I spent the weekend with the apples of my eye, and about 40 other Lockheed families for the LM Family Trip. It was a sweet weekend because all three kids had a friend or more to hang out with, but it was also balanced with family time.
The big group loaded a tour bus and drove about 3 hours to the Taean-gun area, which is northwest of us.
First stop: Yesan Apple Orchard.
Our first activity was making apple pies. We all listened eagerly as they told us what we were going to do.
Chop chop, my little bakers.
Ready for the oven!
The next activity was 'making' apple jelly. They told us the process takes about 4-5 hours so they had done 90% of the work for us.
Basically we turned on the fire and stirred for a few minutes.
After our jelly was poured into our jars, we took a tour of the Chusa Apple Distillery. The tour guide had studied in Canada, and then married into the family that had an apple farm. Turns out the grapes in Korea are not good for wine making, but the apples work.
The winery makes 3 types of wine. Apple Wine was a light color with gold flakes, Rose Sweet was a darker color, which is made from special apples (maybe Sweedish?) that are red inside, and Blue Sweet was made from blueberries.
Brandy for our tasting was drawn from this keg. It was super strong, which I guess all brandy is.
Next activity: apple picking.
Our instructions were to study the whole apple front and back to make sure there were no bad spots. Then grab the apple with one hand, the stem with the other, and pull up.
After apple picking, our pies were hot from the oven!
Back on the bus! Next stop: Salt Farming in Byeotgari maeul (village)
When we walked up it just kind of looked like a mess.
We were instructed to take off our shoes and socks. In we jumped into the cold water and started using these squeegee-type things to push the salt to the center. The salt crystals were large and hurt your feet.
This is what it looked like when we were done. Basically we paid them to do their work for them. Brilliant business strategy!
From what I gathered, sea salt is produced from the evaporation of sea water. It sits for about a month so that the salt becomes dense into large crystals. Then it is spread thinly and pushed into large piles to be collected, like we did. Once it is collected, it sits and cures for about 6 months. The salt in the picture below is in the process of forming large crystals.
Definitely interesting! Just think, the salt you use at dinner may have been stepped on by someone's bare feet!
Next stop: Byutgari Village Korean rice cakes
While still in the village we stopped at this little place to make rice cakes. Not the rice cakes we buy at home. These turn out a bit slimy. Totally different. They start with balls of clay that resemble molding clay.
Even the adults patted out our little cakes and then added whatever toppings we wanted.
We left our creations there for them to cook and headed to our hotel.
Next stop: Mallipo Beach
We had one bed, and three Korean style beds, which means pads on the floor.
Dinner was a wonderful Korean spicy chicken bar-b-que.
When we got back from dinner, the lovely rice cake ladies had delivered our rice cakes to us.
Like I said, they are slimy and not very tasty.
After dinner, we all wandered a couple blocks down to the beach.
Some of the guys bought fireworks at the local convenience store, which was a nice way to end the day.
The next morning we had time to explore the beach in the daylight.
Last stop: Chollipo Arboretum
The arboretum is at the tip of the Taean peninsula, so not only do you get to enjoy the gardens, but you get views of the ocean, as well.
This is a cypress tree that I wrote about in the Jinju arboretum. You can see the roots coming up for air.
Zekers is standing under an umbrella tree. When it has its leaves it is called a love tree, or romance tree, or something similar, because you can stand underneath to kiss and no one can see you.
the whole gang
This tree looked like a face to me. I don't know if that was on purpose or not.
This little guy jumped out from behind a bush. It is a neoguli, or a raccoon dog. The nickname is derived because it has a masked face resembling a raccoon, but it is actually related to the fox family.
Daisy and Lauryn are poking their heads out from behind that umbrella tree.
[November 23-24]
The big group loaded a tour bus and drove about 3 hours to the Taean-gun area, which is northwest of us.
First stop: Yesan Apple Orchard.
We all enjoyed the tasting part of the tour. Adults liked the wine and kids liked the pretzels.
It sort of looked like shallow, empty swimming pools with tiles on the bottom.
We got to taste some of their salt.
In the same building was a room with a huge pile of salt.
Then they led us to this.
All of us got out there and started pushing salt around in our bare feet.
While still in the village we stopped at this little place to make rice cakes. Not the rice cakes we buy at home. These turn out a bit slimy. Totally different. They start with balls of clay that resemble molding clay.
Next stop: Mallipo Beach
The view from the hotel rooftop was nice, but we wanted to walk on the sand.
I don't know how long it took this little guy to move, but I liked his trail.
LM Family Trip 2019 group
The arboretum is at the tip of the Taean peninsula, so not only do you get to enjoy the gardens, but you get views of the ocean, as well.
The founder, Min Pyong-gal, is memorialized under this tree.
 |
| Daisy and Lauryn |
 |
| Lijee, Alex and Nic, with Zekers photobombing |
We had a tour guide for a hot minute, but it was after the group shot that we split up. We let Zeke go with his friends, but I went with Daisy and Lauryn, while Abe kept an eye on Eli, Alex and Nic.
This side of the arboretum is where you can see the ocean.
That sums up our LM 2019 Family Trip. A great weekend with family and friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment