Hiiii! I’m back to tell you about the rest of our trip in the Chuncheon area. Cleaning the apartment is higher on my to-do list than writing this post so I just went ahead and hired a cleaning lady to come tomorrow…so here I am. 🙂
On our way to and from the villa we stayed at, we passed a little train station just up the road. It wasn’t your typical train station however so the next morning we decided to stop and check it out.
Owen was so excited about this train ride…it was about an hour long, out and back. There was a hill and Alex and I got a decent work out out of it. Owen and Della loved it. The views were spectacular. We went out across the “big big bridge” (referencing one of the stories in Owen’s beloved Thomas the Train book) over the river and got to turn back around on a turntable.
Our bike/train ride helped us work up quite an appetite so we set out in hunt for a burger place that we never found. All the restaurants in the area are Korean. Don’t get me wrong, the beef/duck/pork/chicken on a leaf (you cook your own in the center of the table) is great but we don’t love it enough to have it for ever meal. We decided to drive out of the touristy area along the river and see if we could find something off the beaten path. That’s when Trip Advisor stepped in and we found Lacuna Boat Club.
This little hidden gem was well worth the 15 miles of windy mountain roads (along the river so the view was perfection). We ordered a waffle and the cream cheese pretzel along with coffees and sat on the deck over looking the water and mountains. The waffle was one of the best we’ve had since Belgium and the pretzel was almost as good as Germany’s.
It was getting to be nap time for the kids so we loaded back into the car and set our destination to a calming afternoon activity. The Garden of Morning Calm is a 30,000 square meter garden open year-round and is the oldest private garden in Korea.
Owen was overjoyed to have found the “shake shake bridge” (another reference to the previously mentioned Thomas the Train book).
The gardens are artistic and beautiful, with subtle touches of the Korean concept. Everywhere you looked, it was serene and colorful.
They had a train display that chuffed around it’s tracks just for Owen.
And now I’m going to bombard you with garden pictures…
Owen loved all the flowers. He absolutely loved them! He smelled them, described them by color and if they had any bugs on them…it was so adorable. He wanted his picture taken by almost every single one and he asked if he could take pictures of the flowers on my phone. And who am I to say no?!
I had over 200 pictures on my phone but it was so cute I didn’t mind one bit. We wandered for hours and I’m still not sure we saw half of the gardens.
We drove back in time to have dinner with our friends. Everyone shared stories of their day – Owen was super jealous of his friends who got to ride 4-wheelers. We were exhausted and turned in early. The next morning since Owen had everyone awake by 5:36 am, we loaded up the car and stopped at the Seoul Grand Park Zoo and met some friends there on our way home. It was a Tuesday and we got there right after they opened so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It’s a MASSIVE zoo and only $5 to get in. The kids had so much fun – we will definitely be back.
This huge turtle was very intrigued with Della…it started trying to climb the glass!
I am obsessed with how much these two adore each other. Owen has always been a mama’s boy from day 1. Della is a total daddy’s girl and I love it.
That wraps up our Labor Day weekend! It was much much much needed family time…I wish every weekend could be this good!
xoxo