Our trip kind of fell into three parts from my perspective, the first full day we spent running all over the place, mid-week when Tyler worked and the girls and I found ways to amuse ourselves, and our last day that we all spent together exploring.
The middle of the week brought a good deal of rain and foul weather, which caused us to seek out indoor activities to fill our days. We did the mandatory swim in the hotel pool. The kids stayed for two and half hours and would have done more, but Maddie was desperately in need of a nap. The hotel also had a fantastic kids world with a huge indoor playground, tons of books, and areas to play. We hit that almost every day before dinner, it was fantastic (and free!). The resort proved well worth the stay!
One day with the rain pouring down we explored the infamous Jeju Teddy Bear museum. Really only infamous in Korea, but in Korea it is considered one of the "must do" items while in Jeju. I was a bit underwhelmed to be honest, but the girls thoroughly enjoyed it. The entire museum is made up of two floors of bears in famous historical moments, movie scenes, etc.
Snow White
Elvis Bear
Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian
Girls Imitating The Thinker
Korean Wedding Bears
Biggest stuffed bear I have ever seen!
When we finally had some nice weather, we headed out to check out the Cheonjeyeon Waterfall. According to the legend it is where seven nymphs descended from heaven to bathe. Every year there is a huge festival centering around these nymphs with lots of dancing and performing. It ended up being more a hike than I anticipated, but the girls were real troopers and climbed up and down the hundreds of steep stairs with minimal whining. They were at one point mobbed by a group of high school girls who could not stop touching them and taking pictures of them. Emily and Hannah handled it so well. . . Maddie wanted nothing to do with it at all!
The girls
One of the two waterfalls.
Beautiful view from this super tall suspension bridge. . . it actually freaked me out it was so high. We snapped a quick picture and I scurried the kids back to land!
The Seven Nymph Statues (and yes, it was sooooo windy that day! Emily couldn't even keep her eyes open here).
After the waterfall we set out for another "must see" museum, The Chocolate Museum. You will note not a single picture of the chocolate museum is included. That's because it stank! It was this tiny little hole in the wall building in the middle of nowhere. There were a few basic displays about how chocolate is made. Then, of course, we wandered into the Christmas room. It was an entire room just filled with Christmas knick-knacks. From there we passed through the collection room. Another room filled on all four sides with glass display cases displaying various collections. It was like a retirement home on crack. There were the salt shakers, the ceramic cats, the Happy Meal toys, the shot glasses, the bells, you name it. The funniest part was all the Koreans in the room taking close up pictures of the displays! Such a bust. . . . an entire chocolate museum and not a candy to be found. The girls were so disappointed we had to stop at a convenience store for chocolate!
I made the command decision at this point, that if Koreans said it was a "must see" we would promptly skip it. All the outdoor stuff was awesome, and indoor museums and touristy stuff, not so much!
Jeju is famous for two food items: Jeju oranges (hallabong) and the chocolate (hence why we thought the museum would be good!). The oranges were seriously the most amazing oranges I have ever eaten. I think it is quite possible I ate my weight in oranges. We would just pull over every time we were out and grab a bag of oranges from small roadside stands. They were so sweet. . . seriously unreal! So somehow Emily became fixated on the idea of picking an orange. We finally asked at one of the stands and they told Tyler the oranges on the trees were not for eating (too sour), but more for cooking with. Apparently the season for growing the sweet ones had passed. But they graciously allowed Emily and Hannah to pick one anyway! The girls carted these oranges around with us everywhere the rest of the week like little prizes.
After some orange picking we decided to see if we could beat the sunset and catch one more waterfall before it became dark. On our way to the waterfall we happened across this small island connected to the mainland by a gorgeous bridge. We hopped out, crossed the bridge and enjoyed exploring the little island until it was too dark to keep going. It turned out to be beautiful!
Fun pedestrian bridge.
Emily chilling on the rocks we climbed all over.
Beautiful backdrop.
1 comment:
I always wanted to go to Jeju while we lived in Korea, but we didn't quite make it there. Looks like we missed out on a beautiful place and a fun vacation. What great pictures!
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