We did a huge amount of stuff in 3 days.

Friday, we woke up at 3:30am and left at 4:10am for the airport for flights at 6am. We arrived in florida at about noon and ate out. Then we spent some time at 'home' playing with HaJin (6 yr girl) and SungJin (4yr boy) - mostly Uno and lego. I think the kids are really smart because evn the 4 yr old beat us at Uno. They are really cute and very good at communicating in both English and Korean (preferring Korean at home). It was really cool having my own 'niece' and 'nephew' (even though they are also like '2nd cousin' or whatever and 'in-law'). They were so happy to see us and 'Grandpa' (Heidi's dad). We went to Univ of Florida where the parents are both students to try to find take pix of alligators that live in a pond there, but didn't see in any. After eating dinner we babysat while the parents went to a Bible study until 11pm. More Uno and lego until then when we could finally crawl into bed exhausted.

On Saturday, we woke up at 6:30am and left for Disney World's Magic Kingdom (geared toward little kids). It was a 2 hour drive to Orlando from Gainsville. At the end of the day, we were worn out from walking and the extremely chilly wind. I was really cold because I didn't bring much jacket-wise. Who would think that Florida would get cold? It doesn't snow there. There was some fun stuff there (like the 3-D theather), but I got tired of eating fast food (which is all they sell there). By the end of the night, we were all exhausted, freezing and in pain from walking. We rented a really nice apartment for the night with a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a living room, where we took hot showers and went to bed (~11pm).

On Sunday, we got up early again at 7am to go eat breakfast. We then left for Tampa to go to Busch Gardens. On arrival, we planned to eat lunch at a great Japanese sushi buffet, but it was closed and had no hours posted in the window. I think we got there just a few minutes too early for opening on Sunday, but we didn't know, so we left just ate at Busch Gardens. I wasn't so impressed with Disney (well, Magic Kingdom is really for children), but Busch Gardens was awesome! It was like Six Flags, a zoo and a mini mall all rolled into one. The best part was they had a free train that takes you around the park, even through the wildlife part. One 6' ostrich was literally inches from the open train as we drove by. They also had an open bird house where a variety of bright-colored birds could just walk up you arm. We also rode in a safari vehicle which sloshed through water and rough terrain as we looked at some animals. We quickly drove back to Gainsville for the 7pm church service and then ate out before hitting the hay even more exhausted around 11pm again.

The next morning (it still wasn't morning yet), we awoke at 4:30am to get on our 7am plane back to Boston. I'm sure they were really sad when they woke up that morning and we were gone, but at least Grandpa was still there for a few days.

The Cho's house in Gainsville. (Pic by Mr. Kang)

We came to this pond on the Univ of Florida campus looking for alligators, but saw none.

A church by the lake. (Pic by Mr. Kang)

Trees near the lake. (Pic by Mr. Kang)

This is Spanish moss. It seems like it grows on every tree (except palm trees). It gets its water from moisture in the air. It looks like dirt on the trees from a distance, actually..

(back to front): Ken, Heidi's dad and SungJin.

Here's SungJin. He's 4.

Heidi holds a single thread of Spanish moss. It grows three finger-like leaflets - the third one extends and grows three more leaflets, etc, ad infinitum. At least it only grows linearly and not quadratically!!

Woodpeckers decimated this tree.

A sign of alligators, but we didn't see any.

Father and son.

A house of bats that all come out at night.

Hajin (age 6) enjoying her push-pop! (Pic by Mr. Kang)

Colin and the kids. (Pic by Heidi)