Children's Grand Park, Seoul Korea

As my "teaser" post a few days ago said, we had a really fun family date last week at Children's Grand park in Seoul.  We had heard about it but didn't know anyone who had actually been. We looked it up online and it was listed as #47 of Lonely Planet's 500 "must see/do" in Seoul.  It took us about an hour and half to get there - we walked, rode the bus, rode the subway and switched trains once - but it was worth it.  I would have to agree - it is a "must see/do" in Seoul!  It's like the MN Zoo plus Valleyfair plus nature trails plus botanical gardens plus cultural center.  It's clean, it's huge, it's a lot of fun and best part?  Free.

On the bus...with friends Mario and Jeanine

He loved it. 

 

There was a huge sand play area and Caleb went running up to the first kid who had sand toys and just started playing with them.  We don't know this kid...check out his face.  It's like "dude!  what are you doing?!?"

I've never been at a zoo where the animals came up so close or where the animals were so active....almost all of them were up playing, walking around, interacting etc.  Maybe we just came on a good day?  But we got really close to a lot of them and Caleb really enjoyed "roaring" at them!

Q:  Why are there puppies painted on the background of the exotic bird display?

A:  Because we live in Korea.....

Seoul surrounding the park

No, this was not a petting zoo area...pretty sure we weren't supposed to be sticking our hands through the fence and touching/feeding the wild animals!

* He looks undeniably like Steve BUT I do have to say, he reminds me of my brother a lot at times too...this picture especially looks like Micah to me.  Micah was a blondie for a long time too. If there are two men to want to look like, Steve and Micah would be it!  ;-)  Handsome boy.

Caleb has this thing he does when he gets over-the-top excited about something and it is (somewhat) captured here - I love it.  He stops, tenses almost every muscle, clenches his fists out, smiles real big, and does a little squeal of excitement. It's like he is so excited he doesn't know what to do and does everything all at once.  It's dear to me and so I like this picture.  I love you Caleb-boo.

He enjoyed trying his hand at picking water up and trying to fill the boat with water - one fistful at a time.

Have I mentioned that Koreans love flowers and do a fabulous job landscaping?!?  Love it.

Practicing being Korean...they use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun.  They use umbrellas, hats, long sleeves, facemasks, and sunscreen when they go out. Then for the random ray they may catch, they use whitening cream.  Tan is not "in" here!