Are You Jealous?

The kids and I getting autographs.

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I had an opportunity to see Jared the Subway guy. We were the second family in line and were able to get lots of pictures and to tell him how much we loveeating at Subway. We also got freebies and a small football. We then sat down at for a while before they sent out the Subway Mascot. Seeing him walk around made us want subs for lunch. The kids and I got Subway for lunch and headed to the park for a picnic. I know you are all wishing you could be just like me and have seen Jared but I guess you can always live through us.

The kids with the Subway Mascot

Double Feature

We braved it again with seeing two movies in one day. We went at 3:30 to see Coraline. Ashley sat still eating her nachos and cheese without moving Ben on the other hand found the movie a little of the spooky side. He wanted to leave near the end when it was just getting good with the lady turning into a spider and trying her best to persuade Coraline to let her sew buttons on for eyes. James allowed Ben to seat on his lap for the reminder of the movie. Then we went and had a quick dinner where Ben got to order off the adult menu since he wanted a cheeseburger. He surprised us with eating all but three bites, which James was happy to finish. We then headed back to the movies for Hannah Montana. Ashley’s wanted to see it bad. She sat still for the first hour of it with her little eyes glued to the screen eating the big bag of popcorn we bought and split four ways (some how she ended up with the big bag while the rest of us ate out of child size bags). She got a little restless but seemed to enjoy the movie very much. I think she wanted to be like her big cousin Reagan and be Hannah Fan.

Jejudo Trip (Day 4)

Finally, here it is. Sorry for the long delay, but it adds in the excitement and anticipation, right?

My ankle was very swollen this morning, so I am glad there’s not much sightseeing left for today. Still eating salad for breakfast; I feel that it is a sin not to, since it is offered. I do, however, chase it down with the wonderful Belgian waffle topped with syrup and whipped topping. After our breakfast, we walked around the hotel to check out the locations they had filmed Korean movies. Our hotel had a wonderful view of the beautiful blue ocean and the nearby hotels. We went back to the room, got our luggage and checked out. We drove next door to the Lotte Hotel for James to walk around like a tourist with the camera dangling from his neck so that he could take even more photos of filming locations. The kids and I waited in the car for two reasons: #1 my ankle was swollen and I was having trouble walking, and #2 we thought that James wanted to “ooh” and “aah” by himself. Oh wait, there’s another reason: #3 I really cared less about seeing it. When James finally returned to the car 30 minutes later with a smile on his face, we left the hotel, programming the GPS for the airport.

View of our hotel from the back.

As were we driving along, we talked about a few things we wanted to get and decided to stop at a souvenir shop James saw on a commercial that played on our GPS when it was starting up. We found the store and bought a few more boxes of the yummy chocolate and some tea. We decided since the kids did so well with eating Korean food we would reward them with eating at the McDonald’s near the airport. It happened to be a 24-hour McDonald’s that also had delivery service. We ate french fries and cheeseburgers until we were full.

Here's the McDonald's with their "delivery vehicles" in the front.

We got to the airport with a little too much time to kill. We returned to parking pole #2 to turn in the rental car and walked toward the terminal. As we approached the crosswalk, I saw something that made me think, “only in Korea!” There was a young lady dressed in red and black with high heels and a very cute hat. Her job was to walk into the road to stop traffic for the people trying to cross the road. We checked our luggage and walked around the airport to find the play area for the kids. They played while James yelled at the Korean kids (in Korean) that they should not be playing so rough and jumping with Ashley nearby. After hanging out there for awhile, we went through security and I had another “only in Korea” thought. I guess the island sells lot of fish products, so they sell fresh fish in the airport that you can take with you on the plane. I was hoping and praying no one near us on the plane thought it necessary to take back fresh fish. As we waited to board our plane, the kids made some new friends by sharing Teddy Grahams and letting them practice their English. It felt good to be back in Seoul, especially since we had nice weather and the traffic gods were good to us on the drive back home.

Here's the lady braving the oncoming traffic.

Jejudo Trip (Day 3)

We woke up, got ready and headed downstairs to enjoy our breakfast buffet. Yes, more salad for me and then I indulged in the Belgium waffles with syrup and whipped topping. Yum. This morning I was trying to do a little better, so I only had ¼ of the waffle. I tried some things like shanghai chicken and noodles, and yogurt with fruit. Not quite like the yogurt we usually eat. The kids ate croutons, cheese, and pancakes. We left the hotel and drove to the International Convention Center to take some photos and then drove around trying to find some tea fields. I really wanted to see what tea fields looked like firsthand. We found one farm, but it was not open to the public so we drove up a little dirt road, and James got out to take several pictures of the fields before heading out.

