For Ben's promotion his parents came from Tampa to spend a little over a week in Korea. Ben and I did our best to show them around. The first day we took them to the Chungcheongnam-do province, which is the province between mine and Ben's. We first stopped at Independence Hall of Korea which was this huge museum based on Korea's fight for independence against Japan.
After walking around and seeing the exhibits, including a turtle ship,
we came upon what seemed like a small celebration of something and were each handed piece of rice dough (or something like that).
It didn't have much of a taste, but I'm sure it was good for you. We then watched some teenagers do "the farmer dance" which involves a horn playing, gongs, drums and dancers.
It is a traditional Korean dance and we always seem to happen upon one of these performances. Before they started we got our pictures with them. They seemed excited to take their picture with us.
We got back in the car and headed for Gongju, the second capital of the Baekje kingdom back in the 400s. It was right up my alley. I love these kinds of places. My new passion is fortresses and Gongju definitely had a good fortress.
It was on the Geum river and had a great view of the city.
The fortress is named Gongsanseong and had many things to look at including a step well (though I'm not too sure what that is even though I did read the sign).
We walked along the fortress walls and got to see everything. Before we left Gongju we went to the tomb of King Muryeong, which, like all Korean tombs, was a big grass hill.
There was an exhibition hall that had replicas of the tombs, which was a nice retreat from the rain that was coming down. Did I mention that monsoon season is upon us here in Korea? Rice paddies need their rain. We then got back in the car (thankfully we rented a car so we had more control of our traveling unlike on the buses) and went to Magoksa Temple just northwest of Gongju.
We walked around the temple and then headed home, but I got this awesome picture first.
After walking around and seeing the exhibits, including a turtle ship, 
we came upon what seemed like a small celebration of something and were each handed piece of rice dough (or something like that).
It didn't have much of a taste, but I'm sure it was good for you. We then watched some teenagers do "the farmer dance" which involves a horn playing, gongs, drums and dancers.
It is a traditional Korean dance and we always seem to happen upon one of these performances. Before they started we got our pictures with them. They seemed excited to take their picture with us.
We got back in the car and headed for Gongju, the second capital of the Baekje kingdom back in the 400s. It was right up my alley. I love these kinds of places. My new passion is fortresses and Gongju definitely had a good fortress.
It was on the Geum river and had a great view of the city.
The fortress is named Gongsanseong and had many things to look at including a step well (though I'm not too sure what that is even though I did read the sign).
We walked along the fortress walls and got to see everything. Before we left Gongju we went to the tomb of King Muryeong, which, like all Korean tombs, was a big grass hill.
There was an exhibition hall that had replicas of the tombs, which was a nice retreat from the rain that was coming down. Did I mention that monsoon season is upon us here in Korea? Rice paddies need their rain. We then got back in the car (thankfully we rented a car so we had more control of our traveling unlike on the buses) and went to Magoksa Temple just northwest of Gongju.
We walked around the temple and then headed home, but I got this awesome picture first.
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