Monday: Seoul Tower and Scroll Man!

Mike writing today: 
After the shock of meeting Lauren for the first time wore off, we grabbed a quick lunch of sandwiches from the supermarket in the basement of our hotel and planned out our afternoon. Our first priority was to visit Seoul Tower and place a lock for Lauren to return to when she is older - never mind noticing how the rain continues to hold off, making for a great "outside day". Little did we know the workout that lay ahead!

The subway stop for Seoul Tower was only one transfer and a handful of stops away from our hotel, so that was easy. Finding the tower after exiting the subway was pretty easy, too, because if you look around enough, you can see it from the street. Nevertheless, Mike was comforted by his handy compass as we plunged South up a steep street. About a half mile of sweat-filled climbing later, we were at the cable car base station. "Please, take my money so you can get me up there by electricity!"

We were already drenched with sweat at this point, and the cable car was hot and stuffy filled with locals and tourists - but what a view!

When we got to the top, we were faced with another hike: about 60 wooden stairs to get to the base observation deck at the bottom of the tower. It was comforting to hear others huffing and puffing, knowing we weren't the only ones working hard on the climb! At the top we were greeted by a wonderful reception area, with vendors, viewing platforms, and these ancient-looking turrets:

After wandering around for a little bit, we bought tickets to the top of the tower. The ride to the top is pretty much just a glorified elevator ride, but very quick and easy. The top is a round room surrounded by glass, where labels of the distance to various cities and landmarks are painted on the glass in the correct direction. We got a lot of great pictures from the various vantage points, including the closest to our home:

After we came down from the tower, Mike got an ice cream and Robin found the spot where we wanted to place the lock for Lauren. This is a symbol of her undying love for her home. It is in a fairly distinctive spot that we hope will be easy to find years from now.

After placing the lock, we made plans for our next destination: scroll guy! We rode the cable car back down to the base station and counted our blessings that the walk back to the subway would be downhill. Another half-dozen subway stops later, we emerged in Itaewon and looked over...Robin let out a sigh of relief: scroll guy was open for business! He helped us pick out two scrolls and got to work writing some Korean "calligraphy" that we requested.

Mike was really glad that after all the hiking at the tower, we didn't have to walk far in Itaewon to get what we wanted! Back to the subway we went, in search of Pizza Hut and a bulgogi pizza for dinner. (Sure, there's Pizza Hut in the states, but bulgogi pizza? Not so much.) Unfortunately, the map was out of date (must have been those incompetent GIS guys) and an apparent nightclub was under construction where we anticipated Pizza Hut to be in Mapo. But we were only a few blocks from the hotel, so we walked back and tried to figure out where we might find it again. A Google search back at the hotel was fruitless, and we were starving, so we "settled" for some Vietnamese in the basement of our hotel. But that turned out to be a very good choice for an inexpensive and unique meal. Mike has now had 3 of the approximately 6 Korean beers!

We weren't back in the hotel for long before hitting the hay and falling fast asleep.

We want our little boys back home to know that Mommy and Daddy miss them very much and we can't wait to see them when we get home from this adventure. We know that we are bringing home a gift that will last a lifetime.