Monday, May 2, 2011

Hwaseong Fortress, Suwon

Today was Steve's day off (yay!) and it also looked to be a gorgeous day outside (come to find the yellow dust was really high today....oops). We decided to take the 40 minute train ride to Suwon and check out the Hwaseong Fortress. We left around 1pm, arrived back home around 7pm and had a great time. Needless to say, we're exhausted! Steve figured it out and we probably walked over 5 miles total. But I think we all three enjoyed ourselves and felt like we were on a mini vacation, playing tourist and exploring Asia.
Heading out!
The Cherry blossoms are done (for the most part) and have turned all green and now all the shrubs and bushes are flowering and there are beautiful roses everywhere as well. It definitely feels like summer.
Waiting for the train....."choo choo!" Caleb loves trains right now.
We are working on the word "pretty" and when to use it...we had pleanty of opportunities today! Koreans seem to love flowers and they are everywhere and absolutely gorgeous.
City of Suwon, pictured above.
As you can see in the picture above, Caleb waved at just about every person we saw today (and we saw a lot of people!). He'd wave and wave and smile and wave.
We climbed a lot of stairs today - whew!


Did I mention we did a lot of stairs?  Caleb actually did quite a few like this...we were pretty impressed.  His legs are going to be soar!  He also learned "up" and "down" yesterday, I'm sure he'll never forget after all that repetition!
Caleb enjoyed peeking out of the cannon holes.




They had this cool marker that told how many km we were away from various other big cities around the world, Sydney, Tokyo, New York etc.

They had a spring-fed outdoor water fountain with a cup hanging nearby...so we had a refreshing (free) water break....If we all wake up sick in the morning, you'll know why!






He liked the statue from far away but got scared close up...funny thing was, Dad was standing right there and he starts screaming for "mama, mama mama" Sorry, bud, if anything bad was every to really happen DAD would totally be the one to run to!  I'd be no help.


I liked the statue's "shadow"



We took a cute (dragon-shaped) trolly ride around the fortress....they even had English translation.


love those eyes, all 4 of them!


Korea is a lot different than the states as far as strangers and babies go....we are constantly having strangers give Caleb food but don't have to worry about the whole creepy-kid thing.  It's just cultural.  They give kiddos food (and candy) all the time, it's just what you do.  Pictured above is a rice cake (Caleb really enjoys these).  The only down side is ditching the food/candy once the person leaves...most of the time they give him things we don't really want him eating.  Although I don't think the rice cakes do much damage.








gorgeous stone walls



And that was our grand adventure at Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon!  Great day, great company, great weather and some fun history.

1 comment:

  1. What a beautiful fun day!!!!
    Favorites: Caleb and you in front of the flower bush. The one of all three of you in front of the red doors. The marker sign. TOTALLY LOL at your caption under the statue picture! <3

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