Family visit, cont'd

Sunday we all went to Insadong and had tonkatsu (breaded and fried pork cutlet with a dark sauce) and smoked chicken at the cutest little place that was filled with plants and tucked away over the shops at the beginning of the street. We just wandered around and explored this area known as the artists' district-filled with art galleries, ancient brass figures, wooden carvings by monks, pretty fans, handmade paper, and more.
Monday was our last day with Mom and Em, and Rach and I took the two of them to Changgyeonggung, a palace and shrine in northeast Seoul. It was an incredibly hot day, so we took our time exploring, and finished out the day in Itaewon looking at antiques.
Tuesday was sad, as we had to put Mom and Em on an airplane home. We had such a good time while they were here. It was so nice to finally be able to show them the places we had talked about for so long...
Wednesday and Thursday we checked out Kim's club, a Korean grocery store, to pick up a few items to cook, and Namdaemun market-so Dad could do his souvenir shopping. It was a rainy couple days, so we were hopping from awning to awning checking out chopsticks, t-shirts, and lots of other stuff.
Friday we visited another palace-this time Gyeongbokgung. This is the only palace in Korea that has a pavilion over water. Absolutely beautiful place! That evening, Dad took us out to eat at Sancheon Mountain Village. This restaurant was incredible! It serves Temple food (food that monks eat, basically), and they serve you full meal with an array of vegetarian dishes, and there is a live performance as well. It was pretty amazing, and we had a great time. They even pulled Dad and I up on to the floor with some other people to participate in a traditional dance thing. It was so cool. We had a blast. :)
Saturday was another cool day. We took the subway down to Suwon, about 50 min. Suwon is a city-fortress. Back in the day, the entire city was surrounded by a wall complete with archery towers. Now, the city has grown outside the walls, and you can walk the length of the wall, about 5.7 km (less than 3 miles). We walked about 1/2 the wall, which just happened to be the only non-level part! Very steep, good workout :). We also payed a couple thousand won to ring a huge bell that looked out over the city. Three rings symbolize a prayer for the health of your family, for peace for your ancestors and for the happiness of your descendants...or something of that nature. We didn't realize how symbolic it was until afterward, because the placquard that explained it was around the corner-so there might have been some irreverence on our part. Whoops...
Anyway, it was lots of fun, and we finished off the day by eating at Woori Garden, which Dad claimed was the best meal he had had yet in Korea.
We had such a wonderful time with our family, and it felt so strange not to have any guests in the apartment the next day. Oh well, back to normal I guess. Check out all the pics here.