Coex Aquarium

This week we had the opportunity to visit Coex Aquarium, inside of the Coex Mall.  Finding a spot in the parking garage was fairly easy and we rode up the escalator to the mall. There were signs on every corner of the mall leading us to the Aquarium. Fridays, we thought, were not going to be very crowded but as soon as we were in the ticket line we knew we were very wrong. There were tons of daycares arriving for a field trip to the Aquarium. The little children were so cute we didn't mind running in to them at every turn. They were the sweetest little things with their matching shirts and walking hand in hand.

The tickets for Adults were 22,000 won, Junior High and High School students were 19,000 won, and Children were 16,000 won. Children four and under are able to get in free. The website says if you have more than one child under four you will have to pay for the extra child(ren). The ticket booth has a sign saying you need to bring your children's birth certificate or passport to show the actual age of the child. I guess they have been scammed too many times. Our bill came to 76,000 won.

I wanted a break from the camera so I decided not to film. James was able to take some pictures with his phone for the blog. There was some silly tanks in refrigerators, beds, traffic lights, and more. There was a tank of little Doctor fish that would clean your hands of dead skin. We all got a laugh out of this.  Although they had several different rooms to view of all different kinds of mammals and fish we will not be going back.  We did not rush through any of the rooms and still felt as if something was missing from the Aquarium. I am sure in South Korea this is a great Aquarium to visit but we have visited larger Aquariums in the states that were much more captivating than this one.  76,000 won plus  9,600 won for parking was just a little expensive on the pocket book when there are so many other, less expensive, things to see in Seoul. Children's Grand Park Zoo is free and Seoul Zoo only cost us about 50,000 won(that's with food, drinks, and a sky lift up the mountain) and was one of the largest Zoo's we have ever been to.

 *When leaving the parking garage it will be a tight squeeze. People will make their own parking spots in the exit lane.  If a car comes up your lane, one of you will have to back up to get out. Our huge vehicle barely made it through the tight space.

Seoul Tower Lights

Sunday evening we made plans to walk up the mountain stairs of Namsan to enjoy the tower lit up at night.  We started our journey walking up the street from our house to Seoul Fortress Wall. 

There is a very steep walkway around the wall that leads up to a park with a couple of statues. Once you go through the flat park you go up more stairs until you find a parking lot. This will lead you to the stairs that go up to Seoul Tower.  The walk up is very steep and there are countless stairs to climb. With children, the walk took us about an hour to get to the tower. 

After arriving at our final destination we were drenched with sweat and needed a way to cool down. Water was handed out to drink and then James found something amazing. Right in front of Seoul Tower were kids of all ages running through water that was coming up out of the ground. The kids ran straight to the circle of mist and cooled down in no time. 

After the kids cooled themselves down, we sat down on a park bench and brought out our sandwiches we had packed for our picnic on the mountain. The kids really enjoyed having an excuse to have a picnic and I was just glad to be able to sit down. 

The tower was even more beautiful than I could have imagined it to be at night. Just seeing it right in front of me instead of my bedroom window really made me appreciate the beauty of it even more. It was a very lively place to be at night. There were lots of families and couples enjoying the many restaurants,shops, artists, and views. James bought us yummy Churros to enjoy as we looked over the brightly lit city of Seoul. 

It was such a romantic spot. I can see why so many couples were there to soak it all in. James and I both made sure to make a note of this. If we ever do get a babysitter while living here this would be the perfect place to go on a date night. When it was time to go we decided not to go back down the steps of the mountain but try a different route on the opposite side of where we came in. This is the walkway to the bus stop. When we arrived at the bus stop we stayed on the walkway and turned right. We found this led right to where we needed to be and was a much smoother way to get down. We even found a few Australians on the walk and enjoyed listening to the them talk to one another. (Every time we go on a trip somewhere we usually find an Australian or two. They are the happiest people on Earth, in my opinion.) Walking down this path, we were back down to the main road in no time.

4th of July

Yongsan had a wonderful Independence Day celebration on post. There were tons of bands playing, vendors set up everywhere, bouncy houses, a softball tournament, and lots more.  The MWR was having a scavenger hunt for people to get involved and really check out all the vendors that were there. We participated in the hunt and had a great time. The vendors all had free things to hand out which was a great bonus. We watched a 20 minute fireworks show that was by far the best I have ever seen. We had an amazing time yesterday and look forward to more MWR sponsored events on post.

Seoul Children's Grand Park

Seoul Children's Grand Park is a great place to take your children. The place is filled with tons of things to see and do. The park consists of a Park, Zoo, Amusement Park, Botanical Garden and a Children's Museum.The Park, Zoo, and Botanical Gardens are free. It will cost you to ride the rides at the Amusement park and the Children's Museum was 4000 won for adults and kids. Children under three get in free.

We went to visit the park on a Friday, mid-morning. The traffic was pretty intense on the way there. The traffic in the middle of the afternoon, when we left, was great and we got back to post in half the time it took us to get to the park.  I checked out a few different websites for directions and there are several different ways to get into the park. We just put in Seoul Children's Grand Park in our GPS and it led us right to it. (Other than a few missed turns because we are still getting use to the road system here.)

We pulled into the parking lot right in front of the museum. We discovered later that when going out the gate you have to pay for your parking then, not before. I guess it is based on the time you spend in the park. We were there for several hours and our parking fee was 4300 won.  We went straight for the zoo which opens at 10 o'clock,five hours after the park opens.The zoo has several buildings with different animals. We were really surprised at all the exhibits they had considering it was free. The park has a Peter Pan animal show that has several showings but we decided to skip that since we were really just interested in the zoo itself.  None of us would have understood a word anyone said anyways.

The park had different places to eat and picnic tables to bring your own lunch. Souvenir shops were at the zoo and around the park for you to buy an overpriced small stuffed animal. We knew that we were just spending money on gas to get there so we made sure to pack water and snacks. The kids were so glad to go somewhere new that they didn't even care about the souvenirs. We had a wonderful day in the park and found a great spot in Seoul for the kids.