Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day in Korea is celebrated differently.  The ladies are supposed to buy their man a box of chocolate.  Then, on March 14th, the men get to reciprocate and buy their loves a box of candy.  Since Sam had the day off, we just used the opportunity to take a road trip!  We pulled Lindsay out of school and, after meandering through Gongju and not finding much of interest, we decided to just drive on up to Seoul! 

On our way up, we stopped at a rest stop and encountered a water drip gone awry.  The streetlight above the gazebo was dripping, apparently for some time, the ice formations were impressive - sheets of water that looked like stalagtites and stalagmites!

Our destination for the day - Namsan Tower.  We'd been meaning to go a couple of times, and finally decided that today was the day.  Unfortunately for us, Namsan Tower is the most popular tourist attraction for foreigners and a top destination for couples in love, and of course, we decided to go on Valentine's Day... *sigh* live and learn...  We didn't realize our mistake until we got close to the area and were wondering why it was so congested in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday.

We took the cable car to get to the tower - fun!

The weather was a bit hazy, but the views were pretty from the top.  The cityscape against the beautiful mountains made for a gorgeous view.

Standing in front of a replica of the ancient fire beacon alarm system used to notify the capital of invaders and other communications. We read about it in "The Firekeeper's Son" by Linda Sue Park before we got to Korea. Yay, for library books!

Lindsay has officially embraced the Korean "V" pose for pictures.  I remember my dad asking Grace and me to do this once for pictures when we were very young.  It's still a de facto pose for Koreans, a very longstanding tradition, indeed.

Namsan Tower!

Speaking of traditions. another one that is rumored to have started here was leaving a lock with you and a loved one's name on it, declaring your eternal love for each other.  You can see locks on fences at many Korean attractions now, but it started here.

 My Valentine :O)

Lindsay says that this is how the pop stars pose.  Oy...

For dinner, we headed to Itaewon.  I had never been there, and we were all craving for some non-Korean food.  We all enthusiastically agreed to eat Indian.  Lindsay couldn't have been happier.

 Waiting for the food...

Non Korean food!  We were so happy.  We ordered butter chicken, some Chef's special curry,  and naan.  We ate three orders of naan, so yummy.  Lindsay inhaled the food and was in non-Korean food bliss.  The curry was disappointing in that they had used frozen vegetables - boo! 

I liked the name of this restaurant

After dinner, we walked around Itaewon and then headed home.  More traffic!  We finally got home around eleven.  Lindsay was a bit tired for school the next day, but I'm sure the Indian food was worth it. :O)