are eateries with fresh fish. We ate a several course meal where each course looked like it was going to be the last one. Think platters of sashimi one after another and several side dishes. It was delicious despite the more adventurous items. Mae particularly enjoyed eating the suction cups off the octopus, and my nephew Arlo liked feeling the smaller wiggling octopus as he ate it.
• Vegetarian Buffet at 뜰안채 채식뷔페 – For someone who doesn’t like unusual meats and fishes, this was a delight. It had a huge spread of Korean food but all vegetarian versions alongside desserts and tea punch (because it looked like punch but it was a cold cinnamon barley tea that was delish). This restaurant experience is particularly funny because it started by being asked “There’s an awesome vegetarian buffet. Would you want to go?” and for days we thought it was just us going. The day of, we find out all of Jihyun’s extended family were joining so that we had over 30 people and 6 or 7 tables in this restaurant. Vegetarian isn’t common in South Korea so my brother enjoyed joking that I made them all come there. They were very friendly about it as far as I could tell without knowing Korean.

Favorite family moments in South Korea:

• Cash Moneys – Our kids kept getting money, mostly from people in Jihyun’s family but there were a couple random people on the train. We are told it’s normal to gift money in South Korea to kids. Between Mae and Emmett, they got $75!
• Family Time – Despite them not understanding much English and us not understanding much Korean, we were pleasantly surprised at how comfortable our kids were with my sister-in-law’s parents. They adopted their cousin’s names for their grandparents. Emmett would sit at the counter as Halmeoni (grandma) would cook, and Mae would go off on adventures with her cousins and Harabeoji (grandpa), returning with more money, toys, and in one instance, two ice cream cones (not for sharing).
• Feasts – A “simple meal” by Korean standards is a full on feast by ours. Even breakfast has rice alongside a dozen side dishes of things like bean sprouts, daikon, noodles, tofu, greens, etc. Jihyun’s mom is a fantastic cook and my brother and I would actually fight over who got more of her tofu soup. Eating is important and a show of love in South Korea, so much so that “how are you?” translates in Korean to “did you eat?”. Often we’d have a huge meal, and then cut up asian pears, melons, and Korean kimchi pancakes would be set in front of you. I have midwest grandparents so I have much experience with being fed constantly when visiting someone’s home. South Korea is unlike anywhere I’ve experienced! If visiting someone’s home, make sure you show up with an empty stomach.
• Per Emmett (2.5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “bus” – This kid is all about his modes of transportation. He’d usually crawl out of the stroller and hop up to where he could see out the window and point at all the cars, “wee woos”, and lights. If only we had a $1 for every time he told us “cars have lights”.
• Per Mae (5 Yr Old): Favorite moment was “Arlo and Otis” – Mae loves her cousins, and spent most of her time with them holding hands, hugging, and following them around.