Guilin, China

I was so excited for our next stop. All the travel books said that Guilin is the perfect place to escape the crowds and pollution readily available in the rest of the country. We took a boat tour down the Li River with 40 of our closest friends. It was foggy, but it never really rained on us, and the views were worth it. 

These little boats would come up behind our boat to sell food for appetizers and meals. This man has a fish, but we also saw a squawking chicken take the transfer over.

Alice was not our most enthusiastic nature appreciator on this trip. She seemed to think it unfair to be in the backpack instead of running from bow to stern (thanks Horatio Hornblower).

These karst hills were so impressive and the girls had a great time wandering around the boat, looking at them and chatting.

Happy travelers!

The following day we drove 3 hours up to the Longsheng Rice Fields. They were really impressive and worth the nauseating drive up the winding road to reach them.

Ryan staved off the rain by purchasing a sweet double hinged umbrella.

Poor Alice is not going to remember any of these adventures, since it is so easy to fall asleep when fed, warm and swaying back and forth.

A view from the top. That's the river you can see below, not the road - it's not twisted enough. 

One night we had a hard time deciding where to go for dinner. Then we saw these fun buckets of fish. On the menu are 8 types of fish, turtle, crayfish  clams, duck and chickens. The girls had a great time watching the wildlife while we waited for dinner to be prepared.

We ordered braised chicken, which turned out to be the whole chicken. Helen was super excited to eat the foot. The girls loved, loved, loved eating the pieces of chicken. I was surprised. Clearly my aversion to recognizing parts from anatomy was a learned response.

Here we are at Elephant Trunk Hill and there's a woman with her Cormorant birds, which don't look like they fish for her anymore. It is amazing we were able to get this picture since there were 50 people trying to take their pictures all in the same spot to our right 5 feet away.

The girls really embraced the Reed Flute Cave experience. Especially since the use of pink and purple lights were found throughout the cave.

Camel mountain in Seven Star Park in Guilin. The sun came out!

Street food! Ryan thinks were ordered Mongolian hot pots from real Mongolians. Who knows, but it was easy for me to point to everything for them to put in the hot pots. They were delicious.

Seoul, Final Episode

While in South Korea, we were able to attend the temple. It really feels like this one is on top of a mountain. Can you tell that it was yellow day?

I decided that I wanted to get my haircut in Seoul and asked at an information desk at one of the malls and they gave us a map and marked the spot. Sadly we didn't think to look up at the signs to find it on the third floor. And even if we had looked up, there were no scissors or other pictures to help us find it. We had to go to a second information desk to find it.

I got the best haircut ever: shampoo, cut, & style for 18000 won ($15.43). I had brought a picture so that she could replicate the style of some superstar. Ryan came up looking for me with the girls when I wasn't done at the scheduled time (it takes awhile to cut each hair on my head 3 times). When they came in the hairdressers grabbed Alice and Jane and took pictures with them and chit-chatted with Helen. 

Ryan got a new pair of glasses and the optometrist gave the girls a pair of sunglasses each in their favorite colors. As if they couldn't get more popular with the locals...

Seoul, Part 2

We got to watch the changing of the guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace with many of our closest friends. Please note the conchs in the third row. Somehow they are able to make sounds like bagpipes without said instruments.

Here we have a snapshot of how we passed our time at this palace. People talking to us in Korean and taking our pictures. Ryan says that he couldn't resist taking this picture.

Our next palace stop was much more enjoyable. We went on an English tour of the Secret Garden of Changdeokgung. It was hard to believe that we were in the middle of one of the largest cities in the world when hiking in these woods. The large gate that Helen and I are standing in was the gate the emperor would go to after he was done fishing in his pond.

We are trying to decide if any of these pictures are worthy to go on our wall of beautiful pictures.

Suwon, South Korea

Last week we took the hop over to South Korea for a week of fun and adventure. We started out at the Hwaseong Haenggung palace. Luckily Ryan and the girls were cute enough to get past the guards. In fact, our kids were cute enough that all the ladies riding public transportation with us chit-chatted with the girls the whole time. They were even willing to hold the youngest two and take pictures of us using all their electronic devices.

 Looking at the undersides of these roofs, one realizes that standard American homes are pretty mono-chromatic. 

 Helen did a good job pretending to open the gate for us. 

While the girls and I took a lunch break, Ryan tackled the stairs leading up to the high fortress wall circling the city. In retrospect, that might not have been the best division of labor, as Ryan is not the biggest fan of heights. 

 I consider this to be a serious bell. For 1000 won Ryan could have even rung in the cavalry with it. 

 Pavilion rooftop in all my favorite colors. 

Here is the command post Seojangdae which overlooks the city of Suwon and doesn't bear any resemblance to the command posts I've seen in our military. 

 After the fortress we went to the Korean Folk Village. We were lucky enough to arrive in time for the traditional Korean farmer dance show. Our girls liked the pom-pom hats the best, but Ryan and I preferred the hats with the twirling streamers. 

 Here are the girls demonstrating how the early Korean totem poles keep their mouths open. 

 Ryan bought a little wooden "helicopter" from this gentleman. Nothing like buying one of something to teach sharing in a public location. Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

Nijo Castle

This was our last, and perhaps best stop for our kids on vacation - the famous Nijo Castle. "One of the most striking features of the Ninomaru Palace are the "nightingale floors" (uguisubari) in the corridors. To protect the occupants from sneak attacks and assassins, the builders constructed the floors of the corridors in such a way as to squeak like birds when anyone walks on them."This is a tired pair, but only one is showing it. Can you tell which one? The gardens were beautiful and we weren't even there during cherry blossom season or fall when the leaves turn brilliant colors.
Helen loves vacation, gardens, orange pants and rain. So does her mother.
Listening to Robin Hood on tape for months had prepared us to fully appreciate the two moats, "Poor Robin, he never even had a chance." Don't worry, we checked for Robin breathing through the reed every time we crossed over a moat.
Helen and Jane are preparing to sail away on the west wind, just like they learned from the Mary Poppins book on tape. Jane fought the whole walk to gain sole possession of the umbrella, and finally she was given the chance.

Island of Miyajima 2

Here is what we decided was the world's largest rice paddle. As there were no signs in English, we are pretty confident in our assumption. On the island, they are famous for making stuffed maple leaf shaped desserts. Now if you were given the choice of these tasty pastries, which one would you choose?They are also famous for oysters and here they are grilling up some oysters for the tourists. You may not be able to tell, but these are delicacies. The dark black mixture is squid ink, we don't know what the rest of them are, but they all had a smell reminiscent of the sea.
Ryan took this picturesque photograph. I think he has a future in photography if medicine doesn't work out. We went to the neatest aquarium and they had this tank set up so we could take the pictures so it looks like our family is in the drink.
Once again Helen is found by the octopus. This one is different, as it is alive.
The best part of this island was that we could walk all over the place with no threats greater than the random deer snatching paper to eat from unwary tourists.
There is the floating tori gate in the background of the large temple square.
Can you see Ryan and the girls underneath the old wooden temple in front of the pagoda?
Jane has become increasingly independent and would rather walk up stairs, no matter how steep or how many.
I think this is a cool looking lion and the girls were good enough to pose by it.