Namsan Mountain- April 15th.

On Sunday, we woke up and enjoyed breakfast in the private executive lounge, which was nice until I found out the spread downstairs with the commoners was amazing.  American, European, Japanese, and Korean style breakfasts, plus a smoothie bar.  (I actually skyped with the kids once from the breakfast buffet just to rub it in).

It was such a nice day, we decided to take a walk up the mountain beside our hotel.  First we stopped by the library, where they just have books sitting out for people to take and bring back.

Sara's mom also worked for the American Chemical Society and joined us for our day trip.

Sara has mastered Instgram and took many cute shots of us.

Of course, we weren't actually hiking, but walking up a rather nice set of stairs.  Here we are at the first landing overlooking the north side of the city.

At the top of the mountain, we were rewarded with twisty potatoes with hot dogs in the middle!! Korea IS the future!

Since it was a weekend in Namsan Park, all of the tourist activities were in full swing.  Maureen got to try on her own hanbok.

And pose beside a warrior.

The Rouhi girls took a breather on a love bench.

And we checked out the locked fences.

I'm a sucker and bought a lock for the family.  Now someone has to go back and find it.  

We're learning how to take photos Asian style.

Posing with Haechi- the cute city mascot.  I really wanted to find a stuffed one of these guys for the kids.

A final shot of the tower before we headed back down.

After we descended the mountain, we met up with Sara's friend from college- Simon.  He took us to a fun restaurant where they stuff a whole chicken with rice and ginseng and make a stew out it.  You eat the pull thing with chopsticks and a spoon.   My chopstick skills were really taking off by then.

We followed lunch up with some shopping in Insadong..

And novelty snacks.  This was seriously called "Poop Bread."  It was like a waffle with sweet bean paste inside.  Of course I got one.

Then we snuck down a back alley to get what are known as the best dumplings in the city.  I'm not much of a dumpling person, but these were pretty good.

Sara and flat Stanley pose in Insadong.

Sara isn't the hardcore tourist I am, so she went back to the hotel for a nap, and I headed down to the Korean War Museum.

  

I arrived too late to get into the museum, but I did get a chance to walk around outside and explore the huge display of planes, tanks and other vehicles used in the war.

I think Henry would have loved this.

In the evening, we met up with Simon again and he took us down to Gangnam (like the song) for galbi, or pork belly fried at the table and eaten with sesame leaves.

Maybe one of the best meals we had in Seoul.