The front side of Yakcheon Temple. The top levels of the prayer hall are visible behind the main gate in the center.

Inside the prayer hall of Yakcheon Temple. Notice the dragon carvings flanking the main Buddha statue.

Next, we went to look at a local temple. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived since it housed the largest prayer hall in Asia. Not only that, but it was also nice that you are actually allowed to go inside the prayer hall and go up onto the second and third floors. The kids thought that was great because as we were walking around looking at the paintings on the walls, we were able to watch the two monks on the main level performing prayer rituals and bang on their wooden gongs. Plus, we got a great view of the large seated Buddha that was flanked by two dragons with their bodies wrapped around large poles. This feature is so unique that a movie called “D-War” (short for Dragon War) was filmed here just a few years ago. After walking around the grounds taking pictures of the buildings we were approached by a couple of Chinese families that wanted their pictures taken with the kids. After our photo shoot was done we headed to the coast to see the replica of the Dutch ship, the Sparrow, which ran aground back in the 1600s, stranding the crew in Korea for 13 years (back when Korea was still known as the Hermit Kingdom and wouldn’t allow Westerners to visit). James tried to enlighten the kids regarding this story, but they just jumped to the conclusion that it was a pirate ship and just ran around yelling “arrgh”. After exploring the boat from top to bottom we headed over to explore the rocky coastline. We walked around the side and ran into several ajumas (older ladies) selling various unidentifiable (to us) sea creatures. When you made a purchase, they would chop it up right in front of you. Talk about your fresh seafood! However, we decided to pass. Of course, they were all fascinated with the kids, wanting to touch their faces and rub their heads. At this point in our trip, the kids were getting used to being touched by strangers and did not run away. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not?!?

The monument to Hendrik Hamel and the crew of the Sparrow with the replica of the ship on the coast down below.

It was now time to figure out where we should eat for lunch. Lucky for us, there were only two places to choose from. Before we went to eat, I decided to go to the bathroom and as I was walking to the facilities, there was a small step that I happened to step off wrong and I rolled my ankle. I called for James to stop walking. I hobbled up to him and sat down at a table at one of the restaurants to see how bad it was. While I took off my shoe, the kids saw a lady pulling an octopus out of a large tank. James took the kids over to where she was for them to see it. We were thinking it was like Red Lobster where they would pull out a lobster for the kids to see and touch, but they all quickly realized that the Korean family that was also sitting down had ordered octopus for their lunch and she was chopping it up for them. The kids watched her chop the live octopus into pieces as it tried to resist by wrapping itself around her arm. She then pulled the octopus parts off of her arm as if it were commonplace. We quickly decided that the second restaurant would be our location of choice. As I hobbled away a Korean man called for me to stop. He approached us while digging through his bag. I tried to tell him that I was fine, but he continued to dig. He finally pulled out a spray can of some sort and told James to use it on my ankle. It was basically a spray equivalent of Bengay or Icy Hot. How thoughtful of a total stranger to care enough about my ankle to try to communicate with a foreigner to help. We got to the restaurant and I went to sit down while James ordered. He came back and said he ordered one hamburger. I thought that it was strange that he got one hamburger for four people but he is said it was family sized. When it came, we thought “Wow, this is a true hamburger”…minus the fact it had cucumbers, apples, cabbage, onions, and an unidentified sauce. I thought it was wonderful, but Ashley only wanted the bread and Ben decided to go on a liquid diet and drank a slushy for 500 won.

After lunch, the kids get to ride on a pony.

The kids in the tea fields outside the O'Sulloc Tea Museum.

