Animal Grandeur

A Grand View at Seoul's Grand Park.

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After being secluded in the apartment for 60 hours straight, we finally got a chance to head back outside. Yes, we were stuck indoors for 4 straight days & 5 nights due to the massive Yellow Dust storm that hit Asia this week. The dust was so bad that we could barely see Seoul Tower most of that time. We took the opportunity to catch up on homeschooling studies, reading but were raring to go the minute we awoke to 'other than yellow skies'!!!

I've lived in Korea for almost 2 years (in chunks of multi-month stints over the past 9 years) and have never seen the Yellow Dust as bad as we've experienced it this year. Hmmm...
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Our first day of freedom took us to Seoul Grand Park just Southwest of the Seoul City Limits. It's one of these massive 'monster' parks that includes multiple giant lakes with walking paths, a large zoo, a separate children's zoo, yet another petting zoo, a giant herb garden park, a large amusement park a la Disneyland, the Metropolitan Museum of Contemporary Art and Forest Bath Resort plus much, much more if you just wander around. They even offer a 'sky lift' to ferry folks from one end of the zoo to another with the option to continue on to the beginning of the park near the parking area and metro station. In addition, you can also ride the 'elephant' bus that ferries folks around the giant lake from the parking area to the zoo entrance, or amusement park entrance or art museum entrance, for that matter. There's definitely a lot to do at Seoul Grand Park and even after 3 visits to just the 'big' zoo alone we haven't yet seen or done everything there let alone even attempted anything beyond the 'big' zoo. It's amazing!

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What's even more amazing is that I paid a whopping $5 admission for the zoo! $3 for adults and $1 per child! I think our last trip to a zoo in the US cost about $30 for a family of four!


Being a 'dolphin' letterboxer, I just had to snap this photo by my relative. This was a cool water fountain we found during our visit.


The night before our zoo visit we saw the movie "Weeping Camel" about a camel herding family who rescues a young camel colt who, at birth, fails to bond with its mother. It was a really interesting 'docu-drama' that seemed to vividly capture life in Mongolia with a little glimpse into how modern technology has intermingled with traditional Mongolian life. It was only natural that we snap a shot of this Bactrian camel that we found in Seoul the next day. A few months ago we researched trying to make a trip to Mongolia during our 'vacation' while in Korea but realized that our Spring 'timing' for a trip was off--Mongolia isn't really the place to visit in the Spring-time due to the sand storms. Now that we've suffered the recent Yellow Dust onslaught the past couple of weeks, we're quite thankful that we decided to postpone a trip to Mongolia until a less 'sandy' time of the year. ;)

An interesting thing occurred as we passed the giant lion display. This area must be several acres large! We heard the pride of lions in this photo roaring quite loudly. Then off in the distance was a giant cage with a male and female lion pair--they were roaring, growling, & rolling all around together. What seemed to be happening though was that the two separate groups of lions were communicating with eachother. A very interesting experience! It was almost surreal!


On a whim we went looking for a 'cachebox' that was supposedly in the area. We found this cool stone staircase to the summit of an evergreen flanked hill along the way. The geocache had been placed over 9 months ago and had yet to have any finders. Quite unheard of in the geocaching world--as geocaches are usually 'found' as soon as or often before their clues are published online. We had no idea if it even still existed but we hunted it out nonetheless (just because we were there). Imagine our surprise when we actually found it--alive & well!!! Bizarre--we were FTF (something that geocachers seem to really relish--but we would rather read the logbook that includes other folks' impressions of the area). Our first FTF ever and even more bizarre was that it was for a 9 month old GC!

Here's a beautiful view of the mountains off in the distance. The cherry trees are blooming in full-force now. If you study the mountains closely you'll see military defenses all along the ridgeline. Something that just comes with the territory on the Korean Peninsula. After awhile you just get used to it!


Here's a pretty view we found while taking the path less travelled. This zoo is almost as known for its less crowded walking paths than it is for its animals. In a city as large as Seoul it's always welcoming to find a spot where you can just roam and get away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. This was just the place today! Of course, the fact that it was 'Chicago' windy and brisk probably helped quite a bit.

rnrB displaying one of the 'chestnut' hedgehogs we found along the way. Nope, it wasn't a 'true' hedgehog like the ones that lived in our yard in Germany when I was a kid but rather just the spiny outer shell of a chestnut that we found along the trail. It just really looked like a hedgehog--one of my most favorite animals! We also found lots of Redwood cones around here, too! Looks like Seoul Grand Park is also an arboretum of sorts--there are trees from all over lining the trails of the park. In fact, if you ever visit this park--you'll need to know your trees to locate our letterbox that we planted here last year. By the way, it's still alive & well with nary a visitor, yet.

Another interesting view at the park. There's a giant creek that runs through the grounds of the zoo, too. What's neat is that they've created all these 'zen-like' crossings of the creek where you can hop across stones, boulders, giant bricks, bouncy bridges, you name it at various points along the creek. It just another unique feature in the park.

trkr's showing the world that he's summited the turtle king!

How fitting that rnrB found the vertebrae at the park--that's what she studied in her Anatomy class for science the day before our visit--now is she standing between the Atlas or the Axis vertebra of the T-Rex skeleton? ;)


Every so often we'll come across reminders of our friends back on the 'mainland'. We found not one, but 2, very trail-worn Green Tortugae today. This dude's so tired from completing the Appalachian Trail that his toes were literally cracking. Let's give him a high 4 for completing the trek, though! It takes one tough turtle to accomplish something as amazing as that!!!

Finally, after 3 visits, we secured tickets for the Dolgorae Show--i.e. the dolphin show. Get this--tix were only $3 for all of us! This just blows me away! Anyway, a dolphin's just got to see her relatives in action. Man, do I have a lot to learn!!! The show was fun--it started out with seals that were very talented. They danced, balanced balls/rings and even played instruments. Who knew they were that talented! What was so incredible was that they could balance these balls on their noses while doing all sorts of odd contortions of their bodies. Amazing! The entire time I was trying to figure out how they would use these skills in the wild--I guess they just get so focused on their next meal that these 'laser-focus-&-balance skills' are quite developed.

Finally, here's a shot of 4 dolphins flexing their abs. ;) This dolphin's been working on her abs, too--but I'm nowhere near the point in my exercise regime that I can do this yet. ;) Maybe I should change my diet to predominantly krill and fish? Yeah, that might do the trick!

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All in all our outing to the zoo served as the perfect way to venture back outside after being cooped up inside for so many days. Nothing like being stuck indoors in a foreign country with little to do, two antsy kids who resorted to climbing the walls just to burn some energy and a monster appetite to get out and explore. Thank goodness for access to the internet & books! It probably saved this dolphin's sanity! ;)