Last Hurrah of Single Childhood

We took one last trip to Seoul before E loses her title of only child.  The actual purpose of us going was for Ben and I to visit the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea) because our previous tour was cancelled.  E got to spend the day at the history museum with the grandparents while we were gone.  We also ended up going to Everland (similar to a small Disneyland) and had a blast!  At 36 weeks pregnant I was exhausted after this busy weekend!

Everland was beautiful.  It was set up in the hills with all the changing leaves.  It was heavily decorated for Halloween, which I loved!

Our day focused around rides that E would enjoy...and boy did she enjoy them!  She wanted to bounce from ride to ride without stopping!

One of Ben's favorite places was the ball room (E enjoyed it as well).  They had several ball shooters which I can see ending up in our home someday.

We enjoyed a Madagascar Live Circus show (E's favorite part was collecting the confetti).

Ben and Grandma went on this crazy roller coaster (which got rave reviews from them both) while Grandpa and I took E to the petting zoo where we got to feed the sheep and birds.

We enjoyed the last part of the park by walking through the zoo before E and I crashed from exhaustion!  It was a wonderful day!

The next day Ben and I had our DMZ tour.  It was very interesting and we're glad we were able to make it (no children under 10 can attend so we knew this was our last chance)!

The best part of the tour was the Joint Security Area which is part of the military base operated by the U.S., U.N. and Republic of Korea (ROK).  There is a 2 kilometer 'grace' area on either side of the actual border where there is no military presence.  There are actually village from both countries (although North Korea's is a fake village) within the DMZ!  At one point in the JSA there are buildings side by side which are both North and South Korea's.  Here is where we saw the staring contest between the North and the South.  Inside the Conference Room we were actually standing in North Korea!

Here we are standing in South Korea looking to North Korea's building (notice the North Korean soldier on the stairs looking at us through binoculars.  The olive green soldier by the blue building is a ROK soldier (South Korean).  The actual border is in the middle of the blue buildings (you can see a concrete border).

Inside the conference room with the ROK soldiers (they look fake) and standing in both North and South Korea.

This is Ben with North Korea's village (which is called Propaganda Village) which is inside the DMZ.  This village is completely fake (buildings with painted on doors, etc.) with a huge flag pole!

We learned of several attacks that have happened here as well as the purpose of the Bridge of No Return (the location after the war where Koreans had to pick and side and cross the bridge never to return).

On our tour we also walked down one of the 4 tunnels the South has found which the North has dug to to be able to attack Seoul (no camera's were allowed inside the tunnel).

Our last stop was to the train station the South built in hopes of unifying the North and South at some point.  This station never gets used, although President Bush did ride a train into North Korea on a visit with Kim Jong Il.  They also had a toll booth and road leading to North Korea which also is never used.

It was a very interesting day!  It is crazy to imagine these countries are technically still at war!

While we enjoyed our DMZ day, E got to enjoy the museum with her grandparents!

We had a great weekend...now let the real fun begin!