We finished up and got back in the car. This time we deiced to try our luck at a tea museum. It was basically a giant gift shop with tons of glass bottles for you to smell the tea. James got a couple of different ones to try before we headed out front to a large, open grassy area where a number of people were playing. As soon as we went out, everyone mobbed the kids. Old and young, boys and girls, you name it, they wanted to see the kids. Ashley acted shy and tried to hide behind me, but Ben put himself out there. He even gave one girl a peck on the check. At one point, one of the girls even chased Benjamin around the whole area. We finally made our way out of this section and walked across the road to have our pictures taken in the tea fields. After this long ordeal, we went to a 60+ acre bonsai park, the Spirited Garden. The kids were not too thrilled about walking around looking at little trees, but I thought it was very peaceful as I hobbled around on my throbbing ankle and proceeded to sit on every bench I could find. Luckily, the kids were entertained by feeding some enormous carp in a small pond. As we were leaving we saw an older gentleman sitting on a bench trimming a bonsai tree. James snapped a quick photo and one of the guys working the ticket booth came over to tell us that this was the founder and manager of the park. James talked with him for a short time, exchanged business cards and received a stack of informational material about the park’s history and we left.

You can't see him very well in the midst of all this, but Benjamin is being swarmed by a group of teenage girls outside the O'Sulloc Tea Museum.

Here is Benjamin being chased by one of his adoring fans.

Ashley hops across a carp pond at the Bunjae Artpia (Bonsai garden).

The owner and curator of the Bunjae Artpia works on one of his trees.

For our final stop of the day, we had saved the best for last…or so we thought: the Chocolate Museum. It was a tiny building that displayed a lot of chocolate related materials from around the world. I would say that it looked like a bunch of Happy Meal toys on display (so the kids stood in front of the cases and named off everything). However, they did have a very small factory where we were able to see them make fancy chocolate by hand before boxing them up. I thought that most places had machines to do that. We did get to try a sample of their chocolate, but were disappointed in both the prices and the flavor. Now came the part of the day that I usually dread… where to eat. We decided to drive and park on this little street we always pass through to get to Emart. We found a place that had japchae and fried mandu. We ate in the traditional Korean style, sitting on the floor. From this position, James had a full view of the kitchen. He told me later that the lady that was chopping the vegetables in the kitchen decided on several occasions to lick her fingers. I’m guessing they don’t have the same health regulations that we are accustomed to (like OSHA). Even better was the man that brought our food out to us deciding to adjust himself on the way before using the same hand to arrange the mandu that was sliding off of the plate. We ate, paid our bill and then left quickly, trying to forget what we had seen. We headed back to the hotel to relax, pack up our things and prop up my very swollen foot. We had another fun and exciting day. I was very surprised on how well the kids were doing, getting in and out of the car and looking at a lot of things they have no interest in. One more day left before we head back to our city life.

Jejudo Trip (Day 2)

We woke up and got ready to enjoy two free continental buffet breakfasts at the hotel. Because of her age, Ashley was also free so we only had to pay for Ben’s breakfast. Wow, were we surprised when we found out it would be 16,000 won for just him! We kept telling ourselves that it was pretty cheap if we thought of it as the price for all four of us to eat, since we really didn’t expect the two complimentary meals. The buffet was a combo of Korean and Western food. This was the first time I’ve seen soup and salad for breakfast. So on this day, I started my trend of eating a nice big salad (can’t even go off a diet while on vacation) followed by some delicious waffles (okay, so I strayed a little here). We left the hotel around 9 and drove toward the east side of the island (the opposite direction from how we came in from the airport). James was on a quest to see some locations where scenes from Korean TV shows and movies were filmed. We drove down streets that were surrounded by palm trees near the ocean and saw the beautiful, blue water. We stopped while I took some pictures and drank in the fresh ocean smell. It felt like I was back in the States heading for Myrtle Beach.

