TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

George and Sue Crisp packed in everything from a Sunday sermon and a

glimpse into North Korea to a trip to the Blue House (equivalent to our

White House) during a trip to South Korea that ended in October.

A reverend at Newport Beach’s Christ Church by the Sea, George Crisp

was one of 22 Christians with the Western Jurisdiction Korean Mission

Tour who visited Korea to get acquainted with foreign Methodist churches.

He and his wife stopped in on several religious institutions and

places of worship, including the Korean Methodist Theological Seminary, a

church in the city of Inchon and a smaller church on the island of Cheju.

He preached at some of the locations too.

“I had 1,000 people in Inchon and had six people in the church on

Cheju Island,” said Crisp, 50. “But it was a good experience for me.”

The Newport Beach couple saw that spirituality was found not only

inside the church but in the South Korean president’s Blue House as well.

“There was a sense of deep peacefulness within me as we were there,”

said Sue Crisp, an administrative secretary at Hoag Hospital. “It was a

very spiritual feel for me.”

The couple agreed that finding serenity in a political setting is

important.

Other trip highlights included a tour of the Demilitarized Zone, also

known as the 38th Parallel, separating North and South Korea. Tourists

can see into both Koreas from the zone -- a point from which the northern

half looks calm and green. Crisp’s group was the first to be let in for

tours since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on America.

“It was an exciting place to be,” George Crisp said. “A little scary

too, because it’s a dangerous place, but it gave me a lot of hope for the

unification of Korea.”

Sue Crisp, 55, added that it was fascinating to visit a place that

most people only get to read about as history.

In Cheju, the Crisps visited Sunrise Peak, a popular place for folks

on their honeymoon to watch the sunrise, and also enjoyed walks on the

beach.

It was on that island that the couple also had a Korean-style

Thanksgiving dinner, celebrating the fall harvest holiday known as

Chusok.

“We had our fair amount of kimchi,” George Crisp said.

He remembers eating one 11-course dinner at the home of a businessman.

There were traditional dishes, including kimchi, fish and red bean-paste

rice cakes Koreans call o7 dduk. f7

“It was like finding little surprises inside them,” he said. “Those

are good.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail young.chang@latimes.com; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.