Seoul Korea

Last week Grace, Sophia, and I had the opportunity to take a girls only vacation to Seoul Korea. I chose Korea because its close to Japan and a safe country for a mom and two girls to travel to. Prior to our departure to Korea, I ordered a Seoul travel book and read it throughly to know exactly what to do and expect on our trip. I made up day trips for all the days that we were there. Some day trips were for the girls enjoyment and some were for my enjoyment.
We left our house on Wednesday may 14th at 7am to catch the Shinkansen train to Tokyo. We then had to transfer to the airport train and we finally arrived at the Narita Airport with 1 hour to spare. We had a very short two hour flight to Korea. One of the reason I wanted to go to Korea was that their international airport (Incheon) has been voted the best airport in the world for the last four years and I had to see this for myself.
Although once we arrived I was not given much time to look around, but that was ok because we were going to have to come back. After we got through customs and such we quickly found the correct bus to our hotel which took us directly to out hotel in downtown Seoul. When we arrived at our hotel and to our delight, well mostly mine, across the street from us was an Outback Steak House. We don't have one of these where we live. We were able to eat here several times and Grace just loved the brown bread. Our hotel was in a very good location and it was very nice for us girls.

On our second day in Seoul I took the girls to Seoul grand Park Zoo. The girls love zoos and what kids don't? Grace and Sophia really enjoyed looking at all the animals and they both loved a baby monkey that we encountered. They could not stop laughing at him as he played in his cage.

Day 3 we went to some palaces and temples. The sad thing about Seoul is that just over 50 years ago it was destroyed by war. So everything we saw was rebuilt.


Day 4 we went to Seoul Tower and the national art museum. We went to Seoul tower on saturday and it was very crowed with high school students and other tourists. The Korean students could not get enough of Grace and Sophia. They all had to have pictures of them. So I told Grace if she could put on a great smile I would buy her a treat and she did a great job of smiling for the student. We also had an interesting encounter while we were at Seoul Tower. A lady came up to the girls and I and asked me where we were from. I told her we were from America. She then said how ironic I am from Iraq. It was a short awkward moment for me, but then she told how beautiful Grace and Sophia were and then asked to kiss them. So I let her kiss them on the cheek. It was the girl's first international diplomacy.
After Seoul Tower I was going to take the girls to a Palace of some sort but I could not find it. Along the way we stumbled onto the National Art Museum. Now I wasn't going to take the girls into an art museum, but it was a girl's lucky day. They had the Art of Cartier on display. I just had to see all the beautiful jewelry. I told the girls that it was princess jewelry in order to peak their interest. They could not get enough of all the beautiful jewelry.


Day 5 we went to an English speaking church which was really nice to attend and being able to understand it was wonderful to my ears. The girls had such a good time at church and they are really excited to move back to America knowing that they will understand everything people say to them.
Day 6 I took the girls to Children's Grand Park. It was the coolest park. 1 it was free, 2 they have a free zoo, and 3 the girls got to pet elephants, ride camels, and ride on ponies. Sophia and Grace loved it here. I wish they had parks like this in America.
We got to feed elephants, ride on the camels, and the girls got to go on pony rides.





Day 7 we went shopping for souvenirs. I only bought metal chopsticks. In Korea they eat with metal chopsticks unlike China and Japan who use wood chopsticks

Day 8 We went to Namsangol Hanok Village. Its a replica village so people can see how traditional Koreans lived. Grace and Sophia really enjoyed this because the village had lots of stone cobble walk ways threw gardens and most of the time you didn't know where you were going to end up. The girls sure love secret pathways.
Seoul Tower in the background.

After going to the Village we headed back to Incheon airport. The airport is very nice and new, and very fast and efficient. I was able to buy some Clinique make-up which I haven't been able to do in Japan so that was very nice. Grace was a little disappointed with the plane we were on going home because it didn't have a TV for her to watch. But after getting her meal on the plane, that included skittles, she was a very happy girl. We enjoyed the quick flight back to Japan where we ended up staying the night at a hotel near the airport.

We arrived too late to take a train back home.
On day 9 we slowly made our way back to Sendai so that Lane could pick us up from the train station after work. The girls fell asleep on my lap on the local train from Narita to Tokyo. Too cute.

The best part of the trip home was being able to ride on the double decker Shinkansen/Bullet train. The girls were very excited about it. They did not want to stay in their seats because they need to go and check out the staircase on the train.
Now we are home and very tired. I am glad that the weekend is here. Although we have a busy weekend planned. I love to travel and I am grateful that I can travel with my girls. They are truly good travelers for being only 3 and 4 years old.