The "All In" House where the television show was filmed

Sunrise Peak, an extinct volcano on the east side of the island

After about an hour of driving, we stopped at the location where they filmed the television show “All In”. We walked up the side of a hill next to the ocean that was surround by lava rocks at the base. The kids and I took our time while James went inside the chapel where the movie was filmed to take pictures (I didn’t think the kids would enjoy that portion). While we were waiting, the kids were stopped by several ajummas (Korean older ladies) to have their daily head rubs and touchings. We also had several people trying to practice their English. The view was wonderful and we could see Sunrise peak from where we were. We finished up and then headed to the next stop: Manjang Lava Tube. It was lunch time when we arrived, so we first went to a small diner at the entrance and got a bite to eat. One of the island’s trademark dishes is black pig, so James and I ordered the spicy pork, along with steamed mandu (dumplings) and rice. The kids were a little hesistant about trying the rice since it had red beans cooked in with it, giving the rice a purplish shade. The kids agreed to try it and we were all surprised when they liked it. Manjang Lava Tube is a large cave that was created when…you guessed it…lava shot out of it. We walked a kilometer to the end, where there was a lava column that ended our nice walk, forcing us to turn around and walk back. Both kids were wearing tank tops since it had been so warm during the day. The underground cavern was quite chilly and I was able to persuade Ben to put a t-shirt on, but Ashley refused, saying that she was not cold. As the Korean tourists passed by us in the cave, James would inform me that many of them were saying how she must be cold. Each time, I would feel guilty and try to persuade her again, but it never did work. After our spelunking adventure, we went into a gift shop for free samples of the famous Jeju chocolate. There were 5 different flavors: pineapple, raspberry, green tea, cactus and the best-selling orange. We ended buying a box of chocolates, a lava rock for Ben and some traditional Jeju figurines for Ashley.

Ben posing next to a scooter with training wheels...I think we'll stick with the rental car!

It had started raining right when we came out of the cave, but the rain started to ease up after we finished our shopping, so we decided to head to the Stone Grandfather Park to look at the statues. I think that we were the only ones there. We walked around the park, standing in front of most of the statues, emulating their poses for great photo ops.

Ashley posing next to a phone booth patterned after the traditional Stone Grandfather statue.

The kids pose in front of a statue that is not quite as traditional, but still impressive.

...and here's the kids having a little fun.

This is definitely not a traditional Jeju statue...but who could resist a photo next to that?

Since the kids were being so cooperative, we proceeded to the next destination on our list, Sangumburi Crater. As soon as we approached the ticket booth, a bus full of teenagers pulled up and they all ran over to us. You would think that our family was part of the attraction. They stood and posed with our family and took pictures with us. They touched the kids, rubbed their heads, pinched their cheeks and tried to speak with them. Ashley was trying to get away from them by climbing up my back while I was holding her. Ben stayed close by and then, when there was a small break in the action, he ran and hid as his only form of self-defense. Since Ashley was being terribly shy, they focused most of their attention on Ben. We then discovered that they were being chaperoned by their English teacher, who was forced by the students to come over and say “hi” (they wanted to see her talk with native English speakers). They all giggled like little girls when she was talking…which I guess makes sense. It was kind of cute that she was so nervous talking with us. They started walking up the hill, calling back to the kids by their names and they slowly moved away from us, but not before Ben got proposed to. When they walked away from us, Ben climbed up onto a large rock and was sitting still looking deep in thought. We asked him what he was doing, but he just kept up his thoughtful pose. That’s when we figured out he was waiting for the girls to come back down so he could look cool hanging out on the rock. We finally coaxed him down and finished the walk and because it actually wrapped all the way around, we ended up back at the beginning where we met the school group again. The kids loosened up a little, posed with them for photos and made everyone’s day. We even ended up getting some candy from some of them (I know, don’t take candy from strangers…). The crater was completely covered in fog the whole time we were there, but I don’t think that Benjamin thought this stop was a waste of time!After that, we headed to our final destination of the day: MiniMini land. This was a small theme park made up of miniature replicas of famous buildings from all over the world (like the White House, Great Wall of China, Eiffel tower, and many more). By this time, we were all getting pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to our favorite place to eat (yes, Emart) to have dinner once again. We all ordered Korean food this time. I stuck with the hot beef bowl, James ordered Udon and bibimbop, while Ben and Ashley shared the Katsu-don. It was a big hit! Afterwards I tried on a couple of shirts from the store and discovered that I am a Korean size 100 for shirts. That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? I am not really sure what they base their measurements on, but I don’t think they are used to the upper body build of Americans. We then walked to a convenience store called GS25 to buy ice cream. After my unfortunate experience with Korean shirt sizes, I decided to pass. The kids picked out their favorite and we sat outside again on the benches, ate our ice cream and talked about our eventful day we had. After all of this, we actually got back to the hotel a little earlier than the night before. Another great day!

This is Benjamin's thoughtful pose as he awaits the return of the girls on their class trip.

Jejudo Trip (Day 1)

Since it was a long weekend (Memorial Day) for us, we decided to get away from the busy city life and take a vacation and traveled to Jejudo. Yes I know…you are wondering “where is it?” and “why haven’t I heard of it?” Jejudo has been referred to as Korea’s Hawaii.

