SEEING THE SITES OF KOREA

While the Temple was shut down for 2 weeks we got to do some site seeing. We took off Monday the 9th and rode the bullet train (170 to 186 miles per hour, that is faster than my airplane goes) to Pusan, that is where I served as a missionary 50 years ago.  We traveled with another Senior Missionary couple who are serving a Public Affairs mission here, Elder and Sister Peck.  Our missions over-lapped 50 years ago.  We stayed with our former Temple trainers Brother Yang and Sister Kim.  They kept us busy from early morning until late evening.  We would tour all day and into the evening then return to their apartment for great Korean dinner and then slept on the floor, Korean style.  That is just a heated mat with a thin blanked on top and another blanket to put on top of us. 

The first day we toured areas close to where Brother Yang lives, the second day we traveled by bus to the city of Chinhae for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Sister Kim's brother took us all over in his van, which was great. In Chinhae they have ornamental cherry trees throughout the city and on the hillsides mixed among the green trees.  Many of the streets have cherry trees on both sides so that the limbs form a sort of tunnel of cherry blossoms, it was really beautiful.  The third day there we did the Pusan City tour, in a bus,  They take you to different sites and you can get off and spend what time you want there then you catch one of the other buses later on.  We spent an hour and a half walking around a small Island park, it was beautiful.  We also got to see the UN National Cemetery.

It was really refreshing to see some of the beauty of Korea, Seoul is just city.  Down south we saw the ocean, sky, cliffs and rocks and the ocean.  There were cherry blossoms everywhere we went.  There were small mountains in view in most directions.  The natural beauty enriched our souls.

We returned to Seoul on the Bullet train on Thursday and took the Subway train up North to Camp Casey where another American Senior Couple are serving.  When they found out we had to be out of our apartment for a week they invited us to come and stay with them.  We toured the Base but other than that we mostly just visited and relaxed.  We got back into our apartment Saturday at noon and spent the rest of the day shopping and unpacking.  

Monday the 23rd we spent the afternoon at the War Memorial.  It was sobering to see all that the Koreans and others have gone through to have FREEDOM.  Tuesday we went to the National Museum.  Many interesting and beautiful artifacts etc.  

GREAT TIMES WITH GREAT PEOPLE SEEING GREAT SITES!