Seoul Tower

It appears we are recovering a bit from our jet lag.  This morning, everyone slept longer.  We almost made it to 6am.  Today, we started "breakfast" dates with our kids.  Our room includes two complimentary breakfasts for this amazing buffet style breakfast that includes all the western standards (made to order omlets, waffles, pancakes), fresh squeezed orange juice, a table full of French pastries, cold cuts and cheese table, fresh fruit and cereal table, salads, and Korean options such as rice, bulgogi meat, several soups, and of course kimchi.  Basically, something for everyone no matter what part of the world you live in.  The only downside is that only two complimentary breakfasts are included and the kids, even at half price, would not be a budget friendly option.  So, we decided to alternate breakfasts with the kids to take advantage of the wonderful meal and some one-on-one time.  This morning, Ben and I had breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent a fair amount of time in our room.  Our room, even though it is on a non-smoking floor, had a distinct smoke smell.  We asked the hotel about it and offered to move us to another set of rooms if they couldn't fix the problem.  So we basically packed up everything and they eventually ended up moving us and all our luggage to another room.

As Ian said, "Korean ninjas"

Tram ride up to Seoul Tower

Teddy Bear Museum

Gangnam Style

Around 10:30am, we met up with my cousin Joe and his wife Nikki and their daughter Ella.  Joe has been stationed at Osan Air Force base for the last year and half or so.  He is scheduled for assignment in  Germany in a few weeks, so we were glad to see them before their move.  We went up to Seoul Tower   and toured the Teddy Bear museum and the observation deck on the tower.  We ate a light lunch (we tried a bulgogi quesadilla - tasty).  Before heading back down, we stopped to watch some traditional cultural performances - Korean drumming and military sword/spear maneuvers.

Ian and Ella enjoying cupcakes

Dinner!

On the way down, Nikki told us about this wonderful cupcake place called Goodovening.  We took the subway to the Jonggak station area and found the shop and enjoyed some wonderful cupcakes.  The cupcake place is in the area near the restored Cheonggyecheon stream area.  It would have been fun to explore the area, but by this time, our kids were wearing down so we started our journey back to the hotel.  Ian fell asleep on the way, but we still included him in a few pictures in front of the hotel's Christmas Tree.