We headed north to Uijeongbu today. Our main goal was to finish off the gift card we haven’t been able to use anywhere except at the big department store. We failed at that, but we had fun exploring a new part of the city and a nice park behind city hall.
On the way up, I spotted Camp Jackson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Jackson_(Korea)), which I didn’t know existed, just a little north of Dobongsan and the iris garden.
Up in Uijeongbu we transferred to their U line – it is basically like the monorail. As we walked from one line to the other, we had a great view into a construction site. August grabbed onto the railing and got upset if I tried to leave. We were there about 20 minutes and 4 missed trains before he was happy to move along.
We headed three stops west and got out at city hall. There is a big park area behind it. We first played at a playground, where he played in a drinking fountain and was a bit afraid of a blue toy he had never seen before, then walked through the park and found the sculpture garden/pond/fountain.
We watched for awhile then headed to the end of the park, finishing out that their ‘X Games’ skate park was just a dinky little skate park. And a little wading fountain, which would have been awesome, was off.
But we went back to the fountain and had a lot of fun there for the next hour and a half. He ate, watched the fountain, threw rocks in the grate and his hat, and spotted a helicopter. I also made a little song using his name, and at the end he would point to himself.
I changed him on the grass on the other side of a rope fence from my back pack. His diaper broke and I couldn’t reach a new one, so I did the best I could with it. I put him in the carrier and it seemed fine, and he fell right asleep.
He slept for an hour, and in that time I walked to the department store and to a seating area on the roof, listening to podcasts.
He woke up and we spent quite awhile playing around on the roof and eating lunch. He played under the table, spotted our reflections in the window, and led me through the hedge maze by my finger (there is a sheep sculpture in the middle, so that was exciting for him). I carried him around the rest of the roof – through the tree house and over past a scary sculpture that is out of place on the roof – and he finished by playing with the water bottle around some flowering trees.
Then we headed down a floor to the toy store. I noticed that his diaper was starting to stick out of the top of his pants. He as having fun walking among the toys and we were looking at the Duplo blocks. All the sudden, I looked over to see him holding his diaper. I really have no idea how it happened: the other leg was still attached. It must have been sliding down that leg and he pulled out out through the bottom of his pant leg.
I grabbed him and the diaper and we hurried over to the changing room (very close). Crisis averted.
I tried to buy the Duplo set, only to find that she charged it all to the credit card and nothing came off the gift card. There definitely should be a balance, so I asked, but did not understand her explanation for why the card didn’t work.
Anyway, so I returned the Duplo set. We then walked out and to the Main Street and looked around Artbox. We were then disappointed to find that the little stream and the fountain in the street were also off.
We headed home, stopping first at Starbucks to get a smoothie (trying to use up another gift card I’ve been carrying around). This was a bit of a mistake, as August wanted smoothie as well it ended up with him splattering and dripping smoothie on his shirt in the subway.
He was acting tired by the time we got to Hagye, so once on the platform I set him down to turn around the carrier. He spent the next ten minutes exploring the platform.
He continued to act tired, but he wasn’t falling asleep by the time we got home, so we first went to the grocery store next door.
Watching the construction site:
Watching the fountain and eating:
Napping:
Playing on the roof:
Leading me through the maze:
Sheep:
Water bottle:
Trees:
In the toy store:
