Our first campout

Happy Independence Day!! What a fabulous day to be free.

Bee and I took our first campout together this 4th of July weekend. It was delightful. We have been looking for places to go camping for a while now. It is hard to find places to camp here not knowing the language but I found two seperate places to try out. One was right out side of Seoul, near where we live, and the other was farther south more in the country. I decided we would go to the one a little further way because I had detailed directions on how to get there because I know someone who had already been there. It was also in the same valley as Osan Air Force Base which I was not sure would be doing fireworks that night. If they were though we would be close enough to see them.

We packed up in the afternoon and headed down to the campground. The only thing we where missing was Marshmallows for S'mores we wanted to make that night. So we stopped by the Shoppette on base to see if they had any...they didn't! I figured we would just stop by one of the big Korean supermarkets (E-Mart or Lotte Mart) on the way down to the camp ground and buy some. The first store we came across was a Lotte Mart. We parked and went inside. In the states it would be compared to a Super Walmart. I knew I could just ask someone if they had marshmallows but I figured we could look around a while and try our luck at finding them ourselves. We wandered the isles til I found where I thought they should be. Nothing! Time to try asking someone. Marshmallows? "Mashi-mello; no, an-yo!" with the X made with the hands was the reply. What I don't get is how can both this Korean, and the one at the shoppette know exactly what I am talking about when I say marshmallows but them not sell them at this super-Walmart of a store! Sense we could not get our hand on some fluffy marshmallows we picked up a few other sugary confections to try our hand at roasting.

We made it to the place we planned on camping and managed to convey to the lady working at the gate that we were interested in spending the night. I was a little disappointed in the campgrounds but it seemed to work great for our first camping trip. The place was a river park in which there were car camping sites. There were no trees though, it was just a cleared area with a loop to drive around and a bunch of little coves to park in with a small patch of grass between you and the next cove to set up your camp in. Luckily we were the only ones there so we had plenty of room all to ourselves. I parked the car in front of the parking cove and Bee and I set up our fire-pit; and chairs in the cove and set up our tent in the grass next to it. It was a very humble little campsite. We had prepared our tinfoil dinners earlier in the day so we threw them on the coals and let them to cook as we chatted. The meat turned out a little under-seasoned but the veggies were very tasty.

After dinner we broke into the sweets. As I mentioned we did not have marshmallows for s'mores but we did bring Starbursts for roasting, and I bought to try Swedish Fish and sour gummy bears- that's right, gummy bears! Starbursts is an old favorite and if you have never tried roasting them you should. Don't heat them too long or they will just fall off into the fire but if you roast them just a little bit the outside will crystallize and the inside will become warm and soft and makes for a great sensation on the tongue. The Swedish Fish was a total flop but gummy bears- oh my goodness! I think we found a keeper. Not only are they warm and soft in your mouth it is so much fun to stab the little guys through with the skewer.

As it started getting later I kept on the lookout to the west for fireworks and sure enough, as we were experimenting with roasting sweets they started going off in the distance. We adjusted our seats for the show and enjoyed the show. It was a good one. Lots of big and stunning fireworks. We were close enough to them that we could hear the explosions but it was neat that we were far enough that we would see them go off and a few seconds later we would hear the boom. The one draw back to our location was that the wind was blowing the smoke our way so it obscured most of the later part of the show. We still enjoyed it though. I was not even sure we were going to have a show. I am glad we did.

The next morning when we woke up the first time it was super foggy. We slept in and it was gone when we woke up later. We made some oatmeal and broke down camp and headed for home. It was a fun adventure. I don't think we will be camping there again but it was enjoyable for the night, especially being able to enjoy the firework show. It was a grand first camping trip together. And we look forward to many many more together.

{pictures to come soon}