Yongin Agricultural Theme Park 용인농촌테마파크

June 6th is Memorial Day here in Korea and Clark and I both had the day off, so we decided to spend it at Yongin Agricultural Theme Park. The park has a little bit of everything: wild flower garden (my favourite), small (very small) petting zoo, insect and farm tool/equipment exhibits, restaurant, walking/hiking paths, small pond, and a stream. There's also a children's play-gym area including an interactive fountain and "tu-ho" (투호), traditional Korean arrow throwing.

One of the highlights of the park is the "lookout sheds" or "weon-du-mak" (원두막). Arrive early enough and you can claim one for your very own; the perfect place to picnic, relax, and stay out of the heat. The park really is a haven for picnickers.

Undoubtedly though, the real draw to the park is the flowers.

If you have time, I highly recommend checking it out! Parking is free and admission is only 3000won (free for residents of Yongin - just show your ID). It opens at 9:30am and if you can, get there early. It starts to get crowded around noon.

Birthday Weekend

It took 20 years, but I finally felt bad the other day about teasing my mother on her 40th birthday when I was a teen. I don't remember exactly, but I seem to recall threatening to buy her a black rose and a dead rat that year and taunting her, along with my siblings, about her age. Unfortunately, having just celebrated my 36th birthday now has me fretting about my impending 40th birthday. Hopefully my mother is reading this and will be nicer to me than I was to her.

Despite feeling stressed about my age, I had quite a lovely birthday weekend. And just in case you don't believe me, check out this photo of Bubs passed out on Sunday at 4:45pm...poor kid didn't even make it to dinner time!

In prelude to the weekend, my lovely friend J visited for tea on Friday evening and brought me a piece of homemade birthday cake. Thanks J!

On Saturday morning, Clark and I took Bubs to the Seoul zoo. Bubs was super excited to ride the elephant train but horrified upon discovering that the ride doesn't last forever. Poor little guy, there was just no reasoning with him!

Fortunately, seeing the animals and monkeying around (pun intended^^) the zoo seemed to make up for his disappointment at not being able to ride the train for hours on end.

In the afternoon I picked up my awesome birthday cake courtesy of the lovely Leigh Heaney Lee of Ka Pai, then spent the rest of the day relaxing in the hair salon while Clark took care of Bubs.

And the fun continued today when my friend C came over with her daughter for a pizza party and leftover birthday cake. Then later, we trotted off to the movies to see MIB3 while Clark babysat the kiddos. Good times.