Hae Dong Yong Kung Temple and Song Cho'ng beach

In 2007 when I visited Korea, I went for the first time to Yong Gung Sa temple in Busan.  It is very beautiful since it is right on the coast.  Though it is very pretty, it has a different feel than some of the other mountain temples we have visited in the past.  It didn't help that this was during the Children's day holiday so there were millions of visitors and it was very crowded.  Besides that though, this temple had a very commercial atmosphere, almost like it had sold out to tourism and so some of the magic was lost.

We parked near the "walking road in forest" and then walked to the temple.

There will be a giant cultural center built soon just West of the temple so there was a lot of remodeling.  It seemed strange to see beautiful sculptures tossed in with broken boulders.

Sadie is our traveling rock star.

Temples offer visitors the opportunity to write messages on roof tiles if they donate to the temple.  Later when the buildings are fixed up, they use the tiles in constructing the roof.  With Children's day and Buddha's b-day coming soon, they had piles of these out back.

Beautiful pagoda....

For traffic safety.  More evidence of the apparent commercial influence here.  There were shrines, pagodas and patron monks and nuns for everything.

You can see here how crowded it was.

Amber and Sadie posing in front of the water Buddha.  This temple is dedicated to the water dragon and since this is the year of the black (water) dragon, it was a big deal.

Cute kids.

Taylor and Judd pose for a pic.

Though the temple was a bit of a let down, the drive there was awesome.  We got to go over the Kwanganri double-decker bridge that goes from Haeundae to Yongdo.  It was under construction when I lived in Kwangan 11 years ago.  The view was amazing.  I hear they do a big fireworks show in the fall, maybe we will have to try and be there for it.

Surfing Buddhas???  Oh here is a good one.  If your family is expecting a baby you rub this belly and it supposedly ensures you will have a baby boy.  When I was here last Amber was pregnant with Addy and I rubbed it.  Soon after we were blessed with my little sunshine Addy.  I just had to get another picture.  Click here on this link if you want to see the old picture.

Next we went to Song Cho'ng beach.  This is my favorite beach because in comparison to Kwangan and Haeundae, it is pretty quiet and undiscovered.  not as many hi-rise buildings right on the beach, but still a good place to soak your feet and play in the sand.

Logan had a blast playing chicken with the waves.

Judd and Taylor enjoying  a moment together.

Sadie saying "hi" to a passerby.

What a fun trip we had in Chinhae, Busan, Koseoung, and Kimcheon.

In the footsteps of Dinosaurs... Where the wild things are

Livin the dream... how many kids can say they have walked exactly where the dinosaurs did???

Pretty cool if I don't say so myself...

Amazing!

We caught these ones right before they were covered by the tide.

I couldn't resist!

The dinosaur rumpus continued in dinosaur cave... It was like Pete's dragon.

Addy found a perfect little cave for herself.

Judd and Taylor.

In the cave.

This is a cool view.  I love the reflections on the water in the cave.

Good family Pic.

We miss you Judd and Taylor.

Sadie was a tired little explorer.

So that is why the Koreans didn't help me when I was about to fall to my death... the sign told them to "watch crash."

Pretty view of the Volv...

Dead tired.

Goseong and my near death experience

In fall of 1999 on my first P-day while serving in Chinju, one of the members took my comp and I to see the dinosaur footprints.  I didn't know where they were and after being out here again I really thought that Logan would get a kick out of seeing them.  He and I both love anything that has to do with dinosaurs.  In fact I when I was a kid, I had a book about dinosaurs that had a picture of the very place we were going to see.  For those of you that want to go where we went.  The 2012 world dinosaur expo is in a town called Gosu'ng it is about a 2 hour drive west of Chinhae on the southern coast.  There is a huge museum and expo center but since we were there on Children's day, it was too crowded to spend time on.  So if you follow the signs to the foot prints it takes you just west of the museum.  Then look for signs for the ferry (유람선).  there is plenty of room to park there, and it is in walking distance to some stairs that take you to the footprints as well as to the museum.

 We pulled right up to the edge of the pier and what a pretty sight it was.

It is always spooky to go to the exact place you have been a long time before.  I was super excited to see it again.  We lucked out because we arrived just in time to eat lunch and get on board the last ferry of the day.

Even though it was Children's day, we were about the only people on board.

Once we got underway, the kids went to the front of the boat for the best view.  Logan and Addy made some new friends too.

"Captain" Jack Sparrow

Little Ariel Addy.

Sadie had a blast too.

The southern coast of Korea is beautiful.  There are literally thousands of these little islands dotting the horizon.  During the Imjin war (1592) against Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Admiral Yi Su Shin used his knowledge of the locations of these islands along with the strength of his armored turtle boats to cut off the supply rout to the Japanese invaders, ultimately changing the tide of the war.

We sailed past this fisherman pulling in his catch.

Judd and Taylor posing in front of the dinosaur caves.

Back on shore we came across piles of discarded starfish.  The Korean fishermen pull these from their nets at the pier.  Must not taste good or they'd be harvested by the little grandmas.  Survival tip: If the North attacks and you don't have any food, find yourself a Korean Grandma, they are the Bear Grylls of Korea, they know how to harvest and eat about everything.

 Throwing caution to the wind... Logan and I decided we would not take the beaten path to get to the dinosaur foot prints, we set out on an adventure on the coast to blaze our own path.

Logan love's "adventures."

Little did we know it but crossing this slot was not a good idea.  The span was just big enough that jumping would be risky and the stone we used to make it across was about to be swallowed up by the rising tide, forcing us to find more daring/stupid ways to make it to our destination.

Here is the end of the line.  This was the only thing between us and the footprints of dinosaurs.  Ultimately, this is where Logan climbed out.  I lifted him over my head and Judd and Taylor were able to get him to the top safely.  Unfortunately, I was not tall enough to get my self to the foot-holds of Logan's route.  I doubled back to cross the way we came only to be faced with a closing trap.  As the tide continued to rise, my exits became fewer.

Here is Taylor, looking for other routes from above.

Those who know me, know that I hate spiders.  Sea roaches are up there on my list as well.  In attempting to climb out, I squished both while frantically avoiding a fall to my death.  Lesson learned: Fear of death > Fear of creepy crawlers.

After about 30 minutes, I was left with only one way out... (besides safely swimming around the obstacle) was to climb a bug infested, wet, slippery, crumbling cliff whilst wearing old, grip-less skate shoes.

By the time I made it to the "crap I'm gonna die" moment, throngs of Koreans were pointing and yelling helpful hints such as, " you aren't supposed to be there".  For the ten minutes that ensued, I was more interesting to the tourists than dinosaur footprints.  Unfortunately none of the Korean's came with Judd to my rescue.

At this moment, I slipped and was hanging by one foot.  Lucky for me, Judd had my left arm and was holding me up by my watch.  In hindsight it may have been smart to take off my belt and use it as rope for Judd to help pull me up.  There were seconds that I thought I was going to fall to my death.  I don't know what I would have done without Judd.

In one last push I made it to the top.  The Korean spectators dispersed and Judd and I assessed the damage.  Our knees were scraped, my had was cut from the coral on the wall and I still have a bruise the length of my torso on the left side from hanging.  Next time, I will take the stairs.  For more pictures and Taylor's account of this leg of the trip, see this link.