Guam & Korea II

It's time for spring break!!!  This spring break Lee decided to work through it so Elden and I ventured off to Korea and Guam!  Lois is in Guam. Jeff is stationed there for the Navy for the next 2-3 years. It was $2000 cheaper to fly to Incheon Airpor by Seoul, then catch another plane to Guam, than fly straight to Guam. 

Since we had checked luggage and carryons included with our flights I offered to Lois to bring things from the states. She ordered a few things and we filled up a suitcase plus some. Thanks to my friend Mindy for letting me her borrow her suitcase!  Lee and I don't have a large suitcase. We've bought them for our kids when they've gone on missions or to college. But we don't have one. I thought this metal drawer thing would fit in a carry-on. Just too big. Thankfully my friend Minday had a suitcase that I borrowed from her. In the meantime, after packing everything, this drawer thing needed to be by itself. So Lee helped me pack it up like this with a huge IKEA bag and I had it be my carryon. It was annoying lugging around. Glad when it finally arrived in Guam!

Elden and I got a row with just 2 seats---yay!  Plus, we were right behind the last row of 3 seats so extra storage for me. Some guys were sitting in our seats and I informed them so. We flew to Dallas first. Now time for our 15 hour flight to Incheon Airport!

Some fun airplane food!

Lunch. The noodle stuff was too sweet....I ate some of it....

Korea! I didn't get much sleep on the flight. That will help me adjust to the time better though. 

We took Ubers a lot in Korea. Our hotel was only about a 5 minute drive from the airport. I didn't want to wait an extra half hour for the shuttle. I requested a ride on Uber and $3.50 + 5 minutes later we were at our hotel. 

After dropping off our luggage and freshening up, we got another Uber back to the airport. The train station and airport are right next to each other. We took the Airport Express straight to Seoul Station to explore a little. 

We didn't stay out long as it was getting dark and I couldn't get my phone to work. 

We walked through a homeless camp....

And yes...we ate at McDonald's at Seoul Station, haha.  Then we got another Airport Express train back to Incheon Airport. The Uber to the hotel. 

Wow, this was weird. A guy set down his wallet and cellphone on the table to reserve it. Different culture there!

These chocolate churros at McDonald's were so yummy!

Reuable plastic cups and metal utensils!

I didn't have these, but Dubai chocolate it quite the thing these days.

Found out about this new schedule change coming up! So exciting!

Wednesday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the airport again. Last time hefting the extra luggage for the trip! Wow, you get checked EVERYWHERE at the Incheon Airport. They even check our boarding pass just getting in line to check our luggage!

At Incheon.

I heard about the banana milk. We stopped at a convenience store by our gate and bought snacks. I didn't know they were going to feed us lunch on the plane! But that was nice....good to still have snacks though. The banana milk was really yummy!

The Bibimbap was really yummy. Very similar to our weird version of Korean Beef we make at home. 

I must say, Korean Airlines is the airline with the mostest! Blankets, pillows and bottled water on every chair. Then disposable toothbrush/toothpaste in the restroom! And the outfits for the female flight attendants were so pretty!

We made it!!!  It was a 4 hour flight from Incheon to Guam. 

The carts are free in Guam and at Incheon. We found all our luggage! Thankfully Elden's phone was working so he texted Lois about our arrival updates. 

Korean Airline flight attendants. 

There is parking for Lois right at the airport entrance so they came inside to meet us!  So fun!!! 

We drove back to their house, had dinner and hung out for the evening.  It was much more humid than I was anticipating. But yay for warm weather!

Lois put together this really fun gift basket!

So fun seeing their house (rated to withstand hurricanes)!

Thursday morning I woke up at 5am wide awake. Ah well.... That morning Lois and I went to the France Bakery then went to a resort to sit in the patio section and eat our breakfast, The Dusit. Very fancy and a fun view of the ocean! The water is so pretty there! The hot chocolate and bagel were yummy! I bought some carrot cake too---not very good at all, and a chocolate caramel cookie which was yummy.

We walked through another resort and also saw an icon for the island--the latte stones. Hundreds of years ago the natives, the Chamorro or CHamoru, built their houses on top of these stones. Yes, the CH is supposed to be capitalized.

Lois and I also stopped in at a classic Guam store then headed back. 
We had lunch and then went to Talofofo Falls and met one of Lois' friend's there. We saw the falls, the "cave" location of a Japanese soilder who was discovered in 1972 not knowing the war was over, and some went into the "haunted" house. We rode a cable car to the falls and the "cave" or dugout location. So interesting!  Guam was attacked by the Japanese the same day as Pearl Harbor. The Japanese took over the island and enslaved the people. USA freed Guam the summer of 1944.   

Next up we saw the coconut tree!  In November you can go to this area where they have coconuts and paint, and you paint a coconut for the Christmas tree. They leave them up all year and redo it again in November-ish. So fun!  We saw the coconuts the Heits did for the Christmas tree. 

Right by the coconut tree. 

Ooof!  Gas is expensive here!

Smoothie time!

Luke did a day camp the week of spring break. We picked him up and headed to Old Wives Beach for a little bit. 

Yep, chickens almost everywhere!

I went on a few walks in Lois' neighborhood. The brown snake is invasive and has killed off many tropical birds. There are lots of traps for the snake with live rodents and a potato as food bait. 

Such a pretty neighborhood! 

