Not-back to school day, and first day photos!

Can you believe it is 6th and 3rd grade, already??? School started here August 31st, and I *had* planned to do something fun for "not back to school" day. But, Gryphon is taking Korean and music at the middle school, and though she goes only a few times a week, she had to go on the first day. So we just waited until she got home.
We grabbed Mark, who was off, and went to Seoul Children's Park, a big complex with an amusement park, zoo, many playgrounds, water stuff and trails.

The playgrounds were nice, and they play classical music at them.
We started at the zoo, which is pretty old so the enclosures are small, and sort of sad. The kids were amazed (ok, we were ALL amazed) to see animal food vending machines! I have never been to a zoo where you could feed the animals, it is normally strictly forbidden.We bought bear food, because I recognized what animal it was for. I am not real up on my zoo animal names, and didn't want to feed the wrong food to the wrong animal! So since I knew bear for sure, bear it was.The girls tossed it in to some extremely depressed looking Sun Bears, but they didn't pay it any attention. It was a very strange zoo!After the zoo we wandered around a while, this is an arbor of gourds. I have seen grape arbors, but never gourd arbors!Kids waded in the streams and fountains, while Mark and I had some snacks. All the snack stands sell beer here, which is another strange thing to me. Mothers sitting at the park with their kids, drinking beer. Gryphon's feet in the stream, it was a lovely not-too-hot day.One of the things I wanted to find was the "barefoot park", where you take your shoes off, walk barefoot and feel different textures. I was imagining something tactile, sort of for kids, since its in the playground area. The sign says to do it for 10 minutes every day and its healthy for you.Cool, right?Uhh...not so much. See those jagged rocks? The pointy wood? IT HURTS! I didn't last 2 minutes, let alone 10! The girls gamely took their shoes off to try, but put them right back on. Mark took one look and said no way. My feet, not really feeling any healthier, just very sore!I snapped a photo of this guy, who is on a bench in the middle of the barefoot park.I think he has the right idea on how to use the park- leave your shoes on, and nap! Much healthier!