August and I attempted to continue the Fortress Trail today. Alas, after a couple kilometers the wide, easy, safe path gave way to steep, craggy rocks that just weren’t safe with a baby. So we headed back down and ended up cutting a new path through part of downtown, seeing the Blue House (equivalent of the White House) for the first time.
Also, the weather didn’t cooperate. What was forecast as an 80 and partly sunny day turned into 61 and rainy. Unfortunately, the forecast didn’t keep up, and when we left the house it was still supposed to be 70s and dry.
In the morning August stole a piece of toast from me off the counter. I walked into the kitchen a few seconds after him to find him eating it like a squirrel. He was very happy with himself and thought it was quite funny.
We left the house at 8:30 and traveled to Dongnimmun Station. We played at Seodaemun Independence Park (water and flowers for awhile then hit the trail. After 600+ steps we turned back. As we came back down we met a soldier, Harvey, who talked to us for several minutes. The trail here goes through a military area (looking down you see into the Blue House compound, for one) and there are little outposts along the way. Apparently there were messages going over the radio among these men that a cute baby was coming up the trail. He was quite nice and we talked about what it was like to raise August in Korea.
We headed down, changing August into long sleeves as the temperature was stuck at 61 and it was getting breezy and damp. We stopped by a construction spot where we had previously watched them loading a truck with dirt and he could see a backhoe at work.
We then found a side path to a rest area in the first and had lunch. From there we continued down a separate path to Sajik Park. August fell asleep along the way so I went to a nice coffee shop called Pot de Miel next to the park. When he woke up we went back into the park to the playground and played. When it rained we sat in a big tube thing and ate a snack.
From there we headed east, finding an area where we once ate pizza with some friends. We headed north, exploring new territory, walked through an in door market, and then up to the Blue House area.
We went to the Cheongwadae Sarangchae – basically the presidential visitor center. Not too exciting, but there was an exhibit on pressed flowers that was okay. I let August walk around outside for awhile, but we got mobbed by tourists with cameras and video cameras and it got a bit weird (woman put her arm around August for a photo, big camera in his face) so we left.
We walked east, north of the palace, and saw the entrance to the Blue House (oddly, none of the tourists were actually here), then came out on the east side, walked past the MMCA, and to Insa-dong. I had planned to walk to Tapgol Park and let him play one last time, but now it was actually starting to rain. So we hopped in the subway at Anguk and transferred after a stop.
At Seokgye we got out to transfer to the bus. It wasn’t raining and we had a few minutes so I let him walk around in the park by the stop. A woman insisted it was raining though and kept trying to give us her umbrella. There was maybe two drops in the 7 minutes we were there. I had to get pretty forceful in telling her to go away (previously I’d also had to get pretty forceful with with a woman who was complaining his arms were cold literally as I was changing him into long sleeves – both times he was wearing a sweatshirt with a hood up and it was 61 degrees).
Anyway, pretty normal evening after that. August had fun flying on Carly’s legs, and then he got interested in trying to plug his headphones into the iPod. I told him it would probably be something that would take awhile to master. He then pretty much proceeded to prove me wrong by getting it mostly down in 10 minutes or so.
Toast thief:
Where we were trying to go:
But had to stop about halfway up from that photo when it went like this:
Long sleeves:
Lunch:
Sajik Park area:
Our shelter:
He loved the rings. Like the handles in the subway but easier to reach:
Playing with his hood while walking:
Blue House:
Our walking route for the day. Blue = before coffee, red = after:
Home:
