Strawberry Festival

It's been a while since I blogged, especially with pictures that aren't a part of someone else's recipes and many of you are itching for pictures of the kids. While Bill has been working hard, Kim and the kids have been exploring Korea. Hopefully we will get all of our adventures up here soon, but here is our most recent. A few weeks ago, I got to go to the commissary by myself and the store was having a strawberry sale. After sampling and grabbing some to take home, the store manager began telling me about an upcoming trip to the Nonsan Strawberry Festival through the commissary. The trip was entirely free and limited to 40 people. Always up for an adventure, especially with locals who know my language, I signed the kids and myself up for the trip. Then I went home and researched the festival. Apparently, people come from all over to attend this annual event and we were no exception! We thought we would just be going to the festival where we would be picking strawberries, grabbing a bite of Korean food, and doing festival stuff. Our day was much different than expected, but in a great way. Turns out that one of the local produce suppliers sponsored this trip for us and took us on an adventure.

Our little Strawberry Shortcake

We climbed aboard a bus and made the two and a half hour drive to the strawberry farm where we picked strawberries from inside a greenhouse. Man was that a hot experience! About five minutes after we started picking strawberries, Kaitlyn attracted the attention of a local news crew covering the story. The reporter began interviewing her and, while at first she was quite shy, she did a great job answering the lady's questions clearly after a little reassurance from Mom.

Our TV star

He has gotten so big.

But still has chubby little baby hands.

Our next stop was at a traditional Korean restaurant. We took off our shoes and gathered on the floor around the table to take part in a traditional Korean lunch. The food was very good and definitely NOT American.

The weirdest thing on the table for someone who grew up catching and eating fish in America, was the way the fish here was served. Whole...on a plate. I was planning on shying away from this fish as I have done in the past, but have taught my children well and they wanted to try it. Fortunately, a nice gal on the trip whose mom is Korean showed me how to debone the fish and separate the eating from the not eating. The kids loved it and I got to try my newfound skill on fishy number 2.

As mentioned above, we really try to get our kids to try new things and they usually oblige. I also get a lot more food in my hand here than I ever have before. :) Sometimes they even take it upon themselves to try something new. This was certainly the case when I saw Ryan spitting into the dish with the red chili sauce. As I got onto him for spitting in the dish that was meant for our side of the table, not just for him, he gave me a one word response. Spicy! Turns out he took a slice of raw garlic and dipped it into the chili sauce. Fortunately, he tried the garlic again sans chili sauce and I got this shot!

Trying something new.

The something new...garlic dipped in chili sauce.

Our next stop was at a Korean History Museum. While I would love to come back and visit this museum with Bill, today was not the day I wanted to experience it. I knew that a two and a half hour bus ride, a somewhat quiet event like picking strawberries, another 20 minute bus ride, an hour sit down lunch, 15 more minutes on the bus, a two year old boy, and a history museum at nap time would be a disastrous combination, so I opted to stay outside with the kids and let them run. Fortunately we stumbled upon a great playground area with beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom. The kids ran and played and I took pictures. It was a winning combination and everyone (museum patrons included) was much happier! If you ever get the opportunity to visit the city of Nonsan, this is a must see area. Filled with grassy hills (okay I had to use a little imagination with this one as the grass is just starting to come back here), mountains, and beautiful lakes, it is a place we will be sharing with Daddy.

We boarded the bus once again and headed to the strawberry festival. First I have to say that I am glad we didn't go on a weekend, though I am sure it would have been fun. I could just envision it packed with people, but Friday afternoon it was a nice place to be. I wish we had more than an hour there, but now that I have been, we may head back on our own for next year's event.

A table filled with all sorts of seaweed. The kids tried dried, salted seaweed at the restaurant, but were not big fans.

Anywhere there was shade there were Korean ladies and their children painting. I also think these were the children of people involved in working the festival. Virtually every square inch of shaded ground was covered with these talented young painters and the shade went down the middle of long rows lined with vendors. The weather was perfect and it was so nice to see what a different culture does with their time. Looks like art has a very heavy influence here.

This little guy was absolutely mesmerized by my children. We were pretty far away from the towns that are used to having American around, so we were definitely a novelty. He stood perfectly still, just staring for at least a minute and a half as he stopped in our path until his mom came for him. I wonder how long he would have stood there soaking in the differences in our children.

These dresses were on display throughout the festival.

Entertainment from the stage.

There are some more great pictures of the kids in the photo gallery, so pop on over there if you have time and check them out. Hopefully I will be able to carve out a bit more time to blog our other recent adventures. You would be amazed if you knew how long the process takes!