Osan

Osan is the city where there is an Air Force base here in Korea and it is about an hour by bus from Seoul.  We went there on Saturday to check out the shopping down there and see a different part of Korea.  When we got to the base down there I was shocked at the difference between the Army base here in Seoul and the Air Force base in Osan.  Here everything is stacked on top of each other and buildings look run-down and somewhat dirty.  In Osan there were open areas on post and areas that were still just covered with trees and plants.  The buildings there also looked newer and well-kept.  I definitely know that if I had a choice between which base I would live on I would totally choose Osan!

As for the shopping down there, it was nice and there were a lot of fun things to look at.  There were lots of shoe shops, custom suit shops, clothes shops, art galleries, souvenir shops and bag/purse shops.  It was fun seeing a different selection of stuff and the prices down there were all pretty good.  We bought a couple things down there that we were really excited about like a pretty picture of Korean landscape and architecture to hang up when we get to Washington!  Alden's favorite thing of the whole day was his new watch!  We know he can't tell time but he thought it was fun and it was super cute and cheap.  You can see some pictures of it later.

Oh, the other thing that we learned in Osan is that we always have to watch Alden super carefully in stores.  Apparently we were in a shoe store and Alden decided he wanted to play with the shoes and even though Drew caught Alden trying to take shoes once and put them back, Alden still managed to sneak one into the stroller.  We were half way down the street when we realized that Alden was playing with a shoe we hadn't bought.  Uh oh! Drew took the shoe back to the store and apologized and it was fine but we will really need to watch our sneaky little boy from now on!

This is the main shopping street in Osan.  We got there right as everything was opening.  Alden slept for the first little bit.

 Alden's new watch that he thinks is so fun!

We went to an amazing Thai restaurant for lunch that a lady in our ward had recommended to us.  We had pad thai, panang curry and chicken satay.  It was all really yummy and Alden even got to sit in an adorable froggy high chair!

 Drew was dancing to a song by a British boy band to entertain Alden, in a Thai restaurant in Korea in this photo...interesting combo. =)

We stopped at the food court on post on the way back to the bus to let Alden run around.

Alden was very tired and did not want to get back on the bus by the time we left.  He still wanted to be out playing.

Drew kept Alden entertained on the bus ride back with his new watch.

In these photos Alden is playing with a plastic piggy bank that was given to him for free in one of the souvenir shops, just because he was so cute!  He has decided he likes throwing it and watching it bounce.

We really enjoyed our day down in Osan and got to go to a barbecue for a birthday afterwards which was also really fun and yummy. Alden slept really well that night after a very long day!