“Do” (pronounced just like Homer Simpson’s trademark “doh”) is Korean for island, so Jejudo is actually Jeju Island. So even though we flew there, we didn’t leave Korea to go on our vacation. However, it was much different from the mainland. The air was fresher there, without the trademark odors that lead my kids to keep asking “what is that smell?” In addition, there were palm trees, wider streets with far less traffic, and most importantly the majority of people there actually obeyed the traffic laws.

After a short 50-minute flight, we arrived at Jeju International Airport on Friday. We quickly located our luggage, then left the airport and headed to parking lot #2 to find Budget Rental Car. The nice lady (who kept talking slowly to James) had explained to us that we needed to head over to "parking lot #2". However, we didn’t realize exactly how the rental car companies were set up. We were walking around and discovered that where we needed to go was actually located directly under a pole with a large #2 sign in the parking lot. There were large vans (or small buses, depending on how you look at it) under all the numbered poles where the rental car companies actually had their offices. James got the paperwork done and we all hopped into a nice new Hyundai Sonata, fully equipped with a GPS (all in Korean, of course).

Some of the rental car company "offices"

James programmed in the Hotel’s address and off we went. We really enjoyed the ride to the hotel (again, nice wide roads with minimal traffic). James was able to book us at the Shilla Hotel, which we discovered was a 5-star hotel. We were amazed and had the requisite “oohs and aahs” when we entered the room. After we got settled in and I threatened the kids not to touch anything in the fully stocked mini-bar, we decided to walk a little bit and sightsee at the Cheonjeyeon waterfall and Seven Nymphs Bridge. The kids were happy and running around like we had been traveling for days and were just excited about being out. As we walked over the bridge the kids found themselves in a new world. Everyone we passed would say, ”Hello, how are you?” as they had rehearsed in their English class. We would respond to their greetings with the standard “fine…and how are you?” The kids started to get a little bothered by everyone passing by rubbing their heads, or stopping them to check out their eye colors or to touch their faces. It was sort of like being at an old family reunion where distant relatives hadn’t seen them in ages. This started the weekend of the kids posing with random Korean families for their vacation pictures.

The kids posing in front of the Seven Nymphs Bridge

After seeing the waterfall from above, we decided to take a trail down the ravine to see another waterfall from close up. The trip down was rather pleasant and James struck up a conversation with a local family on the way down, discovering that their accent and dialect was a little harder to understand. Of course, when we got to the bottom, the Korean family wanted some photos with the kids. We then had the tedious job of returning back up the way we had just come. That’s when we discovered that we had descended (and now had to ascend) 270 steps on the trail down!

The upper waterfall as seen from the Seven Nymphs Bridge

The lower waterfall

We then headed back to the hotel to try to find something to eat that was agreeable to everyone. As I mentioned before, this was a 5-star hotel, so the hotel menu was a little too fancy for the kids (and us) so we got into the car and James programmed the GPS to take us to the local Emart so that we could enjoy their food court. The kids were actually willing to try the Korean food (which was great since most of the island was without any Western restaurants). James ordered Katsu Don with Udon on the side (actually Japanese food), I got the Bulgogi hot bowl and Ben chose the spaghetti. He was a little disappointed with his selection since it had big pieces of onion in it and mustard drizzled all over the top. This may have led to his willingness to try our Korean food. He ended up eating off our plates and kept asking for more.

We then walked around Emart and bought some ice cream and sat outside to eat them and enjoy the fresh air and relative quiet. We arrived back at the hotel around 9 and all got ready for bed. It was a great way to start off our weekend.

The E-Mart in Seogwipo City

DMZ / JSA

James went on a small tour up to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with a few other people for work. Since it was only three people in the tour they were allowed to move slower and ask tons of questions. I wanted to show some pictures of his trip. We both went 10 years ago and plan on just the two of us going again (since they do not allow anyone under the age of 10 on the tour). Besides I don’t think I could trust my two to not run straight over to the other side...

He visited the Joint Security Area (JSA) as well as Observation Point Dora (next to the Dora-san train station that services the train line that connects the North and the South) and Infiltration Tunnel #3. These photos are all from the JSA.

Observation tower and the Freedom House on the South Korean side of the JSA.

Panmungak on the North Korean side, as seen from UN Row.

Interior of main conference room on UN Row with South Korean Military Police escort standing at the ready position.

