2018 – The trip begins: South Korea

October 10 – after a seemingly endless series of lucky breaks involving split second timing, cars, houses (except the one in Yachats, the buyer is having trouble with his mortgage company), and other things, we are finally off on the big trip!

Our itinerary:

The players:

Breakfast in Daejeun

Jang-Dong

Daegu

Gumi-si

Pohang

First KFC in Korea. The chickens had not arrived yet, so we had chicken parts. The chickens were delivered as the parts were cooking! Good, but not as good as Moodle Bowl

Last morning on Jeju-do

On to Busan, staying with Seong’s dad’s youngest sister first, then oldest sister.

Sashimi dinner in Busan, ten people, soup, fish, banchan, the works, about $240.

Sunday, so it’s breakfast, church, then lunch. During the service Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Jackson and Sedona all came up, but came up short. Kudos to Rockefeller family, supported a lot of churches.

Changnyeoung

Seong doing a bit of trip planning:

Geode Island

Finally, decent KFC! Our hosts went out and bought two of these, *after* the dinner out. We almost finished them!

Our hosts!

At the market in Tongyoung

Before picture

Seong getting incredibly speedy work

After picture

I thought we were about to leave for the bullet train to Seoul but one more meal, based around sweet potatoes harvested this morning

Seong’s elementary school in Seoul (Cheonho Dong)

Suwon

Her father’s brother hosted us too. He can talk endlessly about the threat from North Korea until the family expressed outrage.

Hiking with Seong’s father’s oldest brother. We heard a lot about North Korea and his take on Christianity. It was quite dark when we finished!

2018 Maine

A drive to PDX on Sunday 8/28, a flight to Bangor, a night at the Four Points Airport Sheraton, then a bunch of paperwork (Soon, houses, estate) and a breakfast and whole blueberry pie at Dysarts truck stop. Steve Pocock got us on the boat to fuel up and water Ceilidh.

We met Teke’s new friend Karen and made a dinner of halibut, corn, Caesar, asparagus, and Broadley. Leisurely coffee the next morning and a Tuesday departure for Southwest Harbor to meet Teke and Karen for dinner at Cafe 2. A night on the mooring at Beal’s ($50, no services!), a hike, mussels and a huge lobster roll with the extra lobster option, then a 2pm departure for Winter Harbor to meet Deb and Bob.  Later, Schoodic Peninsula.  Here’s where we stayed in Winter Harbor.

WinterHarbor_exp

Next: Lunt’s Harbor at Frenchboro (we ate the last meal they served this year!), Isle au Haut, North Haven, Camden, Dark Harbor on Islesboro, Castine, Buck Harbor, Blue Hill and home.  Unfortunately, we lost most of the photos, somehow.

In the Fox Island Thoroughfare.  Not our photo, stolen from the internet:

North_Haven

September 4

Pizza and coffee for breakfast on the porch of a beautiful B&B, Nebo on North Haven It as an amazing crisp fall morning, perfect for discovering the island on borrowed cruiser bikes. A beautiful sail to Camden, showers at Lyman-Morse, laundry, beers, dinner at Fresh.

Camden

Camden_hike

At Buck Harbor, we tried to go to that nice restaurant, but no go.

BuckHarbor1

BuckHarbor2