Turning the Page

From what I understand, my post titled, “One Bad Apple”, was published on a Korean website which brought a ton of publicity to the negative comments that Brian and I were receiving prior to leaving Daejeon. In response, there has been an outpouring of apologies for how we were treated and the things that were said to us and for that we are beyond appreciative.

There was absolutely no way that I could reply individually to each 100+ comments and emails received so I wanted to address everyone here that expressed their sincere apologies, support and well wishes to us. Those individuals will help us to remember the good about our trip to Korea and not the few negative people who had hurtful things to say. So thank you to the good apples! You are the people that we met and valued our encounters with in Korea and we thank you for making us feel welcome and for helping us to experience your country in a positive light.

Lastly, before closing the door on this past chapter of our baseball life, I would like to address those who have expressed concerns that Brian did not care about his job in Korea and believed he was only visiting the country to sight-see and have fun. Just to make it clear, once Brian was sent to the minor leagues, he still went to practice every day just like the other minor league players. He worked out, strength and cardio trained, pitched and watched every big league game on TV to analyze pitchers and try to learn from their pitching techniques, strategies and pitch sequences (if those are comments understandable to non-baseball people). Just because he spent time eating or exploring did not mean that he wasn’t working out and focusing on baseball as well. Each day has 24 hours to it and MY blog does not highlight each and every one of them. Not to mention, MY blog is just that, MY blog – it also doesn’t focus on Brian’s workouts, career, etc. If I would have known the outrage MY blog would have caused some of you Eagle fans, I would have made sure to document Brian’s training schedule for you as well. My apologies. And I will make sure that going to the zoo or playing Jenga is never in our schedule in the future as I wouldn’t want it to interfere with his baseball playing ability as you all have so nicely informed me that it may do.

With that being said, as we move on to the next chapter of our baseball life, we again want to thank the supporters and the nay-sayers alike. Because of all of you and our few months in Korea, we will move on as stronger individuals. Best of luck to the Hanwha Eagles in the remainder of their season. I hope they can pull it together for the loyal, dedicated fans they have.

And finally…we get back to life at home with our family, friends and this guy…

Who is beyond happy to have his Dad home and baseballs around the house again.

He sure does fit in nicely with this family, right?!

How Sweet It Is

We finally made it home yesterday after 25 hours of travel from South Korea to Atlanta to Baltimore. We spent the evening with some family, friends and Telli which was exactly what we needed after being away for so long. We enjoyed dinner with my parents, sister and brother-in-law and then retreated back to our house for a little time with friends who stopped by to welcome us home.

And then 31 hours after our last alarm wake up call in Daejeon, we finally called it a night and crashed hard in our own bed in our own house. Amazing.

Breakfast

Thanks to my mom stocking our pantry and fridge with some of our favorite groceries, we were able to start this morning off with breakfast in our own kitchen!

She obviously didn’t forget to throw some goodies in our freezer either!

What to have for breakfast was a no brainer for me – something I have been craving since early on when I had gotten to Korea – an English muffin egg sandwich.

One fried egg, cheddar cheese, turkey bacon and blueberry jam.

Welcome home!

I savored every last bite!

For the rest of the day we plan to unpack, run errands and just get our life in Baltimore back in order. Beginning with these not-intimidating-at-all piles of laundry!

And we also have a lot of missed time to make up for with this Monster!

He’s such a little man now – we can hardly believe it!

Question:

What is the first thing you do when you get back from an extended trip somewhere or vacation?

Paradise Hotel – Incheon

For our second trip to Incheon, the hotel that the team usually stays in didn’t have enough rooms to hold the entire team (I guess housing a whole baseball roster plus coaches can pose some issues for a popular hotel) for the three days we were in town so instead we stayed at Paradise Hotel.

The hotel has a smaller lobby with stairs directly in the center that lead to all floors. My favorite feature of the hotel!

Rooms

The rooms are of a decent size, however, ours had two queen size beds in it which led to some tight spacing in the free area around the floor for us. In other words, it wasn’t as easy for me to get my workouts completed in the room.

There was a nice desk area which was suitable for blogging and studying.

As usual in the majority of the rooms we stayed in throughout South Korea, there is a mini bar available, featuring drinks, select alcohol, and toiletries you may need during your stay. In addition, a hot kettle for coffee and tea making and a fridge (although very tiny) for food/drink storage.

The views around look out over the port of Incheon. Very pretty.

The bathrooms are of mediocre size.

Full tub showers.

And toilets with full electric bidets.

Restaurants

The hotel has one restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner dining.

Olimpos is a “fusion” restaurant with Western, Korean and Japanese options. Both lunch and dinner that I had in the restaurant were delicious but the menu didn’t have that diverse of options available.

