Adventures with Gramps--Around Town

On Gramps' last full day with us we decided to hang out around our area.  We did a small bit of driving to an area called Osan which is just to the south of Suwon where there is a US military base.  The Osan area is a bit shady; it's commonplace to see bootlegged DVD's or "black market" food stores that illegally sell American food from the base.  Despite its rough exterior, there are a lot of great souvenir shops and places to eat so its a worthwhile place to check out.

After doing a bit of shopping we took my dad to our favorite local galbi restaurant for a Korean feast.

Then to top off a great day Gramps went on a little adventure.  Last year my dad saw what we thought was an old bell in Suwon that he wanted to check out but we ran out of time.  This year we made it a point to take Gramps to see the sought after bell.  What Gramps didn't realize was that to get to this said "bell" you had to hike up stairs for at least 15 straight minutes.  :-) I was kicking it at home with the bubs when Tom and Gramps went out, but apparently it was quite a leg workout.

Once they got to the top the realized the bell was okay...

But it wasn't the star of the show.  In reality, what probably caught my dad's eye a year ago was this little beauty:

There was also a phenomenal view of the city from up there.  I think it was worth all those stairs in the end, right Gramps?

The next day Gramps headed off to the airport and since then has safely arrived back in the midwest. We had such a great time together.  

Toward the end of the trip I was chatting with my dad and I told him that it really meant a lot to us that he came out to Korea since this has been such a special place for us for the past four years.  His response was great, "Now that I've been here twice it's special for me too."