Another Holiday in Korea

  Yet another holiday in Korea, this time Easter.  Another family gathering has come and gone without us in Austin.  We miss our family and friends just as much today as we did the day we left and I hope we don't take family gatherings for granted ever again.  We are getting the hang of making holidays "our own" and spending them in a dramatically different way.  At home in Austin, we would be getting together with family and friends;  baking, cooking and grilling our way through the day.  Counting our blessings as we went along.  There would be some shopping for new spring/summer type clothes in bright colors and perhaps a pair of shoes or two.

  This year, our lovely Easter baskets arrived in March (Thanks Nana and Poppy!) and we couldn't wait.  You could smell the chocolate when we opened the box.  There were tears of joy when we found yet more corn bread muffin mix.  In some ways we have been celebrating Easter for weeks.  We passed forward the baskets to a family that just arrived and were scrambling to find something for Easter for their younger kids.  It fit the season perfectly.  There was not much shopping this year since it can be challenging to find clothing that fits (we have different body types) and that isn't outrageously expensive.  The shopping will have to wait until our return this summer.

  So what did we do with our Easter?  Well... we ended up hitting the amusement park, Korean style!  The Metz's, The Reifsnider's and a friend went to Everland!  Everland is a Samsung owned amusement park.  A little better quality than a Six Flags but not quite as good as Disney.  It was a total blast!  The weather was cooler, in the mid to high 50'sF and cloudy with some winds during the middle part of the day.  The flowers were gorgeous with lots of displays of tulips everywhere.  The music was catchy and very fitting for each area.  The rides were your typical amusement park type rides with roller coasters, twirling and spinning type rides.  Souvenirs were everywhere of course and the food was again amusement park food.  The main difference was the price.  Surprisingly there really wasn't any gouging of price.  The ice cream was the same price as from the grocery store.  The eight of us ate lunch for under 60,000W which is about 55 dollars US.  We didn't even have to pay to park it was included with the tickets.  [Which is what totally gets me at Six Flags since there is really no other way into the park, just add it into the price of the ticket already] 

Here are the pictures!  

Enjoy and Happy Easter to all!

The kids at Everland in front of the tulips.

We couldn't resist buying ears!

The boys take the lead.

I get David on a ride.  The ride happen to have a rodeo theme so we started shootin' Dad!

The parade was nice with some very interesting floats.

This person was really high up!  The confetti was a nice touch that you don't see too often anymore.

Not sure what the theme was but the bright colors were great.  If you look closely the character in yellow is drumming.

This entire float is drumming!  It was fantastic!

Another look at the drum float.

On to the Tulip Garden and all the displays.

So many different varieties.

The little displays throughout the garden were adorable.

A nice blend of displays, tulips, foxgloves and daisys.

Jason got a great shot of a very unique variety of tulip.

What tulip garden would "bee" complete without a bumble bee band?

Love the architecture and the "China Moon" restaurant!

Perk to waiting for friends on a ride is soft serve ice cream.  Yum!

Can you spot the foreigners?  That's my kid in the middle...upside down!

Close up!

Coming off the ride...ready for more...

They sell some of the craziest stuff..those are full size, adult costumes.

   As you can tell we had a great day with some great friends.  Galen was asleep as soon as we hit the car and somehow we made it straight home without getting lost!