Wandering Browns

Our last night on Jeju I had a hankering for cooked fish. The boardwalk and harbor were very close to our guesthouse, so we wandered over that way to find some broiled/grilled/otherwise cooked fish. We only had pictures to go on as most of the restaurant owners did not speak English. We found one that looked like it had cooked fish and ended up having a delicious dinner. We got a fish that they sliced in half, rubbed some salt and other spices in the middle, and then broiled it. The skin on the outside was wonderful and crispy and the fish itself tasted great. There were also some interesting sides that we tried and enjoyed. They had the customary kimchi, but also an edible seaweed kimchi that was really tasty. Along with that there were these sheets of fresh seaweed that you could dip in a spicy sauce, and a soy sauce mixture that we dipped the fish in. We ordered rice for Landon and the ladies at the restaurant chided us for giving him balls of rice because it was so sticky and mess...

Dribble castle After the invigorating hike, we drove over to the white sand beach of Jeju- Hyeopjae Beach. It was low tide, so there was plenty of wet sand to play with and Landon had a great time scooping sand and dumping it out of his bucket. His favorite new game is Austin digs a Landon-sized hole and puts Landon in, then we bury him. I usually try to build a sand castle, and the sand was perfect for a dribble castle this time! If any of you don't know what a dribble castle is, you use wet sand and construct the castle using little drops of wet sand coming off your fingers. You need fine sand and a good sand/water mix and we dug down deep enough that the hole we made provided the perfect mix. I made some arches and then a dome to cover the whole top before Landon ruined it. Landon at work Dribble castle goodness He's buried! Although there were lots of other people on this beach, this group was my favorite. It was a bunch of young people, some of which ...

This is my favorite tree. Mostly because of these cute leaves.  The morning after the typhoon, it was a little damp but not too bad. We went to McDonald's for breakfast and had pancakes for the first time in months, which was awesome! Landon ate 2 whole pancakes himself. Then we headed over to the Mt. Hallasan Eorimok trail for some hiking. Mt. Hallasan is the volcano from which the island of Jeju came to be. It is smack dab in the middle of the island and it is several km to the summit. We started out on the trail just kind of waiting to see how long we could go with Landon. We don't have a hiking backpack and don't want to cart one around everywhere- especially since he is so heavy that I wouldn't want to ever wear the backpack. So we have to play it by ear every time. This pretty bush was on the side of a run-off stream As we neared the parking lot area, it got really foggy. It was not foggy in Jeju but I guess all the moisture made it incredibly foggy o...

The waves from our balcony- it was so windy out there that we heard it whistling all night long! As I alluded to in other posts, a typhoon which primarily hit Japan still had its effect on Jeju Island. Although there was not too much destruction and we were safe, the waves were constant and huge, it was incredibly windy and rainy, and it was just an icky day. In other news, Neoguri is the word for raccoon in Korean, so that's what it was named after I guess.  We had to check out of our fancy hotel on this day, so we made the most of the hotel by playing in the pool and working out in the morning. In the locker rooms, they had 3 different hot tubs and a sauna- all at different temperatures. There were spa treatments outside the hotel offering this experience, but we had it right in the locker room! We didn't know the sequence of dipping in the tubs (one of them was cold) but we both tried it out. After checking out, we decided to take the scenic route and drove around t...

Some of our spread At our hotel, they offered babysitting at the same rate as we normally pay babysitters, so we took advantage of the opportunity and had a date night! The babysitter also worked downstairs at the pool, so she was super excited when she saw Landon again the next day. I think Landon had fun and she did too. I know Austin and I certainly did. One specific type of Korean restaurant that Austin and I really enjoy is a restaurant where you order raw meat and you have a fire at your table and you cook the meats yourself. Along with the meat, they bring out several different types of kimchi, salads, seafood, lettuce leaves, sesame oil and salt for dipping and other interesting tidbits. I'm sure Koreans think it is hilarious when we have no clue what to do, but I have to say we are getting the hang of it the more we go to these types of places. Due to the open flame and low tables, this type of restaurant is a hard one to go to with Landon. Usually one of us has to ...