Welcome!

OH MY GOD....COOL RANCH DORITOS! We've been in Suwon, South Korea for about 3 months and have managed to get by on mostly local food (with a few snacks and sweets from home) and it's been absolutely delicious. Galbi (marinated, barbequed pork), samgyeopsal (barbequed pork from a different part of the pig....kind of like very thick pieces of bacon), and su-galbi (barbequed beef) are some of our favorites along with shabu shabu (beef, noodles, mushrooms and veggies cooked in a hot pot) and dok galbi (chicken, cabbage, spinach and chili paste cooked in a pot in the middle of the table) round out the best food we've had here. Eating in Korea is very social, with large groups eating off of a communal grill/pot in the center of the table with a never-ending array of side dishes and bottomless bottles of soju (a slightly less potent version of vodka which Koreans drink like water). We've also had great pizza, Subway, delicious Indian food, McDonald's, and KFC but I don't know that I've tasted anything as good as the bag of Cool Ranch Doritos we just inhaled. We finally found a Foreigner Grocery Store (one small room with three shelves...) in Seoul that had the most random assortment of Western food products you can imagine. We found ranch dressing (unheard of in Korea), Velveeta Shells and Cheese, Swanson's Chicken Broth, Twizzlers, Cherry Coke, Pop Tarts, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Wheat Thins, and all kinds of other goodies that we've been denied for three months. It was like being in heaven. Until I asked how much the Shells and Cheese were and was informed "$7!" I bought it anyway. Along with Doritos, Twizzlers and a Rice Krispy Treat! I blew $27 on those few things and don't even care! In all seriousness though, the local food and drinks are sooo good here that we've hardly missed the more familiar brands of home. It was just a really nice surprise in Itaewon today to find that stuff and we had to splurge.
Food ramblings aside, welcome to our travel blog. We've been traveling for about 4 years now and have been to Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Canada, England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, the Canary Islands, Egypt, Jordan and Korea. Over Christmas we have a trip planned to Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, and Harbin, China to visit their annual Ice Festival. Our idea with this blog is to share some of our travel stories, offer some tips that we've learned on our trips (some the hard way!), and encourage anyone who reads this to never feel like they CAN'T travel somewhere. So many of our friends have told us, "Wow I wish I could go there someday," or "I would really love to do that." We're not really doing anything extraordinary to make our travels happen. We've just decided to make traveling a priority in our lives and plan and save accordingly. I hope you enjoy some our of stories and experiences; we'll make sure to keep everyone updated from South Korea and around Asia as we get there!