August 23: Seoul Day 1

We arrived in Seoul earlier than we thought we would and had a few hours to look around before meeting up with friends. We like sending postcards when we travel and sometimes finding a post office is tricky. In Seoul, our hotel was a short walk from the post office headquarters for the country of South Korea and we dropped our post cards off here. We were impressed with the efficient postal service when Abe was on his mission. It only took 10 days for a package to be delivered and we could track the package the whole way.

There's a statue of Hong Young-Sik in front of the post office. He was the first head of the general postal service which began in 1884 and is regarded as the father of the postage stamp in Korea.

Shinesgae, an enormous department store was also nearby. Shinesgae sells every luxury brand imaginable, like Gucci, Chanel, Rolex and believe it or not, National Geographic. National Geographic is a power brand in South Korea, selling high end outdoor gear and expensive T shirts.

Being a long way from home feels even longer when the distance is given in kilometers. It's 11,172 km to Washington DC.

We tried another Korean snack, cookies shaped like walnuts.

The cookies were very cute. This one was filled with red bean paste and walnuts.

We met a fantastic group of young people Abe served with on his mission for dinner.

From the left are Gibson, Abe, Becky, Brandan, Kim Jun Min, Kim Ji Seung, Kim Seoyeon, Park Seoyeon and Hwang Jong Hyun.

Here's a close up of the restaurant name. Jjimdak means steamed chicken.

Here's a photo of our dinner. Basically it was a pile of chicken, vegetables and rice noodles cooked in sauce, then layered with dumplings, ddeok, cheese and french fries. Somehow all the flavors worked together and the dish was quite delicious.

After dinner we walked to a nearby photo booth to take a group photo. We saw dozens of these photo booths in Busan. They're open 24 hours a day and entirely self serve. This is a photo of Gibson and Abe choosing accessories before we took the photos.

Here are the finished photos. Clockwise from the top left are Brandan, Gibson, Abe, Kim Ji Seung, Kim Jun Min, Park Seoyeon and Hwang Jung Hyun.  

After that bit of fun, we walked to the Seoul Korea temple.

The temple is located at the top of a hill and near a Buddhist temple and several Protestant churches. With such a concentration of religious buildings, the hill is known as a holy place.

The Seoul Korea temple was dedicated in 1985 by President Gordon B. Hinkley. The beautiful gardens surrounding the temple are open to the public. President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple to be built in Busan in 2022, but no further information has been released.

Abe didn't have a chance to attend the temple on his mission so visiting the temple was a highlight of our trip for him. Brandan and Abe attended a session with Abe's Korean friends while Becky and Gibson waited outside.

The stainless steel entry reminded Brandan of the stainless steel dishes we saw at restaurants and in department stores.

Abe met a few more friends inside the temple. This photo was taken after the session. From the left are Hwang Jung Hyun, Brandan, Gibson, Becky, Abe, Kim Min Seong, Julie Chandler, Park Seoyeon, Drew Chandler (Julie's dad), Kim Jun Min and Kim Ji Seung.

We said goodbye at the temple and took the subway back to our hotel. Another one of Abe's wishes while we were in South Korea was to eat at a Baskin and Robbins. We never eat at Baskin Robbins in the US, but it is a prominent chain in South Korea. Abe ate ice cream at a Baskin Robbins for his 20th birthday. We shared a bowl of chocolate, mango and pear ice cream.