This story is so absurd, it wrote itself; please enjoy our sufferings. After our pretty intense escapade to the Philippines, we thought an overnight trip to Jeju, a small volcanic island off Korea’s southern coast, would be just the thing. All the older/wiser/people with a brain, are welcome to go ahead and start laughing now. Our school is part of a foundation of Korean foreign schools, that so kindly host trips each year to show the staff Korea. Our trip began with a 5:30am departure, no big deal after our 3am departures to and from the Philippines; the kids were champs. Never mind me leaving my phone on the bus in the chaos of unloading, thankfully it was a bus from our school, and Korea is well known for the fact that if you lose something, odds are good that someone will turn it in. Yay, Korea. Now, just look at that happy bunch.

We got all checked in and were given our boarding passes, which is when we realized that we were already supposed to be boarding, and so the adventure began. You must know how this story goes, we are in a massive hurry so of course, the security line has never been longer or slower.

I am still wondering if I will ever be able to go through security without breaking out in a sweat from wrangling bags, children, boarding pass, etc. I have no doubt that I looked as though I had just run a marathon, or died trying.

Isaac waited for all of our bags to come of the conveyer at security while I took off running with Asher in his Ergo baby carrier and holding Judah, as though the large group of Americans wasn’t drawing enough attention. We are so obviously the poster children for traveling with kids.

We made our flight by some miracle and the awesome Korean speakers in our group that could fully communicate our distress. We thought we would never be so happy to see a plane……….(there just really aren’t enough … in the world for this, so we will just keep moving)

We made it to Jeju and were met by our wonderful hosts. We loaded up on the busses and headed off down the rocky coast to breakfast as our tour guide told us all about the island.

FYI: This is the beautiful Korie, fellow teacher and child wrangler extraordinaire, whose help is the only reason we didn’t consider jumping off one of the scenic cliffs.

 

This was the scene at breakfast. Our efforts to get stranded there and spend the day staring at that view and drinking coffee were thwarted by our ever patient bus driver. After we had been nourished and most importantly, caffeinated, it was off to the bonsai tree garden.

It was so nice and relaxing. Although we love Seoul, there is a rather large problem with air quality especially during spring, so walking through the garden had us all like:

Next up was the traditional tea ceremony at the tea gardens. One of the things that Jeju is know for is for its tea crops, especially green tea. Isaac and I took turns attending the ceremony since apparently children, boiling water, and ceramics don’t mix. While I did my tea thing, Isaac changed diapers and wrangled kids, and while Isaac did the ceremony, Judah and I made soap, sounds fair right?

Next was a delicious lunch of Korea barbecue. There was a beautiful pool on the patio that the boys had some fun splashing in.

Just when we were ready for a nice long nap in the sun, it was time for a nice windy hike up a hill with fussy kids. We got a late start up the hill as we had diapers to change and caffeine to chug (have you noticed that our move to Korea has increased our reliance on Jesus and caffeine??). From the end of this trail you could see the two small islands that are the southernmost part of Korea. Fun fact: Jeju was the last strongholds that Japan had at the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea before they were completely driven out.

We opted out of the next sight seeing venture (a cliff or something) to let the kids nap on the bus. We did get off long enough to poke around the tourist shops selling the popular Jeju treats: oranges, green tea, chocolates, vitamin C tablets from Jeju oranges, sea cucumbers…guys, this is a real thing, and bleh. We “sadly” missed out when the group tried this. If you haven’t heard of this sea creature, you just need to google it.

Then it was off to the hotel to get settled. We had a lovely room and a balcony with a killer view.

Dinner was a buffet at the hotel restaurant complete with crab legs, yes, please. We ate our fill, and then some, and just when the kids started to make a scene (read: after) we headed out to the let the kid(s) run around.

We finally headed back to our room for the night and happened upon and interestingly labeled door. I try to live without regrets, but I don’t know that I will ever forgive myself for not giving this a go…I mean really, the fact that this stuff is still around in 2016 makes me happy and concerned at the same time. Something tells me that Koreans must not be quite as “lawsuit-happy” as us Americans…

 

We got the kids in bed and may or may not have been asleep before our heads hit the pillows…that was until the earthquake.

Is she serious? Did we survive? Did all of our fun plans get rained out? Did our flight get cancelled? And then delayed? And then the airport ran out of food???? I guess you will just have to tune in next time for the conclusion of our “not so quick” trip to Jeju island.