Korea
JOURNAL:
We were SO stoked to visit Korea. Both Garrett and I had very brief stops in Seoul when we were on our missions for the LDS church years ago. Garrett had even stayed a few nights at the Seoul Temple to renew his visa. Garrett’s best buddy, Morgan, served his mission in Korea. AND my best buddy, Valerie has been living in Korea for 3 years teaching English. We both love Korean food and as many of you already know, we are huge fans of Korean spas. So we were stoked.
We were in Korea in July. We knew it’d be HOT. It was HOT. But we actually had quite a few days of rain, so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The day we arrived, it was pouring rain. We arrived our hotel, The Sheraton D Cube City and were very excited. We didn’t know that the lobby of the hotel is high up on the 41st floor. The whole hotel is above a large subway stop and mall. We never thought this would be something very necessary, but it turned out to be so incredibly convenient. There was a grocery store downstairs, a food court, tons of great shopping, a movie theatre and a kids place. It was really nice to enjoy a lot of first world amenities so nearby.
The Sheraton at D Cube City was awesome too. Our favorite part was the gym. It was probably the largest hotel gym we’ve ever seen. The views from every corner of the hotel were incredible.
We felt like champs when we conquered the Seoul subway system. Koreans are so so nice and helpful. Many speak great English. And our kids were the starts of the subway everywhere we went. It’s super fun being in a place where you don’t need a car. It’s liberating.
We’ve officially decided that Koreans have the BEST food. Mostly because we LOVE Korean BBQ. We ate it almost every night. We tried out 4 different Korean BBQ places and loved each one. And then we LOVED a dessert called Bingsu. It’s a desert that is like a snow cone with icecream fruit or chocolate on top and a little bit of cream at the bottom. It’s light and so so delish! But every other dish we tried was so tasty. We loved kim-bop, bibimbop, bulgogi, and (garrett loves) kimchi.
My friend Val was our tour guide for the week. She worked all day, so our schedule was a little different. We’d try to sleep in, get a late start and late naps so that we could be out late… which for us is like 10pm. So not that late… haha, but we usually are in by 7pm. We explored so much of the city. We started in Gangnam which is where Valerie lives. There is a ton of great shopping there and lots of great restaurants.
We wanted to find a kid-friendly K spa. We found nearby SeaLaLa. It was not the nicest Korean spa, but it sure was kid friendly. The kids had a blast in their indoor waterpark and it was fun to see them running around the jimjilbong.
Garrett is the best husband ever. One night, he took the kids to the pool at The Sheraton while Val and I went out to the food trucks and had a GNO.
Other nights, Val took us out to Namsan Tower, Gwangjan Market, Dongdaemun’s Glowing Fowers and walks along the Cheonggyecheon River. Every night ended with Bingsu. :)
We loved Korea. We love the Korean people. And we mostly love the food. And of course seeing my childhood friend, Val.