Well, after a 16 hour plane trip to get here my parents and sister finally arrived in Korea. They look so alert and happy in this photo I feel it must have been taken at the beginning of the trip because they were not like this when they got here. But they perked up and we went out in my neighborhood that evening. 
The next day was a trip to the DMZ, where we were treated to a propaganda filled tour, a visit to one of the tunnels North Korea built to do a sneak attack on Seoul, many soldiers and views of North Korea. Unfortunately, pictures were not often allowed. But below is a look at the Civilian Control line, a guard tower and across the river is the southern limit of the DMZ. Very interesting, and much safer than my trip to DPRK.
The next day we traveled to one of the five palaces in Seoul. And Mom, Dad and Grayson experienced Asian architecture. The palace is huge with sections for the King, Queen and comcubines. But we had fun with these cut-outs of a palace guard, a high official and a soldier. (love the sun glasses on dad).
These are the real (fake) guards.
Grayson tried her hand at sketching some of the pagodas but concluded that it was more difficult than she expected. "You think it would be easy because they're such a distinct shape, but you really don't know which way the wood will go."
In downtown Seoul they opened up a walkway next to an underground stream that feed the main river in Seoul. It's a beautiful (but hot) walk through the busiest area of the city.
And just to prove that this is not somewhere in North Carolina, a crazy store that only sells fire extinguishers. Talk about specialty.