Room service comes from the same restaurant and the menu only had two options for breakfast and about ten other options for lunch/dinner. The hours are only from 7:00 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. which didn’t make it easy for us for post game food.

Again, the breakfast we had from room service was good but you didn’t have many options to decide between.

On the other side of the lobby is a lounge area offering drinks and select pastries, breads and ice cream. This too shuts down pretty early so no relaxing late night can take place.

Amenities

In the basement (or annex as they refer to it) of the hotel, there is a fitness center, sauna, massage services and mini golf available for use by hotel guests.

The fitness center offers an array of cardio equipment along with free weights and circuit machines.

In addition to a stretching and core work area.

The sauna area for women is located directly off of the locker room with both hot and cool pools and steam rooms.

On the second floor of the hotel, there is a business center with computers and printers for use by hotel guests.

Staff

The staff at Paradise Hotel were very pleasant and helpful but were not as hands on as at some of the other hotels we stayed at throughout South Korea.

A least a little English was spoken by most of the staff but this was definitely the least “English friendly” of the hotels.

Outside Area

The hotel is situated on a top of a hill along the port in Incheon. The views are marvelous but the area around the hotel isn’t as lively as some of the other areas we stayed in.

When venturing out to find food after one of Brian’s games, we were able to find a ton of bars open late but not many food options besides a couple late night places that were loud with drinking patrons as well.

A Paris Baguette is less than a block from the hotel and served as a good lunch spot and a 7-11 was about four streets away for any quick convenience store items you may need.

Behind the hotel, you find yourself in China Town of Incheon and also can explore Jayu Park, which offers exercise areas and gorgeous scenery.

Ramada Songdo – Incheon

The hotel that we stayed at while Brian was playing in Incheon was another Ramada, similar to the one we stayed at in Cheongju, The Ramada Songdo.

Like the Ramada Plaza in Cheongju, the Ramada Songdo had a lot to offer in the terms of amenities and restaurants but again, like the Ramada Plaza, it fell short in some areas as well.

The lobby isn’t as grand as the one in the Plaza but it still had ornate decorations and gives off an elegant feel.

Rooms

The rooms at Songdo were spacious and clean, yet aging. The bathrooms were showing signs of age along with the dingy sheets that had the occasional tear from over-use and countless washings. Stains on the carpet showed off its age as well.

The king size bed made for more than comfortable sleeping accommodations for us.

And the large windows allowed for plenty of natural light to keep the room bright during the day.

There was ample drawer and counter space available for unpacking (which we rarely did in any hotel except Cheongju since our stays were short) and a decent “mini bar” for snacks and drinks, with complementary tea, coffee and bottled water. A hot pot was available for heating water for the coffee and/or tea as well, as literally would have hot water for you in a matter of seconds.

A fridge was available inside one of the lower cabinets which definitely proved useful for us for chilling water and keeping any food that we may have been traveling with fresh.

The bathrooms were extremely small and we ended up using the decent counter space in the room to store all of our bathroom toiletries so we weren’t knocking them into the sink (or toilet!) on a regular basis.

Restaurants

Outside of the room, Songdo offered a variety of different restaurants. Off of the first floor lobby, there was a Japanese Restaurant, Haru, along with a Korean Restaurant, Maru, and also a coffee shop, The Gray, that served lunch and dinner.

A small deli (bakery to us) was positioned in the lobby and offered baked goods like fresh cakes and breads.

On the 12th floor of the hotel, you could find the buffet, Belle Vue, which offered breakfast, lunch and dinner, with Western fare available at all.

And, of course, room service was available to all guests from 7:00 am. until 11:30 p.m. and offered a variety of mostly Western food.

Amenities

On the basement level of the hotel there is a spa, barber shop, custom tailor, night club, karaoke room and fitness room.

The fitness room offered all of the basics that you would want to find in a fitness center while offering ample space to complete your workouts.

Free weights, circuit machines and plenty of cardio machines were all available.

Along with a “mini golf” area, similar to (but not as high-tech) as the one found in the Ramada Plaza.

Staff

The staff here was very pleasant and willing to help with whatever you may need.  On our first trip to Incheon, we were originally put into a room with two small beds and within minutes of calling they had a moved into a room with a king sized bed, obviously more suitable for us, with no fuss at all.

The majority of the members spoke some English and if they couldn’t decipher your request, they would find another staff member that was fluent in English to assist you.

Outside Area

The area around the hotel had a lot of restaurants and bars along with a couple convenient stores within walking distance which definitely came in handy.

We enjoyed walking the hilly streets and observing the different restaurants and bars and dined at the Green Tomato on our first trip to town.