Jim and Joan make their presence felt in Korea

First of all, Mom and Dad, thanks so much for coming to see us! It was an amazing time, and really warmed our Christmas holiday immensely. What a memory we now have to bring home with us...

As you can see from all these pictures, we took Mom and Dad to a temple and pottery village in Gyeongju, the subway, beach and fish market in Busan, then to the grand park in Ulsan, and among other things, on a dynamite scooter ride!

We also had many excellent dinners, some with our friends Jade and Ben. Christmas eve dinner was really enjoyable, at an Italian restaurant, for lack of availability of the more traditional Christmas foods (turkey/stuffing/cranberry sauce).

Overall I think that Korea welcomed Mom and Dad with open arms, exemplified by the picture of them with the two young ladies. These two came over and asked if they could have their picture taken, so Holly, Ben, Mom and Dad crowded in around them, and I was to take the picture. THEN, the girls said "No, No, No! Just with you two!" to Mom and Dad.

Everyone gave them a warm reception, everywhere we went. They were stars, definately!

I should mention that we saw the coolest bird in Korea! The Mandarin Duck. It's quite rare apparantly, and we were fortunate to see it in the park.

We had a GREAT time. Despite missing the comforts of a Candian Christmas, I feel like we rocked the house. Mom tells me she now wants to retire and move to Korea, so we couldn't have left that bad an impression on them!