Earlier today, I visited my aunt and uncle’s farm. Both of them are retired, but because my uncle is a very active person, they bought a plot of land deep into the mounts and essentially built their own farm from scratch. After pretty much a 20-minute drive up mountainous terrain, I made my way to this:

Like last year, I went along with Keumgang Martial Arts Academy to the Mundelein Community Days Festival, in celebration of the United States’ Independence Day.

I whipped out my trusty phone to record the full demonstration, then went through and took stillframes of action moments and compiled them into a photo album.

Luckily, not only was this later on in the evening (instead of right in the afternoon when the sun is strong­est), but it was in a much shadier region, so I didn’t end up getting my skin slightly burned, like I did during the Lambs Farm demonstration.

Here’s the video and the photo album:

And finally, here’s a bonus photo not included in the album above – this is Mike, one of the masters of the academy, holding a sword with an apple wedge onto the tip, for one of the acts:

Earlier today, I went to Lambs Farm, which is a disability services facility not far from Keumgang Martial Arts Academy. KMAA was participating in the Fun & Fit Family Day 2016, and also had a demonstration as part of the festivities.

I agreed to attend because I didn’t realize the entire thing was outside, but luckily, I was aware enough to wander off and find some shady and scenic areas away from the hordes of people.

(Click photos to enlarge)

I also took a video of the entire taekwondo demonstration. It was almost 20 minutes long, and I literally got slightly seared on the areas of skin that was exposed to the sun.

I almost never burn, so this is literally a first for me – I’m assuming that the fact that this farm was in the middle of nowhere is the reason why the sun shone down stronger and had a more detrimental effect on me.

If you’re interested in seeing the video, as well as the full photo album that includes stillframes of action from the video, check out the post I made on Keumgang Martial Arts Academy’s Facebook page:

Last night, an aunt and uncle from California came to visit us as a part of their road trip across the United States.

I took a bunch of photos during the trip. The full album can be found on my Google+ profile in my “Trip to Chicago with Californian relatives” photo album, but I’ve picked out a few to highlight here in this blog post.

On our way to Chicago, we stopped by a restaurant. They had some ginger suspended in water on display in the corner.

Apparently my parents knew the owner of the restaurant. The food wasn’t exactly the best – my meat was a bit burnt when I usually like it cooked rare, and my soup was a bit bitter – but it was a decent-enough restaurant with good value for the price.

After we finished eating, we entered the heart of Chicago, and went to the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sear’s Tower). We went through the skydeck tour; on the path to the elevator, there was a lot of informational stations, one of which was a video.

The elevator ride up to the top took only about a minute, which meant that we were traveling at about 18 miles an hour.

Once we got to the top, I took a ton of photos looking out the windows. I uploaded these in higher-than-1080p resolution, so it’s definitely worth checking them out in full quality in the Google+ album.

The last time these relatives visited us, back several years ago, we went on a tour via boat. My dad managed to find out where it was, so I took a picture.

There were souvenirs at the top of the tower. I didn’t really want one, so instead of buying them, I just took pictures of them. These are wooden replicas of the Willis Tower.

After making our way back down, we went on to tour Millenium Park.

This was a stage near the exit to the parking garage where we parked.

Of course, we visited Cloud Gate, commonly referred to as “The Bean,” and widely accepted as the finest piece of art in Chicago.

There must’ve been a field trip going on, because while we were at Cloud Gate, a bunch of tiny children flooded around the sculpture and stood under it. This is another photo, this time from the opposite angle as the photo above.

Near Cloud Gate, there was a tree with white flowers; according to my dad, it’s the exact same tree that we have in our backyard.

On our walk to Crown Fountain, we encountered a bunch of art students drawing “1004 Portraits,” a series of sculptures by Jaume Plensa.

And finally, we made it to Crown Fountain, the last notable Chicagoan feature in our walk. Unfortunately, it wasn’t activated, but the shifting faces still worked.

Remember, these photo highlights are just that – highlights. Be sure to check out the complete album to see all the photos I took during our trip in 2048-pixel-width resolution.

http://plus.google.com/photos/+AdamParkzerOfficial/albums/6137739914489478305