A big adventure day today. I planned to walk the fortress wall around downtown Seoul this spring. This was sort of part 1. Although we had such a hard time following the trail as it turns out it is set up for walking it clockwise and we headed counterclockwise that we did a lot of backtracking and took a lot of ‘off’ paths. So I consider this more of a scouting trip.
In total, my phone tells me I did just over 26000 steps today, and our walk today was a bit over 13 kilometers and took a little over four and a half hours. But we left early and put in plenty of breaks for August. He got to run around and play four times, we stopped to play at water fountains, ant hills, and to watch construction equipment, and I walked during both his naps.
I might put in a fuller description of our route later, but roughly we started on the opposite side of Seoul and did a third of a circle, counterclockwise, that took us past Namsan Tower (yes, I walked up to Namsan Tower carrying a baby) and ended a bit to the NE of Itaewon.
The highlights for August were:
– watching a backhoe for 10 minutes
– watching and chasing pigeons, both at Seodaemun Independence Park and Sungnyemun Gate
– playing in 3 water fountains in Namsan Park
– playing with another boy as they both pulled on a chain at Namsan Tower
August also got a ton of attention (a lot of tourist with cameras up at Namsan) and enjoyed that. He did great overall and even the long subway rides weren’t a problem (of course, he was still sleeping for part of the ride back).
When we got home we were both exhausted. He was starving because he hadn’t eaten much at either of our eating breaks. And I was sunburned on my arms. Luckily, he was properly lotioned and hatted, and got turned around in the carrier. I, on the other hand, had my right arm facing the sun much of the time.
Morning:
Sporting the new bug shirt:
Seodaemun Independence Park:
Lunch at Sungnyemun Gate:
Namsan Park:
First fountain:
Going up:
Playing at the top:
Very dirty pants:
Drinking fountain #3. His height. Unfortunately, he hit his head against an edge trying to play with two faucets at once and left a nice mark:
Back home he and Carly were playing with his helicopter and he has suddenly gotten much more interested in and better at putting the shapes in their holes. The first few times he did it he put both arms in the air with his palms facing up. Alas, he didn’t do it when I turned on the camera:
Finally, a couple random wall shots since I took a lot of them:
Ryan, you are amazing. You seem to have limitless energy and adventure seeking. About the spaghetti eating yesterday – if we hadn’t seen him eating while we were skyping, I would have thought that was the first he had eaten all day. It must have been really good spaghetti.