With all this travel I'm planning, the last thing you think we would do is go out of town for the weekend right. Yeah.... no, I am all about getting some sights in. Especially when there are good friends involved in the fun. This weekend was Mother's Day weekend and the Lotus Lantern festival in Seoul. I couldn't not go to the lantern festival, and really, is there anything better than letting your kids make a mess that someone else has to pick up (well kinda).
We packed up and headed to Seoul Friday night, with the intentions of meeting up for dinner with our friends the Milks. As usual, traffic was horrid and Ronnie didn't get there until later, so we opted to eat dinner in and meet up in the morning. This time, we stayed at the Marriott across the Han from Yongsan because there was no room in the Dragon Hill Lodge for us.
Saturday morning, we grabbed some breakfast and headed to meet the Milks. I convinced Ronnie to let me peak in the Chosun Gift Shop.... boy was that a mistake. I found a beautiful mahogany wood bar from the Philippines. I have been wanting one of these bars for a while, but most of them that I found were too Asian for my home and wouldn't blend well with my other furniture. Not that I wanted it to be all matchy-matchy, but I did want something that would go nicely. And that it does. Ronnie took one look and gave me the green light.
Since buying a piece of furniture wasn't on my list, it pushed us back a little on getting our day of exploration started. Jenn and I decided that the Seoul city bus tour would be the best way to get us all over town. We grabbed some lunch and hopped on the bus. Before we knew it, we were at our first stop, the Namsangol Hanok Village. This is a traditional village that has five restored Korean houses and a pavilion. We had so much fun exploring the village and taking in the sights. And before we knew it, it was time to get back on the bus.
The next stop was the N Seoul Tower on Namsan. The tower is 236.7 m (777 ft) in height (from the base), but tops out at 479.7 m (1,574 ft) above sea level because of it's location on the mountain. We got off the bus and hiked up the hill to the tower entrance and made our way to the top. Unfortunately, it was a hazy day (as usual) but we were able to see south to the Han and north to the Blue House. The second best thing about the tower is the bathroom, which face the outside of the tower so you can enjoy the view.
(left) N Seoul Tower; (right) view from the top
(left) Locks of love at the tower; (right) Paparazzi
Since it was getting later in the day, we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Jongno to get some dinner and a good seat for the parade. We lucked out and had a perfect view, though one of the city cops decided to stand in front of us most of the time (Epic fail on their part). We got the girls settled in for the parade, and Jenn and I made our way to Insadong and picked up some street cart snacks for the parade. The girls enjoyed the parade and were gifted lanterns by the participants. It was getting late, so we made our way to the subway and headed on back to our rooms.
Sunday we decided to sleep in and be lazy rather than running around town (school isn't out yet here). We played at the Dragon Hill playground, mulled around the Yongsan BX and eventually headed home early afternoon.
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