Home & More Photos

Tony and I made it home safely and without delay on Sunday. We left Japan at 3:30 pm Sunday and, after about 12 hours in the air, landed in Minneapolis at 11:00 am Sunday. Neither of us slept on the plane and we both tried to stay awake until a reasonable bed time, meaning we were up for about 30 hours. Yuck! We both worked Monday so we jumped right into the thick of things. Unfortunately I woke up sick Tuesday morning (and thanks to a heavy work load at the office and a few comments from the boss about the difficulty of my absence, no opportunity to stay home). Between jet lag, illness, thanksgiving travel and more...I am only now able to sit down and post a few more photos from our stay.

So, let's go back in time...back to Korea. Now that we are home I have better access to the photos Tony took, so we will begin with a few pictures from our first meeting with Oliver:

That's me, photo bombing my own son!

So happy we had interactive time during our first meeting.

The elephant backpack was a hit! He didn't want to leave it with us. He is so cute.

And our second meeting:

We played in-and-out, in-and-out of the car quite a bit.

A little Daddy and Oliver time

When we weren't visiting with Oliver or going to court, we were able to play tourist. We made our way to a number of areas of Seoul, mostly via the subway. Seoul is a massive city, and a beautiful combination of old and new. We would be walking down a multi-lane, busy street lined with tall modern skyscrapers and boom -- there's a temple. Amid the modern, there's the historic and traditional with cars driving by and all. What a sight! In general the people were friendly and the city was reasonably clean and safe. English was not a common second language, but for the most part we managed okay. Here are just a few photos from our trips around the city:

This temple compound was very large, and just on the edge of a bustling business district.
The mountains are in the background. 

Part of the same temple compound. Beautiful and peaceful.

The North Seoul Tower sits on top of a mountain right in the middle of the city.
We didn't go up into the tower, but from the area around the tower you can see a vast amount of the city.
 It was a great spot to get an idea of just how large the city is. 

A view from the top

Tony and I had a lovely Thanksgiving with family. Unfortunately we have not yet heard any update on our family's case, so we are still waiting for initial approval. Given the holiday and now the weekend, we are hopeful for news early next week. In the meantime we are both looking to start feeling 100% again -- jet lag for both of us, and for me this cold that doesn't want to ease up.

I hope you have all enjoyed Thanksgiving and are having a wonderful weekend!