Seoul Part 1

We knew we wanted to take one more trip before leaving Okinawa, and we had heard so many good things about Seoul, so we decided that would be the perfect destination. My parents had been to visit us several times but hadn't hit up any other Asian countries, so we wanted to take them somewhere also. It was perfect for our 4 day Memorial Day weekend :) 

Our flight there was a little bit ridiculous in that it was only a 2 hour flight but we ended up having a FIVE hour delay (and we were flying Peach, a "low cost carrier" and the terminal is a big warehouse with only 2 vending machines and no other food options, etc). But, we finally made it, were able to catch the free hotel shuttle to base, and our vacation started! We stayed at the Dragon Hill Lodge which is on Yongsan army base in the middle of the city and it was perfect. We had some of the conveniences of being on base, like access to the Shopette, etc. but we were still right in the city.

Day one we started with a taxi ride up to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The taxis picked up at our hotel and were super cheap (especially because they let us all cram into one), it was perfect.

I just have to give a shout out to my dad here. He has a condition called SPG4 that affects his lower extremities. It has gotten progressively worse over the years and his muscles are super tight, etc despite having a baclofen pump in place. Walking is a definitely chore for him. I was slightly nervous about planning a trip to a city knowing how hard walking is, but we decided we were going to make it work. And we did! He did not complain at all, walked a LOT for him, and had a great time with us (at least acted that way :) He is his harshest critic and feels bad slowing us down, etc. so we had a pact at the beginning of the trip that we would all remain positive, he wasn't to feel bad about holding anyone back, because this trip was about spending time as a family and another stamp in the passport. We would see what we could see and it was going to be fun. And I have to say, I think we had a super successful trip to Seoul and I'm proud of how well he did despite what hard work it is for him!

The palace was unlike any other ones I had seen before. I LOVED the colors on it and the size of the palace was unreal. It was an enormous property with gorgeous different areas to it. It was interesting to hypothesize how the palace was actually used once upon a time.

They mastered traveling in Asia on day 1. Peace signs everywhere you go :)

 I feel like this is the first trip where Rowan decided that he kind of over some of it. He just wanted to play in the dirt and eat good food. This picture illustrates what he thought about walking around a palace :) He was kind of a stinker and wouldn't walk anywhere though.

After our walk through the main areas, we left my dad and Rowan on a bench to play in the dirt and relax for awhile. Both of them were extremely happy to do that :) And we were excited to go explore the rest of the property.

We should photoshop Rowan into this for a cute family photo :)

We sat down on a bench for a few minutes and this cute little girl who was wearing a badge that said "Teen Reporter" came up and asked to interview us. She spoke great English and asked us about what we thought of Seoul and how it compared to where we are from. It was pretty cute. She thanked us by giving us some nice metal bookmarks with traditional Korean images. Love that her brother is paparazzi on the side.

And as we left, we saw the tail end of changing of the guard and then got to take pictures with them. They didn't budge as we stood next to them.

From there, we took the metro to Namdaemun market. Figured we had to give public transportation a try while in the city and it worked out great. We realized that because of the number of people we had though, a cab actually ended up probably being cheaper, so that's what we did for the duration of our trip.

The market was full of street food and random odds and ends. We had a good time looking around and found a few fun foods to try.

This stand was a turkish ice cream stand, he put on a good little show as he scooped the ice cream. Rowan loved it and there was a news crew there video taping. They interviewed us once Rowan got his cone. Wish I could have seen the clip :)

This might have won for grossest street food I saw...the lower half of a pig leg. yuck!

I felt like we had a perfect first day in Seoul. We didn't want to overdo it, so we headed back to the hotel, swam in the pool for a bit and then went out and grabbed some dinner.