Hwaseong Fortress and Chad home!

So Chad works a lot. I now realize just how spoiled we were in Germany. Working late meant eight o'clock at the latest and one Saturday a month. For reals. Working late here means he gets home and I've been asleep for hours. He also has either been in the field or working twenty-four hours shifts many weekends since we've been here. Booo! This use to cause me a lot of grief because I never knew if I should count on him for dinner... make him a plate.... leave it out... put it away...  or keep the kids up to say 'goodnight.'
Man, it was stupidly stressful.
 Once I axed that entire thought process and realized he has to work but he is a grown man who can successfully warm up a plate of leftovers in the microwave when he got home, life became a lot easier. I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything but after going weeks of what felt like being "stood up" by my husband, we both agreed it better for everyone to just go about our business... take care of the kids... get them on a good schedule, etc. 

So every day and night... dinner, bath time, bedtime... it's just the three of us.

Sometimes military spouse-hood aint all it's cracked up to be.

That is why we were super stoked when Chad got to spend nearly four entire days in our company thanks to the Columbus Day holiday. 

We took walks, went out to dinner, and visited the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.

We've been talking about going to this place for awhile now but as you can see, there hasn't been a lot of opportunities to do so. 

Suwon is about forty-five minutes from us so it made for a nice day trip. This fortress is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site if that means anything to you. 

Suwon itself is a pretty cool place too. They have a lot of interesting street art and it was fun just walking around.

Rhett practically gave me a heart attack every five minutes by running up to the edges of the wall but we survived!

We conveniently showed up at the same time as friends and after walking around in the scorching sun with five kids between us we decided to eat at a Lotteria (Korean McDonald's) out of desperation. Our energy was restored thanks to bulgogi burgers and soft serve ice cream. 

We checked out a few more sights (including the palace where they film a popular Korean soap opera) before heading home.

On the drive home, Chad took a wrong turn and we spent an extra hour on the road. That was annoying. It's kind of funny because as I sat there (really annoyed!) Chad says to me, "too bad, we had such a nice day too." Then I kind of got over it because... ultimately... it was a nice day.

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Every few hours they do a little bow and arrow clinic for those interested. We went on a Monday so things were a little slow. If you visit on a weekend they have lots of activities for kids. We'll keep that in mind for next time.

I never mentioned the time when I bought a coconut drink from one of these vending machines. 

It had gelatinous chunks in it and didn't taste like coconut. I was sad.

 I guess this is recycled? Up-cycled? What I can't get over is how this person grows beautiful plants in old water bottles and I kill cacti. 

Just a 350 year old tree. No big deal.

The tour guide told me these are the two main characters in the popular television show that is filmed here or based on this place?  I don't know. I was sweating a lot and had twenty-four extra pounds on my back so I (regretfully) wasn't listening.

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Just FYI: The fortress is not stroller friendly, baby-wearing all the way. There is no food on Food Street. You want to eat? Go one block over.

GPS address and more info here.