Destination: Seoul Tower

I know. You're tired of hearing about (and seeing) Seoul Tower, but I'm happy to report that we finally made it to the (observation deck at) Seoul Tower, so now I can be done reporting our failed attempts at reaching it!

Yesterday, the weather was nice (a pleasant 32 degrees F with sun breaks), so we decided to head back to the elusive glass elevator. It didn't take us long to get there now that we know where we're going!

The tourist books really tout the view as you go up in the elevator, but it's not really too impressive.

Of course, these pictures are taken through the glass, too, which just adds to their quality. I decided not to photograph the toll booth directly below the elevator for you. You're really missing out!

The elevator takes about five minutes and then you reach the cable car station (there are other methods of getting here, but this was the fastest route for us).

The cable car takes you up to the base of the tower (where I took the picture at the top of this post) and it is about a 10 minute ride.

The glassed cable car lends itself to more top-quality pictures.

But you can't resist taking them because the view from here really is amazing!

Unfortunately, it was still pretty hazy, so even the pictures that I took once we'd reached the top (and I was not behind glass) still have a pretty thick haze over the city.

This is the northern part of Seoul, an area that I don't know very well, so I can't pick out any landmarks here.

There is another elevator that you can take from here to actually go up into the tower. I'm sure that the view would have been even more amazing, but we weren't willing to shell out more money for it. We'll save that trip for when you come to visit!



This is taken from the south side of the tower, so our apartment is just above the green screen that you can see at the bottom of the picture. The Hyatt Hotel and our school are off to the left (not seen in the picture). The US Base is just to the right of where this picture cuts off. Itaewon is right in the middle of the picture. The Han River is just past the buildings where the haze really begins. Nice picture, huh? You really can't see any of those things in it!! What's a girl to do?!

Seoul Tower is also known for the tradition of couples leaving locks on its observation deck in hopes of "endless love".

There are millions of locks and the tradition has since expanded to cover everything from locks to keychains to cell phone covers. 

Naturally, there were all sorts of photo opportunities here, but my family was not feeling photogenic yesterday, so this is the best I could do.



Could they stand in front of this so that I could take their picture? Oh no!

Though their reluctance to be photogenic may have been impacted by the fact that Cade had an accident 15 minutes after Eric took him to the bathroom. That's right. Cade is on day four of underwear. And we have not stayed home one of those days. What are we thinking?! But, he's only had two accidents in public, so we are feeling very successful!
Underwear and Seoul Tower. A great ending to this great Christmas break!