Seoul - Day 1: Shopping! (And a little culture)

What better way to combat jet lag than to get out to the stores, eh? That's the plan at least. Y and H arrived at the Airbnb after their red-eye flights from California and we immediately celebrated with some milk bread. It's basically a pastry with a lightly sweet cream filling. Pretty good but also pretty heavy so glad I had two other people to split it with!

I then visited our local convenience store to pickup some instant noodles and Korean hi-chews and then off we went!

First stop: Starbucks. Yep, so Korean. But actually it was -- little cute Korean themed coffee mugs and trinkets and the seating was raised platforms too. I realized after we left I should have taken a photo...

Second stop: eyeglass store. Apparently prescription glasses and sunglasses can be made VERY quickly and cheaply. Like, within an hour or two quickly. 

But V and Y wanted styles that weren't immediately in stock so they'll have to go back to pick up in another couple days. We went to Davichi but there are a TON everywhere. It was next to the National Post Office.

Third stop: Myeondong shops. For those who recommend Lotte Duty Free -- I have to say even Duty Free, this was too expensive for me. 😆 I found the underground shopping at the little shops more my style. Picked up a bag, some socks, a pair of pants, and some fresh squeezed orange juice (very tasty!). 

By lunchtime, we were ready for some sustenance! Thanks to V for finding us THE place for beef noodle soup and dumplings - Myeongdong Kyoja. 

We had one cold spicy noodle (like a liang ban mian):

The kimchi was spicy but delicious! 

Two tiers of dumplings:

And four chicken broth dumpling and noodle soups -- what they are apparently really known for. 

Really everything (there are only 3 menu items) were delicious. But you have to order before you are even seated so be prepared. 

They are very proud of their Michelin recognition:

After lunch we split up a bit -- Y went off for a K-beauty makeup lesson (from a real life Kpop celebrity makeup artist) -- it was over 2 hours long and cost about $230 but it was VERY detailed. She reports that there were a lot of steps and left with a very long list of products to buy at Olive Young. She asked the makeup artist to do half her face and then she did the other half and the MAU corrected her as she went so very informative! (She reports a learning was how to use blush properly and properly prepare your face for the makeup). There were lots of options online -- though note that finding a lesson in English is generally harder -- Y thought it was a good pamper experience. No photos of the specific makeover but here's a shot of the private makeup room:

If you do want to try it out, it was Jung Saem Mool in the Lotte Mall at Myeongdong. Note that it's in the 10th floor of the AvenueL tower of the Lotte mall -- there are three towers/banks of elevators so make sure you to the right one. 

The rest of us went off to the Myeongdong shopping streets -- SO MANY STORES. It reminded me of the Tokyo Harajuku shopping streets but with much more manageable crowds. 

I purchased a few more items -- also hitting up a Daiso on the way (always hard to leave a Daiso without a bucket of purchases). The process left me winded enough that I totally succumbed to the marketing flyer for a foot massage. It was about $20 and kind of rough but I think good for my tired tired feet. It included a hot wax wrap at the end:

After all the shopping, we decided to get a little culture -- off to the Leeum Art Gallery! 

The museum is run/owned by the Samsung family. The permanent exhibits are free and arranged on four floors around a circular staircase. Kind of a cool concept architecturally:

This was a pretty cool room -- all of the jade saucers and cups inside are from different historic eras. 

Here's a miniature palace/pagoda -- more impressive in person. 

There also was a Tigers and Magpies exhibit - interesting seeing how the Korean ancient painting styles were sort of similar but noticeably not the same as ancient Chinese styles. 

There were also some more modern art exhibits -- I'm calling this the hahaha room: 

Dinner tonight was with our new friend Beomsu, the head of Baker McKenzie's Seoul office. He selected a very cool Italian restaurant in the Hannam area - L'atelier de Orzo.

The food was unexpectedly quite tasty. I have to admit we weren't expecting much at first for the quality of an Italian restaurant in Seoul but as one of my dinnermates said -- Korea tends to "Korean-ize" other cuisines - they add more ingredients or flavors to make it more complex. Every dish was really tasty -- in surprising ways. Here's the only picture we managed to take because every other dish we got too excited and started eating before we remembered to take a picture. 

