Weekend Road Trip

We took advantage of Columbus Day weekend to make a trip to Osan, which lies about 4 hours to the north, just south of Seoul. Though not the home anything thrilling, it is the home of our favorite furniture company, a tailor that makes awesome suits for Tyler, and a Chili's located on the Air Force base. We needed a bit of furniture for our new apartment (namely an entertainment center that would fit our TV), Tyler needed some new suits (some of his were seriously 11 years old), and I needed some Mexican food so we rented a car, loaded up the kiddos and headed out. The kids did great on the drive- the baby slept and the girls watched two movies.

We visited our furniture guy and found an entertainment center that we loved. One errand down we decided to head to the base where we had a hotel room reserved, let the kids unwind and then head out for dinner. Military security is pretty tight these days and all cars have to have stickers allowing access to the base. Given that our car is not here yet and we are relying on rentals, we do not have said sticker. Normally (at least on the army base we frequent) we flash a few papers, get a temporary pass and are on our way in under 5 minutes. Apparently the Air Force plays by different rules. Long story short close to 2 hours later Tyler finally manages to get a pass for the rental car, but only until curfew at which point the car must be off base. I, meanwhile, spend the the two hours sitting in the car trying to entertain three tired, hungry children. Not fun. 

Finally we get on post. We settle in, head out to dinner and then crash for the night. The hotel room was small, the girls had to sleep on the floor, and the noise! Oh the noise! Tyler was out like a light and I tossed and turned for quite awhile. I finally drift off just in time for the phone to ring (it is now 2:30 AM). We don't get to it on time, figure it is a wrong number and go back to sleep. 15 minutes later the phone rings again. It is the front gate wanting to know where the temporary pass is. You know the temporary pass sitting in our car, parked off base. Yeah apparently they need it back. Now. Right now. No cabs are running and curfew is in 15 minutes. So they send a Military Police escort to take Tyler to the rental car to return a small piece of paper to the front gate. Needless to say not the best night sleep for us!

We survived it all, and now laugh at the experience. What a weekend! We did get our entertainment center, which will be delivered. Tyler got his suit and I got my Mexican food. The highlight might have been watching my girls attack our desert at Chili's. We ordered a vanilla lava cake with white chocolate and ice cream and they dove in like they had never seen desert before! 

Not many pictures, but this one of Hannah is pretty cute. This was a rocking chair I loved at the furniture store. It was expensive and we didn't need it (or have room for it), but it was really cute.