Seoul Tower

Lately we have had a nice little routine going. We get up, get dressed, eat, play until 11:30 or noon and then Rhyon gets a nap. He sleeps about 2 hours, then lunch, more play time and Daddy gets home and then dinner. Its nice having a little order to our lives.

Friday we decided to go out for dinner to this little chicken place down on the corner called Mapa Chicken. It was really good. The restaurant is so small the same person who takes your order cooks it. There is no table service really and we had to go to the convenient store and get our own drinks. There are 5 tables in the place, 2 of which are outside. In Korea you don't tip when you eat out either. Oh and we learned one very important thing, you eat chicken with 2 forks, do not use your fingers! Next time we will know...

Weekends are the best because we not only get to be together as a family but we get to discover fun new things together. This past weekend we decided to go to the Seoul Tower. The best thing about our apartment is we get to see the tower from it. It's actually a good distance away. But we decided to walk to it anyway! It was an uphill walk, but through a very nice park which we have visited before. We thought we were going to have to cancel our trip due to the rain but it cleared up and we were out the door by about 10:30am.

One of the many ponds in the park.

A little farther than halfway up to the tower there is a great lookout. This also was a great place for a complainling little girl to catch her breath and get distracted from the dramatic episode she was starting. It would have been even better if it was a sunny clear day but those are hard to find in monsoon season. I am posting a video of the scenery instead of the 100 pictures I took. This is my first video so I hope it works.

Here are a few pictures too.

 Just before we made it up the final incline to the tower Giulianna had to go potty. So we took a potty break. I am telling you all this for 2 reasons. 1. The public restrooms are so clean and they are literally "beautiful". I will take pictures sometime, but they have plants and lots of natural light and really awesome high tech hand dryers. They also have extra long doors and walls with stuff in the usual gaps for complete privacy. All the doors have little occupied switches as well. The stalls have little signs with stories on them but we of course can't read them, and no they are not do not flush stuff down the toilet signs. And there is always a short sink which is great for Giulianna so I don't have to pick her up to wash her hands! Oh and there are separate bathrooms for changing babies and most even have a little seat for strapping the baby in while the grown up goes potty so you don't have to put the baby on the floor. 2. When we came out of the bathroom Mike was waiting and says, "You just missed the mob." Apparently there was about two dozen women (Korean of course) that were just taking pictures of him and Rhyon. He said each woman wanted her picture with the baby. I can not express how much the people here love our kids (and American kids in general!). I love walking behind Mike when he has the baby because then I get to see everyone walk by and comment or smile at Rhyon.

Finally we reached the top of the mountain where the tower is. We took some pictures, got our tickets and had an ice cream break. We then ascended Seoul Tower. Here are the pictures.

Charging station. America is so behind!

Most of the buses here run on electric.

Haechi is the critter on the buses and taxi cabs all over the city. We think he is a lion with wings or something. The saying on the statue says, "Haechi, Seoul's symbol, is an imaginary creature that helps realize justice and enhance safety and happiness."

There were two places with a "falling" floor.

 

I am not really sure what this was for but we walked up and this lady wanted to take our picture.

Han River

There are mountains on every side of the city.

The big black building is the Hyatt, which is right near the apartment. The green is all part of the park we walked through. And the Han River is in the back ground. The bit of green space on the upper far right is the edge of Yongsan, the post.

Our superimposed commemorative photo!

There was also a teddy bear museum at the tower plaza. Giulianna and I convinced Daddy to go see that too since we were there. Most of the bears anamatronic. Here are a few pics.

This is one example where they turned one of Korea's most valued pieces of art and "Bearified" it.

Unfortunately, after we got home and looked at the brochure, we realized we had only seen half of the bear exhibit. There was also a part about modern Korea done with bears that we missed. Guess we will need to go back to the tower. Next time we will take a bus!

Later that day after we walked back home and got cleaned up, we took the kids over to Angie's new house so she could babysit while Mike and I saw Transformers with his friend Doug. We were supposed to go grocery shopping too but the commissary was closed by the time we got there.  So we got to do that on Sunday, woo hoo! In other news from this past week, we received a move in date of July 19th to move into our house on post. This will be a good thing for us, the kids especially. There are play grounds and other kids, plus its a 3 bedroom. Unfortunately I will be giving up my view of the city and the Seoul Tower... Mike was also notified Friday, that he would be starting his new job immediately on Monday, which he did. So that is whats been going on on our side of the world. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy back in the States, we miss you!

Here is one more picture I wanted to share just because it's kinda funny! Enough Said!!!!!