Planes, Trains and Automobiles

It has been harder than I thought to sit down and right about our first days in Korea, this time around. Saturday morning, Joe and the boys drove Cassie and I to the airport- bright and early. We spent MANY hours on the plane, but it was a pretty uneventful day of travel. Due to the time change, we landed in Seoul around 5:30 Sunday evening. After a long wait in the immigration line and trouble finding our bags and our driver, we were finally at our hotel. We were so exhausted, we went right to bed and slept well.

As was the case with our last trip, I woke up at 4:15 wide awake. It was nice to relax a bit. Read a book, check in at home, watch Seoul out my hotel window. When Cassie and I were both ready to start our day, we headed down to breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to Insadong.  On the way, Cassie took me to our beautiful Buddhist temple. It was absolutely gorgeous! So colorful and peaceful.

Just like last time, when we got to Insadong it was too early for any of the shops to open, so we walked the street, got coffee and people watched from the second floor of the Starbucks building. When we left, shops were finally opening up. We started to take note of what we saw and what we planned to come back to. Knowing this was the beginning of day one, we wanted to pace ourselves.

Then we headed to Gyeongbokgung Palace. Our family visited this palace on our last trip, while on our guided tour, but it is so beautiful, I was excited to see it again. We wandered the grounds, seeing many things our family had not seen last time. In fact, there were several things we missed last time. The changing of the guards, gardens, and a beautiful structure build on an island, surrounded by a frozen pond.


After leaving the palace, we walked down Gwanghwamun Square. Once again, we say this on our last trip, but this time there were several tents with Olympic activities and souvenirs lining the middle of the square. Next we went to the Kyobo Bookstore and wandered for a bit. It was huge. So many books!

Next, we headed toward Holt, so that Cassie could meet with her daughter's foster mom. This was an eventful trip. Beginning with the subway and ending with a frantic taxi ride, but we made it just in time. I feel so fortunate to have been able to witness this meeting. It was so wonderful to watch them come together and spend time sharing their love for a little girl who has been theirs at different times. It was incredible to observe.

Then Cassie and I went shopping at Home Plus (our family went there several times during our last stay). After picking up a few things, we headed to dinner. We ended up finding this lovely restaurant within the same mall as Home Plus. It was some of the best cashew chicken I have ever eaten, but that could have been that we had not really ate anything since breakfast-we were just too busy for food. After dinner, we browsed a few shops, then headed back to the subway. It was a long, long day, but it was such a wonderful one!