Pancakes at 4 a.m.

And plenty of them ... We arrived back into Seoul on Tuesday morning. Still battling jet lag, we all went to bed about 9 a.m. and were up by 3:30 a.m. Early bird special, anyone?

We dove into our massive amount of pancake mix that we brought back from the trip. Breakfast food in Seoul can largely be found only on the black market, so we came back with 15 pounds of pancake mix and 27 pounds of oatmeal (only $6 for a 9 pound box in the USA). Along with some real maple syrup we found at a Mennonite store in southern Wisconsin, we should be set for a while.

Speaking of the trip, it was phenomenal. It was crazy to fly into Chicago, then to Washington, then drive to New York before flying home. But we wouldn't do it differently again. It was so good to see all of the family and friends ... we can't wait to go back. The best news is that everyone tells me they read the blog, although hardly anyone comments, so I'm newly inspired to make new posts. Highlights included steak at Pederino's in Chicago after Wisconsin squeaked by Texas Corpus Christie in the 1st round NCAA (thanks Adam), a day trip to Monroe, Wisconsin, Tuesday night in Madison with TGEED and my family, Baby Anne's baptism and party in Rockford, Her 100-day celebration in Washington with Patty's sister's family and her parents, cherry blossoms on the mall in Washington, meeting up with Eli, Theresa, Sumathi and Tomoeh (all formerly from Newsday) and our short trip to New York with Lorna and Asandon and the Hyo Shin crew.

When I got back, in true Korean tradition, my boss told me I'd gotten fat on the trip and needed to lose weight :)

Here are some photos: Baby Anne's baptism in Rockford, her 100-day celebration in Rockford, the Korean War Memorial (a few hundred yards from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington) and a gratuitous shot of Jack goofing around.