This morning at 6 am. my brother’s family came to pick us to go to The Caribbean Bay Water Park. FUN!

We got here bright and early to beat the crowd.

Biggest hot dog I ever had. Andrew, are you jealous?

We played in the water until 6 pm then we headed over to Everland Amusement park next door.

Fun at the gift shop

I saw so many fun looking candies that I told kids to grab a bag and get some candies. They looked at me with squinty eyes and poked me to see if I was their real mom. Oh kids… 

I took the kids to old town in Seoul, called Ik-Sun-Dong Hanok Village, where residents still live. There’s one section that old buildings have been converted into very chic cafes and restaurants. By 11:30pm, we saw people lining up to get into restaurants.

We had a brunch at one of the cafes here. 

Then dumplings from the “Best Dumpling place”. I have to agree with the name. We couldn’t get a table because the waiting line was too long, so we ordered to go.

We also wandered around bustling streets of Myeong-Dong where it’s packed with international fashion brands, luxury department stores and homegrown cosmetic shops. I came home with 20+ different kinds of face masks as well as masks for hair and feet. They had so much variety!

Today we hopped on a subway train and went to a bookstore inside The Hyundai Department store.

I love the food court in the department stores. They got so much varieties of amazing food. 

Chicken leg stuffed with fried rice

cold buckwheat noodles (??)

Mozzarella stick & French fries?  Why not…

We stepped outside of my parents place and walked a few blocks to  a bakery for some coffee and delicious pastry. I love how convenient it is. Everything available within walking distance.

Chloe’s sad because she’s missing her dad…

Got them ice cream to cheer them up. An easy fix. 🙂

This is what’s for dinner.

Come to my belly.

From the last meal in San Francisco to

The first meal in Korea at 4:30 a.m.!
Kids and I flew to S. Korea while Andrew flew back home to NJ. We survived 12 hour flight, no problem. We were so exhausted from the Yosemite adventure we slept through most of our flight. We all fell asleep an hour into taking off and when we woke up, we only had an hour left to landing. It was the best flight!

Oh how I missed you my country, and real authentic Korean food…:)
We’re so excited to spend a whole month here!!!

Today is the last day of Backroads tour at Yosemite…So Sad!

We’ll miss everyone~~ Thank you for being so awesome~~~!!!!

Heading back to SF then off to Korea tonight!

After the bike ride, we arrived at this beautiful Rainbow Pools. This place is such a gem! Rainbow Pools are natural swimming holes along the south fork of the Tuolumne River, where one can dip their feet, take a plunge or just watch courageous kids jump the rock lined ledges into the largest of the inviting pools. Yep. We were the courageous kids!

I hadn’t planned on jumping in at first but I got inspired by my kids jumping in without any hesitation, so I decided to jump right in too. I was scared but so glad I did! When in Rome, right?

Today is the final day of backroads tour and this morning we set off to do some exploring on two wheels. This ride travels over some rolling hills before descending along the Tuolomne River, where we enjoyed picturesque views on the way to Rainbow Pools. Along
the way, we saw the evidence of the devastating 2013
Rim Fire, the third largest wildfire in California history, that burnt over 250,000 acres. Distance to Rainbow Pool: .13.6 miles

I was so proud of the kids so bravely riding their way downhill on this curvy roads along the side of the cliffs.

After about 2/3 or the ride where the roads got really steep, kids and Andrew got into the van for the remainder of the ride and I continued to ride my bike to the final destination. What a spectacular view! I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures at this point as the roads were pretty steep and I was just soaking up on  beautiful Tuolumne River canyon.

While others felt they had enough of hiking during this trip, Chloe and I couldn’t pass the opportunity to see more. So it was me, Chloe, Marc and our leader Zoë who continued through forest to the base of Lembert Dome, to a huge mound of polished granite rising 800 feet above Tuolumne Meadows. It was definitely one of the hardest and scariest I’ve ever climbed to get to the top. Not to mention, I was fearful for Chloe as the slope was really steep and it was very windy but she did so much better than me. I was the one who was lagging behind and slowing everyone down. 

The view from the top was impressive from a distance, but from the top, the endless views were well worth the effort!

What a cool moment this was! The rest of the group who stayed by the river spotted us  from all the way bottom, so we did a little victory dance.

Coming down was even more scary!

Today we are spending the day hiking in the Sierra Nevada high country. After breakfast we shuttle to Tuolumne Meadows, the largest subalpine meadow in the Sierra Nevada. Sitting at 8,600 feet, it was created by a glacier more than 2,000 feet thick and
21?2 miles long!

We crossed two forks of the Tuolumne River, whose rushing waters wind through the meadow, past granite domes, alpine lakes and deep canyons, and into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

Our Tour family picture.

And picture with our fabulous leaders. We’ll miss you guys so much! They’ve been so wonderfully catering to our every needs with big smiles and such enthusiasm making our trip such an awesome experience.  It’s been so convent and luxurious to be cared by them, it’ll be a difficult transition to get used to our normal life without them. You guys rock!