The Ski Trip!

Lunar New Year came very early this year in Korea. It was the 3rd weekend of January! The kids celebrated the holiday at school and Sasha and Teddy finally talked me into getting them some Hanbok.

 

For the 3rd year in a row many of us headed North to the big mountains. We stayed at the Greenzone Pensione. All these little bungalows cover the side of a hill Each one has 2 units: one on each side. When we go we pretty much take over the whole place!

 

For the first time ever we were able to ski as a family. No splitting up between the bunny hill and the intermediate slopes. The kids did great and being all together on the slopes was a dream come true!

And of course evenings were just as entertaining.... here's a bunch of us out on our porch for BBQ night. It was FREEZING cold but the plastic drapes around the porches kept a lot of the heat in.

The teachers were on the other side of our unit so we were able to go back and forth just to make sure that they weren't cooking better stuff than us (and so we could steal some if they were!)

And the kids went around in a huge posse causing trouble and trying to convince all adults involved that this really was their FIRST round of dessert.

This was what he HAD to wear for the evening. So he could look "cool". Lord, help me - I'm raising a Back-Street Boy....

And then we made a big bonfire and gathered all around.

And set off some crackers that the Smith Family had left for us.

We got to ski 3 and a half days. The kids were amazing and we even made several trips to the very top of the mountain in the Gondola!

On our last day, before we had to drive home, we decided to swim instead of ski. It was so nice to soak the various aches and pains of 3 days of skiing in a nice hot Spa.

And they had a really cool water slide but it was kids only - no adults allowed. WHAT?!?

Then we got in the car for our 5 hour drive home. It's always nice to see the countryside of Korea. One thing that cracks me up is how they use every single inch of usable land. Most of the country is mountainous so wherever you have a little valley there are farms, orchards and fields all the way up and even into the foothills!

And once you are on the highway you can't get off unless you want to pay a toll. But all along their excellent highway system they have all of these really nice rest-stops. There are bathrooms, convenience stores, outdoor food stalls selling really weird things, and inside there is usually a counter-service restaurant where you can get any kind of food you want as long as it's Korean. Which means noodle soups and rice with seaweed side dishes. This one even had a batting cage!

Next year we want to go back to a resort a little farther down the road. They are hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics there so we want to check it all out so we can remember it when we see it on TV in a few years.