Oh, I got a hotcross bun from the bakery which was yummy--split it with Elden.

I should have thrown this away instead of eating it...

Friday we went to Gab Gab Beach. Lois is the treasurer for her Navy FRG (Family Readiness Group). They hosted a lunch at the beach. It was so fun to meet more of her friends. Blake took us snorkeling which was so cool!  Lois and I also saw a baby shark!

They built a three-sided "pool" at the beach. It's all ocean water, and ocean floor, but surrounded with the sidewalks and then ladders to get back out. There was also a set of stairs leading down into the water. 

Hanging out!

We went to Piti Guns and saw some huge Japenese guns. Apparently they never used them. 

Yes America, St. Nicolas is real and is a politician!

We went a little bit on the Asan Ridge Trail. It's so pretty and tropical here!  Haha, but of course it is a tropical island....

We saw the cave too. 

That leaf is huge!

We went to this area by the beach. Fun place to walk around and skip stones. 

Blue star fish.

We picked up Luke and had dinner at Wendy's!  We were hoping a Friday night event was happening where you could rent water bikes and such, but it only happens on the 1st Friday of the month where there is a full moon. 

The kids in the neighborhood play night games every Friday night. I love it!  Elden and Blake headed out with Rhett for a little bit. 

Saturday morning Lois and I hit up a coffee shop for breakfast. SO cute inside!  Wow!  The croissant was amazing!  The hot chocolate wasn't hot, and it was kind of blah. Kind of like Swiss Miss, but for $7. 

 

Chickens!

Saturday morning we went out to the Ritidian nature preserve area and an overlook. So beautiful!!!

We enjoyed a couple short hikes. 

A cool cave. 

Example of a house in latte stones. 

We went to a mall to go to the ABC store--a local tourist shop, and also had lunch. 

I love it when families or couples have matching outfits. 

And yes!  KMart!!! We even parked on the roof!

We went to another fun store, Don Don Donki. 

We took the kids to the latte stones.

Lois had some credits so we stopped at a resort cafe and enjoyed dessert and snacks!

That night we packed up and Lois took a little nap. I also went on a walk. I thought since it was dark outside that it would be a little cooler, but yep, still very humid!  Haha. I got sweaty on my walk. 

We left about 11:30pm. Our flight left at 2:00am to head back to Seoul. It was really sad saying goodbye at the airport. I am hoping to go back again next year with Elden before he leaves on his mission. Thank you for the amazing trip Lois!!!! We loved seeing all of you.

We arrived at our hotel about 8am. Breakfast ends at 10:30 and our plan was to eat there, but we just slept for a long time. We then had our ramen lunch and watched the first session of Saturday General Conference. We went on a walk that afternoon. It's pretty quiet in that area. There is a huge casino across the street so we walked all the way around it. There was this cool box office for events at the casino that is accessed from the outside. We watched the second Saturday session on Sunday and ate our other ramen for dinner.   

Fun t-shirts!

Monday we made it down to breakfast!  The hotel had a very fun buffet. We checked out of room, left our luggage up front, bought some water bottles at the CU convenience store, then took the shuttle to the airport. From there we got on the all stop train to Seoul Station. 

Our first stop we walked to--Sungnyemun Gate. 

Then we took at Uber to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. I thought this was the palace, but it totally isn't. It's a musuem, haha. We exited the palace grounds and had to re-enter with new tickets. But they were only $2 each, so I didn't mind. 

It was fun seeing people dressed up!

The next Uber ride we decided would be to the Seoul Tower. We took a cable car up to the base of the tower. Then an elevator to the top. Such fun views!

Snacks from 7-11. Excited about the hot cocoa on the plane!  It's just powder in the cup. $1!

Next up was the Hyundai Motorstudio. Sadly it's closed every first Monday of the month. So we struck out. We walked around the book and gift shop, then left. It was fun seeing more of Seoul! 

We saw a lot of vehicles with this built-in top. 

My friends owned a Klasse Auto in Minnesota--their last name is Klasse. So funny to see this in Seoul. I sent a picture of it to my friend Peggy. 

Yep....you guessed it!  Back to McDonald's again. We ate at the Seoul Station then went to get tickets to the Airport Express train. The train we wanted at a certain time was already sold out. We did the all stop train on the way back again. 

I did get more chocolate churros! 

Ice cream cone from a deep freezer at an airport convenience store. We arrived at a good time at the airport. We purchased few treats from there. Elden and I were able to watch the Sunday morning of General Conference at the airport. 

Subway for dinner! We're about to relive this day. Our place left at 3:30 on a Monday. But we'll arrive in Dallas Monday about 5 or 6pm.

Another fun meal. YAY--going home! We were so tired. I actually slept on this flight. I was quite surprised. 

Goodbye Seoul!

Breakfast on the plane! There was pretty bad turbulence on the plane. Elden wasn't surprised by it. I didn't like it though!  It happened when they were going to serve dinner, so they put that off. Elden really needed to use the bathroom but the flight attendant told him to sit down. About 15 or 20 minutes later, they went ahead and passed out the food. I don't know if it was because it had to be passed out in a certain amount of time because of heating and food control? Since the attendants were up, Elden went to the bathroom.  Other than that, it was a good flight. We got to sit by ourselves again in a row of 2. It was nice that on American Airlines I got to pick my seats for free when I bought the tickets.