Hijacking Guest Blogger!

I promised Melissa I would "guest blog" about our 5th anniversary date night "extravaganza". This blog entry also proves that I totally know Melissa's "blogger password", a password which she may want to change to prevent the future possibility of "drunk blogging".

I'll admit I am more of an on the fly planner...at least when I am out of the office, but I was determined to make this the best date ever...and man was it an epic fail. I told Melissa later, as we were walking down a dark mountain with the clock nearing midnight: "Glad this isn't out first date, because if it was I'm sure it would be our last!"

I started planning a few weeks before the big night. One of my colleagues, a fellow captain and battery commander offered to watch Ella if I wanted to take Mel out. It was a great offer because romantic dinners usually don't go so well with two year olds. I thought the plan was set but then received an offer that I couldn't refuse. One of the guys I work with and his wife offered to watch "E" overnight. The more I thought about it it became apparent that it was by far a better deal. Not that I couldn't trust my captain friend, I just knew that he would be watching Ella wth a twelve pack of Miller Light.

Babysitter: Check

Now I had to find a place to stay...I wanted it to be special, so I booked at the Crowne Plaza in Seoul. Pretty fancy joint...I was on a roll.

Swanky Hotel: Check

Time to make some dinner plans. I decided to get one of my KATUSAs to make dinner reservations at N'Grill, a revolving restaurant at the top of Seoul Tower. Just to clarify, KATUSA stands for Korean Augmentee to the US Army. Military service is compulsory in Korea, meaning every male has to serve in the military. Those who speak English well (and usually come from wealthy families) can apply to serve attached to the US Army. I have three working for me, and they are awesome. When my KATUSA called the place was booked, I had no backup.

Romantic Dinner: Fail

The night of 16 October I rushed home from work (after a couple of drinks at the officers club, that is routine and can't missed). Melissa and I dropped Ella off and headed to the train station. The station is about a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I decided we could make better time if I took a short cut...bottom line, I could sense we were getting lost so I hailed a cab and got us there in pretty goodtime.

Getting to the train station: Crisis Adverted.

We jumped on the subway to get to Suwon and then were going to transfer to a faster express train to get to Seoul. We score tickets but when we got on the train there were people in our seats...we were on the wrong train! The train was still heading to Seoul, we just had to stand the whole way. The conductor didn't ask for our tickets, probably because we were American (an I probably looked pretty annoyed at this point). We arrived and managed multiple subway connections before reaching our hotel.

Transportation to Hotel: Not So Smooth, But Successful

We checked in and decided to find a place to eat. Since it was almost 10:30 at this point the choices were slim. We went to this Austrian Cafe that I had been to before. The food is awesome (in my opinion) and reminded both Melissa and I of the awesome German style food we were exposed to during the first couple of years of our marriage.

That's my girl, a bier drinker!

Good Dinner: Check!!!!!

After dinner the plan was to go to Seoul Tower for a romantic city view. Seoul Tower is on top of a mountain. There are a few ways to get up...walk, cable car, bus, or, if you are a foreigner, by black taxi. We jumped into a cab and got to the top. I must admit it was pretty empty. The cabbie took off and we walked to the tower to find it was totally closed!

Romantic View of the worlds 8th Largest City: Epic Fail

Seoul Tower

We decided to walk back and catch a cab, but there were no cabs to be found! To make matters worse, it started to rain. We walked down Mt. Namsan looking for a ride, I realized no other chick would put up with my ineptitude. Melissa truly is my "Seoulmate"...yes, that just happened.

We caught a cab and made it back to the hotel where we engaged in over priced lounge drinks:

After a few drinks it was time to pack it in. I can not begin to tell you all how awesome it was to have Melissa here on our 5th anniversary. She still is the apple of my eye and I am truly counting down the days until we can be a family again.