April 25, 2026
We met Ji Hu and his dad, Chan, in the basement parkign lot of our apartment at 8am. Their white Santa Fe was filled to the brim with camping gear. And, to Mason’s liking they had made some marshmallow and Oreo cookies the day before to nibble on during our ride down south.
After about a 2 hour we made it to Chungju-si where we stopped for an early lunch at Burger King. After that, we hit the Hanaro Mart, to buy some snacks and other bbq odds and ends. I ran across the street to the pharmacy and bought two “pre-drinking hang over prevention concoctions” for the adults since we had planned to have some traditional soju with dinner.
We made it to the Workasan National Park about a half hour later. We started at a small nature park that had a zip line where Chan and I unofficially became the pushers of our two zip liners. Also, played some football, which became a big hit over the weekend.
Once we got to our camping plot, the work began and I learned for the first time how to set up a proper campsite. Our campsite sat right on the stream, so of course, we went down to check it out. Mason led the posse down the stream and was the first to fall in the water, which I think was his plan from the start.
We played football for hours afterwards. Mason and I had to take a couple of walks to discuss some temporary grumpiness, but that’s to be expected for a second grader. We started the fire for outdoor bbq around 5. HK had sent me with a couple of nice steaks, so we started with those. Chan and I enjoyed some drinks, while the kids had s’mores and watched a movie in the tent.