The small blue building in the center of the photo is OP #3 which was the location of the famous Axe Murder Incident in 1976. In addition the road leading away from the OP towards the right goes directly to the Bridge of No Return.

Gijeong-dong, the Propaganda Village on the North Korean side of the border. Notice the enormous flagpole in the center of the photo. This is the largest flagpole in the world standing at 160 meters tall (525 feet) and flies a flag that weighs 270 kg (600 lbs).

The Bridge of No Return from the South Korean side. The small rusted sign to the left of the bridge is one of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) signs that are located all along the entire length of the border.

If you are interested in learning more about the JSA, the links above all go to their respective Wikipedia entries. In addition, there's a good Korean movie entitled "JSA" that you can usually find in the States (Netflix has it too) that describes a fictional incident occurring at this location.

Gyeongbok Palace

It is James’ ambition in life to see all of the National Treasures of Korea while we are here. I think there are a couple hundred that are located throughout the country, many of them at various museums.

Heungryemun, the gate leading into the main palace grounds.

So we let James have another turn at picking what were going to do on the weekend. He chose the largest of the five palaces in Seoul to visit. The kids were not too thrilled at walking around and looking at the beautiful architecture of the buildings. Ben got a little more excited once I let him start videotaping everything. If anyone wants a copy let us know, however, be aware that it may cause motion sickness. We were able to see three of the National Treasures while we were there. Yes, that’s right, we were lucky enough to knock three off the list in one day. We really did have fun and are looking forward to seeing the other four palaces.

Guards in front of Heungryemun

Interior of Gangnyeongjeon, the king's living quarters

Hyangwonjeong on a small islet in the middle of a pond. This pond is located in front of Geoncheonggung, site of the assassination of Empress Myeongseong by the Japanese in 1895.

Seoul Grand Zoo

After the sore legs we got from walking so much while enjoying James’ choice for weekend travel, I decided that the family would spend the day at the Seoul Grand Zoo. We packed a lunch and got a late start heading out. Since the traffic was a little backed up on the way there, we didn’t arrive into the parking lot until almost 11:30, so we ate our lunch in the car and then headed inside. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom so it was beautiful walking to the gate.

The Cherry Blossoms along the road leading to the Grand Park Zoo

One of the giraffes must have seen us taking pictures, so it stuck its tongue out at us.

For the whole family, it only cost 8000 won to get in (what a steal). We let the kids lead the way and take their time looking around. The most interesting thing was the bathroom near the giraffe exhibit. Each stall had their own window (one-way, I assume) facing into the giraffe area. It felt like they could sense you in there and would come walking up. The zoo was fun and the kids especially enjoyed the playground area they had there. It had a lot of dinosaur slides and climbing walls, as well as an elephant slide where you came out through the trunk. Everybody enjoyed themselves and we definitely plan to go back again.

Here's the kids sliding through a crocodile's mouth.

Ashley the Meerkat

Kudos definitely have to go out to the Koreans for their ice creams. We bought some while we were at the zoo and found even more varieties than we thought they had. I could probably do a whole blog entry on their desserts (and might...), but here's a picture of a particular favorite; doesn't it look delicious?

Buddha's Birthday

We were able to spend last Sunday night attending the Lotus Parade. We got there a little early, walked around and saw what was left of the tables where you could make your own paper lotus flowers. Since it was starting to rain, all the vendors were packing up and we had to resort to buying the kids their own lotus flowers on a plastic stick that lights up.

The kids posing in front of the festival mascot.

Some of the parade participants getting ready to start.

About half an hour before the parade started, we wandered over to the parade route and saw that you could sit down in chairs they had lined up. Of course, we chose to sit in the front row and then waited for the parade to start. The children were very patient, with a few M&Ms to keep them happy. Once the parade was underway it was exciting. We noticed that we must have been as entertaining as the parade, since a large number of camera men came up to take our pictures. We clapped and cheered and really enjoyed ourselves. There were even two different people from within the parade that stopped to give us the lanterns that they were carrying. The children got souvenirs and we had a great family night out. We are hoping we can attend next year and be able to do much more of the actual events. Happy Birthday to Buddha.

One of the many cameramen that wanted to take our photos during the parade.

Some images from the parade with participants and floats.

Two of our favorite floats: the dragons moved and made lots of noise. The kids didn't like them as much as we did...