After stuffing ourselves to the point where we had to let a piece of filet mignon go uneaten, we were yawning at a socially rude frequency...hailed an Uber and off to bed. 

We were all out shortly after 9pm. Very successful first full day in Seoul - tomorrow, spa!

Seoul - Intro & Arrival

Hello friends! Time for a new adventure. This one is a bit unusual -- for the first time on this blog, I'm doing a Mama only trip -- no Baba, no L & R, just Mama and four of her girlfriends. Cue reactions ranging from shock to dismay to jealousy. 😆 Our itinerary includes a dermatology clinic for facial treatments, a salon for scalp cleanses, color consults, and Kpop inspired makeovers, a LOT of shopping and a lot of food. We will try our best to squeeze some landmarks or museums in there too but having been to Korea before and knowing I'll likely go again with the family, I'm not focused too much on the normal tourist sights. 

This trip to Seoul stemmed from a few things: 1) K-beauty craze - want to see clean beauty at its source! 2) Friend travel - I need to make more travel friends (Baba has suggested he doesn't want to travel as much in retirement so I gotta find other travel mates!) 3) We normally all attend NAPABA together at this time of year but Denver just didn't seem very appealing. 

So here I am taking a solo non-work flight off to Asia for the first time in at least a decade. Also my first interaction with Air Premia. I've been telling folks it's like Zipair for Korea. But the luggage allocation was MUCH better for Air Premia -- I could check a real suitcase and bring a normal carryon both for free! No more crazy packing to fit all of our things into six different 9kg bags 😆. 

Thoughts: 1) the bathrooms smelled nice! These scent packets they tie on the doors really do wonders. I may have to find some and buy them for bathrooms at home...2) the food was decent to a non-Korean like me. I'm sure it was the worst bibimbop ever, but hey it has rice and decently flavorful sauces, the salad dressing was not overly heavy and the chocolate cake wasn't too sweet. 3) the seats had decent leg room...but I have to complain about the etiquette of the guy in front of me. Not only did he lean back at EVERY opportunity (the flight attendants had to remind him at every meal service and takeoff/landing) but he was sleeping with his shoes off - BARE feet - on the empty middle seat! If I had been the stranger sitting in the aisle I would have been SO grossed out. 4) only entertainment was Korean with English subtitles. Which would have been less of a problem except...5) wifi was unavailable the entire flight! There goes my catch up on work plan. Good thing I at least had a novel downloaded to read. So overall it was an okay flight with the downsides mainly resulting from the wifi issue. I would have downloaded some docs and emails if I had known. Will be better prepared for flight back! Honestly it seemed like a standard economy flight on United or American or any other US airline. 

Arrival in Incheon was fairly smooth -- got the quarantine card check, filled out e-arrival while standing in customs line, picked up bag, snagged a pastry from the airport shops in case I get hungry at 2am (paid with my Google Pixel Watch! That was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect it to work. That's a major plus for Korea compared to Japan and China!) - into the taxi about 75 minutes after landing. Taxi ride was about an hour (in POURING rain at the last 10 min or so) and cost about $50. The Airbnb is cozy but welcoming -- off to bed -- tomorrow we start the fun!

Alaska Cruise - Day 11: Going out strong!

It was the last full cruising day today. Last lunch, last dinner, last evening drinks, last trivia and game shows! Maybe because it was the last opportunity, but both twins volunteered for the top/middle/bottom game show today! R did not last very long...

But L won!

Celebrating with chocolate banana milkshakes and more strawberry daiquiris.

Since I once again didn't take many photos on this sea, I thought I'd close out with some overall thoughts about the cruise.

1. Princess Cruise Lines -- maybe it was the itinerary, or maybe it's just all cruise lines besides Disney, but the makeup of the cruising passengers was noticeably different. Lots of older couples, some large multi generational groups, but very few people our age and not that many kids either.  The food was...sort of meh. I liked a few things but maybe I'm overly critical because they never had crab legs EVER the entire cruise -- and this was a cruise to Alaska!! The medallion service was actually really nice/useful (where you can order a drink or food from anywhere on the ship and they use your medallion to track you and deliver it to you). Entertainment...was lacking. There was actually one night with a comic/magician who was REALLY funny (ah the three ping pong balls...) but otherwise all the shows were kind of mediocre. Definitely not up to Disney caliber. The public spaces were okay...but nothing that was themed really memorably. The service was better than the Pride of America but definitely not at the level of Disney. 

