Free Friday

With no hard plans today, we relaxed and slept in. For an early lunch, we walked around the corner to a famous gomtang (곰탕) restaurant known for their beef bone broth soup. It was also popular with my dad’s generation. The original name was Ha Dong Kwan (하동관), but due to family drama they renamed it to Soo Ha Dong (수하동). Comically, they asked if we’re Chinese - always happens on trips, even in Korea! A photo of the soup and fresh kimchi:



For a midday coffee, I stopped into a Starbucks and into the popular Starfield Coex Mall which is known for their bookstore / library. There were many foreigners like me taking photos:





We had pondered sightseeing a temple or palace, but we ended up stopping by our aunt’s house to pick up some photos.

Then we had dinner plans with our 1st aunt and my cousin, Yoonhae (윤혜). Her father was my dad’s elder brother. A photo of my uncle below on his birthday with my cousins, Yeon-Wook (연욱) and Yoon Joo (윤주) from the 4th family:



We had a wonderful Korean meal at Mo Dam (모담):



And then took these selfies:





Here’s an old photo of the three female cousins and we all share the same generational character of Yoon (윤) - Yoon Joo (윤주) is the oldest on the right, Yoon Hae (윤혜) is the youngest on the lower step, and I’m in the middle as Yoon Kyong (윤경) on the left:



After dinner, Justin and I headed to our close cousin’s, Jung Hae’s (정혜) house where we hung out with her family of 3 kids and husband, Hee Young (희영). My nephew, Jinhyung (진형) joined in on the late night snacks:



Here’s Jung Hae (정혜) and me rocking our bathing suits on one of our many family trips. As we are the same age, we spent a lot of time together:



It was a relaxing day as we had a lot of freedom, but also some hearty eating!