We took advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend by going to up Seoul to enjoy some time in the city. The lodge at Yongsan army post had a special rate, too! It’s called the Dragon Hill Lodge and is super nice… large rooms with mini fridges, a great pool and fitness center, restaurants, and
an awesome playground. The lodge itself is a nice little getaway.
We drive up Wednesday night after work and settled in. On Thursday we spent a long time at the Samsung children’s museum- a wonderful hands-on kids museum. Zoe’s favorite spot was the construction zone where kids could play build a house. Avi enjoyed it too, but was also enthralled with the ‘families’ display. He played with the sonogram a long time! Avi also really liked the special toddler zone that wasn’t packed with school students.
Our Thanksgiving lunch found us at the Home Plus food court across the street. Mmmmm…. Udon, donkatsu, and bibimbap … Not quite traditional, but tasty!!
From there we took the subway a quick jaunt across the river to the Seoul Forest. It’s like Central park- a huge green space with woodsy areas, playing fields, wetland trails, a resident deer herd, snack bars and a few fun playgrounds. Both kiddos were sleeping when we arrived. I wandered into the visitor center with Avi in the stroller and was happily ushered to the baby care room. It was a nice warm room to hang out and rest. It’s really designed for nursing mommies- complete with wide comfy seats, classical music and boppy pillows to use! Korea is so kid an baby friendly!! Eventually Bryan and Zoe were chilly resting outside and joined me. Once the kids woke we explored the park and loooooved the extra long slide at the playground.
In the evening we wandered the night markets in Dongdaemun before realizing how late it was for dinner. We really wanted some western food and took a bit of an adventure finding any. Finally we found a pizza place, so yum! Pizza for Thanksgiving. We returned to the hotel exhausted so Friday we took it a bit easier!
In the morning we lounged in the hotel before venturing off to Jogyesa temple, the templestay center, and lunch in the old-school Insadong part of Seoul. In the evening it was playtime, pool time, and American style buffet dinner at the lodge.
Three nights in the city was fun. We returned to Songtan this morning and had a wonderful afternoon at a friends’ house. This was our real Thanksgiving feast!!!
