We wanted to wish everybody a Happy New Year and share some pictures from the first month of the year. So far January has been a very cold and snowy month, right before New Year’s Day we received about 16” of snow and the temperature has not been above freezing the entire month, last weekend another 6” of snow fell, I know for many of you this is not very much snow, but for the lack of snow removal equipment and the style of removal, it is a lot here. For removal they plow the farthest lane from the highway on-ramp, so if it is a three lane expressway, you have to drive over two lanes of deep snow to get on or off the highway. We have taken a few hikes in the snow, one ... read more

Well when it's July you know it's time for the annual Mud Festival, and as of years past it rained while we were there. This year they doubled the size of the area and added a big stage. We tried a new place to eat at this time; they served almost the same items, mullusk. They had clams, mussels, scallops, and a few others that I don't know the names, basically you have a grill on your table and you put them on the grill; when they open just pop 'em in your mouth. Pearl and I kick it up a notch, we bring garlic butter and mozzarella cheese, we get a tin plate add the butter and cheese, and put it over the fire, when the shells open we put the juice and the meat ... read more

The apartment we live in has started a hiking club; they meet once or twice a month at a nearby park and go hiking. Our first hike was at Sinsido, an island just south of Kunsan. To get there we drove along the new Saemangeum wall, the same road I ran the Half Marathon. Well when we got to the start of the trail and looked up I knew this would be a typical Korean hike; we went up over 100 steps. We stopped by the water and had lunch, one of the members who was not that familiar with hiking and packing lunch brought rice for everybody, over 5 pounds. It was a nice hike, many ups and downs, but lots of great views. ... read more

Hawaii May 6th thru May 10th I was in Hawaii, this was my third trip to Hawaii, but this time it was to take a NICET (National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies). I arrived in Honolulu at 10:00am on Thursday the 6th, I first went to my Hotel hoping I could get an early check in and freshen up from my long flight, but the room was not ready, so I went to where my NICET test would be, afterwards I went to Pearl Harbor and spent a couple of hours walking around and looking at all the monuments and maps, I was unable to make it to the USS Arizona monument as the tickets are free the start handing them out at 7:00am, by now it was around 3:00pm so I went back to ... read more

My wife and some of her friends have created a travel club, and this past weekend was our first trip to Wolchulsan National Park, in the South Western part of South Korea. This trip was recommended to us from our friend in Seoul, who also gives us "Bee Acupuncture", his son-in-law lives in the area (Yeongam), he is a professional photographer and wrote a book about Wolchulsan National park and the surrounding area, so he was our unofficial tour guide. We arrived in Yeongam Thursday afternoon and met up with Mr. Bak, who would be our tour guide for the next day-and-a-half. Our first stop was a massage place, we all enjoyed massages, you start out by laying on a bed that vibrated with magnets, we had to remove any credit cards and our cell phones, ... read more