2. Our staterooms - it was kind of a game changer having two staterooms for the four of us. The kids stayed up till midnight more often, but I guess that's what vacations are for? The layout was sufficient given that and our balcony I did think had more space than the ones on Disney. But the rooms otherwise felt a little bit dated (like there were so few plugs outlets!). But the stateroom service was always very prompt and effective.

3. Alaska - I was maybe expecting too much? I thought the glaciers were cool...but didn't wow me the way I thought they would. Maybe we needed to go deeper into Alaska? I felt like a lot of it was fairly similar to Montana. It was interesting having a cruise that wasn't going to islands and beaches all the time, that bit I think I liked (weather in the 60s and 70s instead of 90s). It would have been nice separating the port days more though, as is it felt a bit go go go for that stretch of Ketchikan, Haines, Juneau, Glacier Bay. I do want to do that 21 day solstice cruise someday though, then I can say I gave Alaska a fair shake.

4. Phones - definitely not getting the twins phones before high school. They were addicted to those things even when they didn't have full Internet connectivity all the time. Screens bad! Next cruise, back to old fashioned "leave me a note on the whiteboard door" perhaps... 😆 

5. Leaving from SF - SO nice. Seriously. We will definitely do this again, doesn't even really matter where the cruise goes. 

6. Longer cruises -- I'm totally down for them. This did NOT feel that long at 11 days. I could have gone for another week. There were people on this cruise who had been on back to backs continuously such that they were on for months! That might be a bit much for me. I would get bored of always cruising the same areas, but 60 days around Asia/Africa? Totally down for that. 

Photos from the twins of the departure morning breakfast:

Those expressions about sum it up for us. Summer vacation over!

Alaska Cruise - Day 10: Birthday at Sea

Birthday day for Ian! Luckily, it's another sea day, so he doesn't have to wake up early. But - nature had some plans in store - there was a huge pod of whales that came by this morning, so Ian woke up (at least briefly) for that:

The rest of the day was spent in a combination of card playing, eating, drinking, and laying around again. Some highlights of note:

Kids enjoying the silent dance party (it was fun but not as enjoyable as Disney's because it wasn't in a dark room, so some folks were more self conscious).

Seeing a very nice sunset from the dinner table. I think we were on the wrong side for most of the pretty sunsets each night.

But we snagged a good spot this time!

L discovering strawberry daiquiris (yes, the non-alcoholic version!)

And of course, the attention drawing birthday celebration cake and song:

We didn't opt for any photo packages this cruise, so this is as close as we get to a formal night portrait!

Tomorrow is our last full day at sea. Sniffle. All good things must come to an end eventually...

Alaska Cruise - Day 9: Victoria

For those who don't cruise much, you may find it interesting to learn that every US cruise must include an international port. Why you ask? There is this law that requires every foreign flagged cruise ship (ie, you're technically "based" in that foreign country) to visit an international port on a journey before returning to a US port to pick up more passengers. Foreign flagged by ships are able to avoid various US employment, gambling, etc laws. This is why the Pride of America cruise by Norwegian, which only cruises amongst the Hawaiian islands, is the only major cruise ship that is a US flagged ship, does not have a casino, and is staffed entirely by US workers. 

So, because of this rule, all Alaska cruises include some stop in Canada. For us, it's Victoria, BC. 

We dock at 3 pm today so it's more like a half day again. That meant we had time in the morning for more shipboard activities. I actually made the kids go line dancing with me today! I had a good time...the kids...lasted two songs at least. 

They were very happy to escape off the ship to Canada.

I was sad I couldn't make it to the famous Butchart gardens (they close early on Mondays) but it left us more than enough time for High Tea at the Fairmont Empress! 

Here is a shot of the twins being duly impressed by the tea set on display that was used by Queen Elizabeth when she visited.

The tea was a fairly typical high tea get up -- I thought the scones were particularly nice -- nice and fluffy and soft. The kids were partial to the coronation chicken sandwiches.

