Our One Year Anniverary Vacation!!!

We made it! Our first year of marriage has past and now it is off to year two and to top it off it has been a busy year at that! We have been through a lot in the past year and we could not be more excited to see where the future takes us. To celebrate we decided to take a trip to Jeju Island here in Korea. It is located on the southern tip of Korea and a volcano located in the center of the island called Mt. Halla created the island. We left here on 5 July at a little after 10 AM and flew to Jeju. It is only about an hour flight so we arrived shortly after 11 AM. We had made reservations for a rental car, so we got it and headed to our hotel, which was located on the opposite side of the island. It was about a 45 min drive. We explored our hotel, then enjoyed lunch at the Japanese restaurant, and then headed back to our room, since we had been up since 4:30 AM we were both very tired so we took a nice nap. That evening we enjoyed dinner at the hotel. At 8:30 PM each evening, there is a 15 min show in the courtyard area of the hotel. It is a story of a dragon and the volcano and of course most of it was in Korean but the pyrotechnics and the water and lights show was awesome!

The next day we went to the Teddy Bear Museum, it was a little cheesy but it was like going back in childhood. Then we drove up as far as we could on Mt Halla and the view was amazing. I would have loved to see the view from the top but it takes a while to hike up and we did not want to spend the majority of a day hiking. We drove down and went to good ole E-Mart to grab some lunch and pick up some wine, water, and snacks. We were also able to see the 2002 World Cup Stadium, which was neat since the World Cup is going on now. Then we headed back to the hotel to enjoy some time by the pool.

On Wednesday, we went to see the Cheonjiyeon Waterfall, the Cheonjeyeon Waterfall, and visited the beach. Both of the waterfalls were amazing but we climbed so many stairs! Koreans love stairs! Therefore, we were able to get in a nice workout. We were not impressed with the beach, it was crowded and when we were there, high tide was coming in and it comes in fast with huge waves. When we were leaving the beach, we found a restaurant that served a seafood buffet so we figured we would get cleaned up and give it a shot. Since the night before we went out to eat and let me say that I would think after being here for seven months one would think that you would get used to Koreans staring at you all the time. We were stared at and probably laughed at during dinner the night before so we were hoping for a better dining experience. When we walked in we were greeted in English and I almost hugged the host!! For once, we were not stuck at the back we had an ocean view while we enjoyed an amazing dinner of all different sorts of seafood and sushi and let me tell you Koreans know how to do buffets. We have not had a bad one yet!

The next morning we had to get ready to check out of the hotel but since our flight was not until the evening we were able to grab some lunch and then head to the botanical gardens near our hotel. Then we headed to the airport to fly home. It was a wonderful trip, yet so nice to be home too! If we have time, we hope to try to go back again before we leave Korea.

On Friday, we had to hit the deck running! Robert had to work and I was teaching a class and then that evening we went and picked up one of our friends that we know from Fort Sill that just arrived to be stationed here. Saturday, our actual anniversary, was a low-key kind of day. We went out to lunch, grocery shopping, and then just relaxed and hung out at the apartment just the two of us. I had planned to cook a big dinner but after grocery shopping we took a nap and by the time we got up there was not any point to cooking something big. It was sad thinking about the top of our wedding cake sitting in the freezer for another year. I hope we can enjoy it next year! Now we are on our way to year two and I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us! I hope everyone had a great weekend and everyone that shared our wedding with us is in our thoughts and prayers! I took about 500+ pictures on this trip but I was able to narrow it down a little bit for you! Enjoy!!









On the way to the airport









Waiting



Now he is awake and enjoying some Sake!

















































Enjoying some wine on the patio