New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve, we decided to head to Namsan at the break of dawn, watch the sun rise, and take a family photo.  Typically, in Korea, this is done on New Year's Day, preferably on the eastern seaboard.  While we had pondered packing up the family and driving to the coast for an ocean-view sunrise, the lack of hotels willing to board a dog with his human occupants and the doubling of hotel rates just turned us off from taking the drive and facing hours of traffic.  We stayed in Seoul and decided that Namsan--a small mountain in the middle of the city--would be a good spot to view the sunrise. But, after Jack did some research and found tons of photos and videos on the web of a Namsan sunrise,  we knew that thousands of people would be out at Namsan for daybreak on New Year's Day (like-minded people who refused to cave in to the crazy rates at hotels this time of year), so we decided we would just ritualize the ending of 2010 and watch the last sunrise as we pondered all that we accomplished this year.  It was supposed to be meaningful. And fun.

We packed Tashi in his little carrier and rode the bus to the top of Namsan.  We stopped for the absolutely necessary cup of hot cocoa (coffee for Jack and me) before walking up the rest of the way to Seoul Tower.

Tashi at first was like "Wee, I remember this. Fun!"  This lasted about 30 seconds before he realized it was freaking cold and ran to me and refused to budge. I spent the rest of the ascent carrying the little guy.

Yes, this (above) is our grand memorial photo.  It's about as good as it got. You can see the sun rising in the background. Dahin and Jack were the only ones willing.  Ronan was shrieking "I'm cold!  I want to go home!" at the top of this lungs, Oliver said defiantly, "I'm not taking any pictures," and Tashi, well he just looks miserable.  I think Ronan's 'cold' was certainly made worse by the fact that he refused to wear good, sturdy shoes and insisted on wearing his padded crocs.  Below, the sun rise.

So, after our 'family photo" we descended from the tower area to the bus stop.  I tried a few times to take a photo with the sun rising in the background, but Dahin was the only one ready for all the photos.  She tried to get Tashi on board, but he wasn't having any of it.  I'll admit I was pretty grumpy at this point, too.

Tashi thinks the guys cleaning up the snow are cool and likes the fact that they are closer to the buses (i.e warmth).  Dahin, once again, puts on the charm for a photo, despite the fact that she was just as cold as everyone else.  Three cheers for Dahin!

 Ok, I just had to take this photo; and post it.  Poor freezing Ronan literally cried the entire time.  Fun.

 Jack tries to engage Ronan in a faux boxing match as we wait for the bus, but, alas, he kept crying.

Above,  Dahin and I bask in the glow of sunrise while Ronan cries.  Below, Oliver throws me a death glare.

Ronan cheered up once we made it to breakfast.  I chose an American-style breakfast, so Jack found this place in Hannam-dong called Pancake Story.  It was, hands down, the most authentic American-style breakfast I've ever had in Korea.  The pancakes were buckwheat and the bacon was real bacon.  If you go there between 9 and 10 am, you can have their breakfast special for about $7 which includes one over-medium egg, one pancake, a sausage patty (which I substituted with bacon), sausage links, and one Americano.  Hey, this is a real deal considering the fact that most "American-style breakfasts" start around $10.  Plus side: real maple syrup and tasty food.  Bad side: no basic coffee (all espresso-based), no free refills on coffee, and service is just a bit spacey.  At least give us some water people.  Still, it was very good and closer to an American-style breakfast than any other place I've tried here.  Ronan had the cream cheese waffle, Oliver had the apple waffle, and Dahin, Jack, and I had the special (I got Dahin's coffee--hee hee; a good way to get around their 'rule').  It was a bit cold inside since they had just opened so I used one of their blankets to get a bit warmer, and you can see, from the photo below, that Oliver was ready to eat. Oh, and Jack wore the hat I made him for Christmas--a slouchy rib knit.  Cute, huh?

After our breakfast, we drove the 1.5 hours to the hot springs in Pocheon.  Tashi proved to be a great car dog the entire way.  He's really come a long way from the drooling, car sick puppy we had a few weeks ago.  I was pretty worried about how he would do on the trip, but he was a trooper.  He stayed in the car in his cage with his blankie and chew toy while we bathed in the natural hot spring water (smells like rotten eggs, though, which makes the experience not entirely pleasant, but it does wonders for the skin).

After our baths, we headed to what we discovered was Oliver's favorite tofu restaurant.  We found this out when, as we neared the place, Oliver yelled, "Oooh, I LOVE this place.  It's soooooo good!"  We'd only been there once, at Chuseok when Jack and the boys and I went to the hot springs together.   I was amazed he remembered it. When we sat down at our table, he said to Dahin, "Ok, don't be shocked when you taste it because it is soooo good."  Below, Oliver enjoys his "shocking' tofu meal, which included nokdujeon (mung bean pancake--kind of corn-bready and really good) and barley rice with tons of yummy side dishes.

Tashi got his car dog on as we drove back to Seoul.  He found sticking his head out the window and surveying the scene was the best way to ride in the car.  We let him, until we got too cold.