During our term break we did get out a little. The weather warmed up some, though not as much as we had hoped. We went to a park outside of the city called Ppuri Park. It is a park dedicated to Korean ancestry. There were little trails around and one small hiking trail. We got the kids to hike a little, and we saw lots of little chipmunks running all around. We were the only ones on the actual 'hiking' trail, so it was really nice. These photos are in opposite order of the day.
This photo was the end of our time there.
We brought our little picnic lunch, but when we stopped to sit down we all got too chilly. So no one was really interested in eating much. Except Grace who was stuffing her face in the background.
This is the kids running down the trail. When they got to the bottom, they were so dirty. There was mud on the trail and they fell down multiple times. But they were having fun and we were glad!
We let them run quite a bit ahead of us because we were the only ones up there. They thought this was really cool, and tried to stay far ahead of us.
This was the lovely view from the little hike that we took. What you are seeing is the city of Daejeon (actually, only part of the city).
A closer shot of the city.
Here is Peyton in front of one of the Asian 'zodiac' statues. He didn't want to get too close to it. Can't say I blame him.
Overlooking the park from the top. The scenery isn't that great now, but when the leaves come out and the grass gets green it should be pretty.
Apparently a giant stone rabbit was less scary than the giant stone pig. : )
It almost looks like a cemetery when you look at it from this perspective. But each of the sculptures has writing on it, and they stand for all of the different Korean surnames. I believe there are 72 surnames.
Looking out from the gazebo.
Grace hammin' for the camera.
More Grace.
A gazebo at overlooking the park.
The last photo shows the view from the top looking in one direction. From that ridge if you look in the opposite direction, the next photo is the view that you will see. I go to the mountains to get out of the city, and then the view from the top is of the city.
This part of the trail goes along the side of a rock. There are a few sets of these steps on the side of the mountain.
These next two photos are out of order. This was taken at the beginning of the trail. There is a funny story that goes with this. When I got there, I saw this greyhound (of all things) running around. People were just staring at it. The park rangers were yelling in Korean. I thought it belonged to them and it was being naughty and not coming to them when they called. It came near me at one point and I tried to sweet talk it to come closer and the rangers yelled something at me and motioned me "no". So I figured they didn't want me to touch it. I was headed into the bathroom before going up the trail, so I carried on with my business. The line was long in the restroom, so it took me awhile to get out. When I came out all of the park rangers came toward me and said, "No, No". So I thought I was getting kicked out for trying to pet their dog. Then, one of them who spoke a little English said, "No dog-Korea National Park". I still thought they were telling me not to pet the dog, so I said, "sorry" and was going to head up the trail, but they kept repeating themselves. Finally, they started gesturing toward the dog and me and pointing me out of the park. I realized they thought the dog was mine. There were people all around because it was a busy hiking day and everyone was staring at me! So I told them, "No, not mine!" "The dog is not mine." They didn't believe me at first. I had to convince them that the dog did not belong to me and then I just started walking. Phew! I was unnerved about the whole thing for awhile. It's amazing when there is a language barrier how a small misunderstanding can become kind of scary when people start yelling at you. : ) I just hope they didn't decide to take the dog home and eat it. There's not that much meat on a greyhound. : )
He's so cute! He reminded me a little of my sister's greyhound, but black and white instead of brown and white.
More view of the city.
More veiw...and there's still city in it.
Map of the trail. I did the outside loop.
Looking to the far right of all the other photos. This one was just mountains.
Looking to the far left of all the other ones.
Looking over the part of the mountain that I hiked the last few times I was out.
Another shot of the other side.
Feeling great at the top!
Interesting....
A veiw from the top.
