63 Sky Art

After visiting the aquarium, we stopped and grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed up to the 60th floor to 63 Sky Art.  They had some Chinese artists on display, but what we really enjoyed was the view of the nighttime skyline of Seoul.

N Seoul Tower 

This city goes on forever! 

Looking down from 60 floors up

Here is some of the art that was on display.  I have no idea what any of it is about, but it's interesting nonetheless.

They also had a neat hallway that lit up and changed colors.

One of the many bridges that crosses the Han River, and one of the major thoroughfares in Seoul - as you can see, it's bumper to bumper traffic, even at 9:00 at night.

They even had art in the bathroom! 

Seoul is beautiful when it is all lit up.



63 Sea World

During our weekend mini-vacation in Seoul, not only did we brave the Cherry Blossom Festival, but we ventured back to Yeouido Island to tour the 63 building.  We took our time getting up and moving Sunday morning and went to do some shopping on post and let the kids swim before heading back over to the craziness of the area. 

First on our to see list at the 63 building was 63 Sea World - after all, we all love aquariums!

My darling husband, always ready for play!

It is said that if you look this turtle in the eye and make a wish, it will come true.

It was dinner time, and this particular penguin thought Grace's hand looked appetizing.

I, on the other hand, thought this crab looked appetizing!

Cow fish

A couple of unicorn fish for my precious princess who loves unicorns and thinks that they come in all shapes and sizes and live all over - guess she's somewhat right!

These pictures are somewhat hard to see, but we saw a neat seal show too.  This one was under water, unlike most of what we have seen in the States.

Swinging 

On a see-saw

Playing a little basketball - Tristan thought he should play for Kentucky.

Swimming through hoops

These are "doctor fish" - they are used to eat the dead skin off of burn victims and patients with poorly healing wounds

If you look closely you can see them nibbling on Grace's fingers.  I've heard they also use these fish for pedicures.  It was a kind of tickling sensation, but I still had a hard time wrapping my mind around a critter eating away at my skin.  Better than leeches or maggots, I suppose...

This guy just looked "crabby"!

Up next:  63 Sky Art and a view from atop the 63 building.

Seoul Cherry Blossom Festival

This weekend in Seoul was the peak time for seeing the cherry blossom trees in full bloom, so we headed up Saturday to see the beauty for ourselves... and 4 million other people.  Though it was beautiful, it was not at all what I expected for a "festival" - this is one area that we have the Koreans beat!  To me festival is somewhat synonymous with "party", and lots of things going on.  In this case, it was several million people walking down a sidewalk between two rows of trees, with your occasional street vendor.  Like I said, it was beautiful, but as one of my friends put it, "We felt like sardines."  Needless to say, I don't think I will ever be a big-city girl!

David and Tristan checking out the boats

A view of N Seoul Tower (on the mountain) from across the Han River

Taking a trip on the duck boats

Grace pedaling the boat

A view of the 63 building

It is 817 feet tall, and was South Korea's tallest building until 2003 

Tristan pedaling - he found he got better leverage by holding himself off the seat. 

There was a little children's park there that had a cool zip line that the kids loved.

My darling daughter insisted on wearing a dress this day - "I want to look nice at the cherry blossom festival." Thank goodness she knows to wear shorts under her dresses still!

Fresh made cotton candy.  Mmmmm. 

As you can see, there were a few other people around enjoying the beauty of the day and the cherry blossom trees. 

David gets a kick out of how portable things are here - this guy had his cotton candy machine set up on the back of his scooter!

While we did enjoy our outing, next year we know that we can stick around our own little town of Anjung-ri to see all this beauty, and if we want to go to Seoul again, we can go to Yongsan (the Army base in Seoul) and drive down one of the streets there that is beautifully lined with cherry blossom trees.  But, while in Korea, we must experience these things first hand - what fun would it be if we said that we just stayed home because we didn't want to be around all those people?  I've just learned to prepare myself for loads of people when we want to venture up that way.