The Empress tea blend was a surprise -- since we had a group of eight, we actually tried out a bunch of different teas and the Empress was by far my favorite. Since it was the day before Ian's birthday, they actually gifted Ian a box of the Empress tea as a special birthday gift! 

After downing a lot of clotted cream and sweets...we reconsidered my original plan to take a tour of the city by horse drawn carriage and opted to walk instead. They were very pretty horses though!

Here's a family shot with the Parliament building. 

Twins at the harbor. I will credit the twins with this -- they may be tired and cranky and complaining...but as soon as I say I'm taking a picture, they immediately pose with very nice smiles. 😆 

Yes, that is in fact a boba tea cup in each of their hands. Apparently pots of tea and trays of scones do not fill up the extra stomach each twin keeps just for boba. 

Nor apparently does afternoon tea fill Ian's special stomach compartment for pork buns. 

Are you thinking...boba tea...bbq pork bao...yes that's right, we walked to Victoria's Chinatown -- the oldest a Chinatown in Canada and the second oldest in North America! (Second only to our very own San Francisco).

After the Chinatown visit we slowly walked back to the ship - this was our last port day. 

The end of the cruise is creeping up on us. Thank goodness we still have two whole sea days left before we get back home though!

Alaska Cruise - Day 8: Back to Sea Days!

Well....when you miss a few days and try to catch up on blogging, you become VERY reliant on pictures. Unfortunately, this was a sea day after a string of port days, so there were only three photos total for this day...

There has been a lot of phone using for the twins this trip. We had to give them phones so that they could text us on the ship...I think they will be very sad when we disembark and lose the phones...

Apparently I went to check out the art auction this day. People spend a lot of money on art on cruise ships! Surprising, because a lot of the artists are ONLY represented on cruise ships. Apparently some of the people buy so much art they get free cruises (like big spenders in casinos). 

This was the first day the kids went to the pool -- and it was NOT a warm day. I was very impressed that they were willing to jump in. I think the long hot tub soaks in between helped. 

The rest of the day...was spent in some combination of eating...sleeping...drinking...laying around...generally resting and relaxing. 

I promise tomorrow's post will be more exciting -- Victoria!
 

Alaska Cruise - Day 7: Glacier Bay

We passed into Glacier Bay at 6 am this morning -- I wasn't awake to see it, but apparently a little boat came by and did a "controlled collision" with our boat and then traveled at the same speed alongside it so that the National Park Rangers could climb from the little boat on the big boat using rope ladders on the side. Once they got onboard, they started announcing sightings of wildlife and describing the different islands and glaciers that we were passing. We traveled north through the bay very quickly and then parked at the end of Tarr Inlet for about an hour. This was the view out of our balcony - not bad, right?

But the actual star of the show was the OTHER side of the ship -- Marjorie Glacier!

I didn't make it to a viewing spot early enough to catch good shots of the ice calving, but there were some big ones -- the waves from the huge chunks of ice falling off got halfway to the ship even. After half an hour the ship turned so that the people waiting in the balconies on the other side could get a view:

I was able to catch an action shot this time - it wasn't nearly as impressive as the big ones earlier, but you can still hear the thundering sound of the ice falling.

 

The kids didn't have much patience for watching ice fall all day but we managed to snag at least one shot to prove they were there. 

I'm afraid all the other shots today are just of the scenery. Here's a close up of I think the Lamplugh glacier?

I theoretically knew that glaciers were rivers of ice created by years and years of packed snowfall but having now seen them, I feel like only now so I really understand how they are literally "rivers" that are slowly moving down the mountains. 

I think this is the end of Johns Hopkins Inlet. The colors would have been more impressive if we had some sun...

Close up of Johns Hopkins Glacier.

A shot of one of the many runoff streams -- it was so quiet passing through the Bay that often the only thing you could hear was the sound of these little waterfalls.

A picture of the lower half of Glacier Bay - lots of floating ice all along the way.

We also did a close pass by Marble Island, where dozens and dozens of seals were sunning themselves. 

At this point, the clouds also parted and the sun came out -- all of us in our parkas and mittens suddenly shed all the layers and felt like it was a Caribbean cruise!

While technically there was no "port" today, it still felt kind of activity-filled. All of us are looking forward to having a restful sea day tomorrow!