Boseong Green Tea Fields

We decided to hit up the Boseong Green Tea Fields the same day as the Bamboo Forest.  It was a big order, but we did it.  This was all on the way to the beach and our Airbnb.  Everyone talked about how beautiful the tea fields were and how it was not to be missed.  We arrived and drove around looking for admission, or a map, or people for that matter.  There wasn't anyone around and the buildings were closed.  We noticed a big museum, and decided to try our luck there.  The Museum was open, but it didn't look too interesting and it cost more won then we were willing to pay.  We asked if we could just use the bathroom, and they let us.  While we were waiting for everyone to finish, the worker ladies took a liking to Little Monster and let him do some stamp art.  Of course, all the kids came running and joined in on the stamp art.  We let the kids stamp to their hearts content as we cooled off in the cooler air conditioned building.

Since I have been to Bali and the beautiful green tiered fields there, the Boseong Tea Fields weren't very impressive to me.  It probably didn't help that it was super hot.  The fields weren't kept up very well either.  There were a lot of weeds and gaps in the plants.  

However, in true Korean fashion, there were so many selfie spots all around the bottom of the field.  We took the time to get some awesome photos, with the fields in the background.

While walking around, we noticed high up on the mountain was a shrine of some sort. Brianne, Talia, Big Sis and I decided to see if we could climb the tea fields in search of the shrine.  The signs all said were were only about .25 km to the top.  But the climb was pretty steep and way longer than we anticipated.  There were bees and bugs everywhere and the path didn't seem like it was used very much.  We even went up a rickety staircase that was covered with more spiderwebs than stairs.  Poor Big Sis was tired, thirsty and a bit scared.  She was not happy to be climbing the hill, but she didn't want to walk down all by herself.  She kept saying we were going to die by a bug bite.

We made it to the top and were disappointed to only find exercise equipment and no shrine.  Honestly, who would want to exercise after climbing that hill?!?  It seemed we were on the wrong peak, and to reach the shrine we needed to go back down and follow the path on the right rather than the left.  We should have known...  always choose the right.

We made our way back down to the boys and kiddos a little disappointed.  But the kids were jumping up and down and were super excited to show us a cool photo spot.  They pulled us over to a stairway that lead to some hearts and balloons.  It was a super cute spot as it had love written under the hearts. We took some pictures and made our way back to the cars in desperate need of water.

Damyang Bamboo Forest

When we moved to South Korea I started making a list of cool places to see.  My list kept getting longer and longer as people recommended locations.  With only a month left and with Talia here, I decided to try to see as much as possible before we left.  The Damming Bamboo Forest has been on my list since day one, so we decided to go check it out today and invited the Walkers to join us on our adventure.  It was a bit of a drive so we had to leave early in the morning to get there at a decent time.

  

In my mind, I thought this was just going to be a small walking trail in a bamboo forest, but I was so extremely wrong.  The entire park was huge and the trails were long.  Our GPS had us park at the back end of the park.  We paid our admission fee and were greeted by a beautiful lake with a fountain and nice chairs to relax in.

We took a look at our map and realized right away that this was going to be a ton of walking.  It was super hot, so we started walking.  There were so many hill to climb, I was really proud of the kids and their endurance.  Of course, that's why we do cool stuff with friends, because the kids will last longer.  Friends and the bribe of ice cream is the secret to long hot walks and crazy adventures.

We found a playground, so while the kids played we took a lunch break.  They enjoyed a few bites of their sandwiches and running around on the equipment.  They really enjoyed the playground.

The forest had cute stops all along the trail.  One stop had cute bamboo chairs and was near a waterfall.  I'm pretty positive the waterfall is man made, but it was a good one.  We enjoyed the little mist that we got from the falls.

The bamboo was beautiful.  I was surprised at how high they grew. I was also surprised at how thick some of the bamboo were.  It was pretty neat to be completely surrounded by bamboo.  We were all talking about this, and we couldn't figure out if bamboo had started here and then was planted more by humans, or if the entire thing was man planted.  I mean, there isn't many places that have natural bamboo growing in South Korea, but to have it thrive so well here, we couldn't help but wonder if it is native to Damyang.

While out exploring in the forest, we found this crazy reflective cube.  It was just stuck on the side of the path, fashionably Korea randomness.  The kids had fun looking at their distorted reflection in the cube.

All around the Bamboo Forest were some awesome lanterns.  Each lantern was different and was made out of a bamboo pole.  They were sporadically placed around the forest, so it became a treasure hunt to find the lanterns.  The kids tried to be the first to find one and point it at.

We enjoyed our walks and hikes throughout the forest.  It was a beautiful way to spend the morning.  It was especially fun to spend it with such great friends. I am glad that we got to share this with Talia.

We ended our day back where we started.  We took time to walk around the little lake and cross over the bridges.  The kids loved the fountain in the middle of the lake, and they really loved seeing all the fish in the water.

Taean Flower Festival

Hey, it's Big Sis here. I'm going to tell you all about our family adventure at the Korean Tulip festival.   This festival is one of the worlds top 5 tulip festival's in the world. When we walked through the gate, the first thing we saw was a giant dog and puppy made out of flowers. 

After we passed the giant flower sculptures there was, of course, a sign. As we were taking pictures, there was a very large group of old Korean women who kept on wanting to come up with us. We quickly snapped a picture and moved on. 

Right behind the sign, there was a huge garden of tulips. It was so beautiful the amount of flowers in one tiny field was unbelievable. There was every colored flower you could think of (except blue). There were some parts that the clips were sorted by color, but most of the time, it was just a whole bunch of different colors all squished together. We spent a while just looking at all of the flowers and then we moved onto the trail that lead us into another section of flowers. 

There was an arch of heart lights that mom had to jump into. I think it would have been a lot better at night though. 

There was another field of flowers that were mostly separated by color instead of all together. It was so cool seeing all of the flowers. 

In the main area, there was a huge sphere that had flowers in it (why wouldn't it?). And there was a watchtower, where we could see the entire park from a sorta high sky view. There were so many random sculptures that were around the sky view. It was so Korean.

Around the main area were continuous fields of blood red tulips. There were also pink and yellow groups to, but my favorite, along with moms, were the red flowers.

While mom and the two littles were taking a bathroom break, I noticed that there were small flowers bordering a small lake. They were so beautiful so I could resist the urge to take a picture.

After the small pond there was, again another, field of tulips. There was a hill that had designs that were kind of visible but it took a few seconds to figure out the pattern. I think it was some sort of sunset thing or something.

There were so many fields of red tulips. There was also a section that had white and red tulips together.

There was a part of the park that have all the flowers planted in their own little area. There were so many different flowers my favorites were called lupines. They are so beautiful.

But Emily really loved the tiger tulips.

 I also really like the hanging bells flower.  Mom super liked these two.  She said she had seen them drawn in cartoons, but never for reals.

After the sections, there were rows of the different colored tulips. It was like an eternal line of tulips that never ever ended.

There was so much to see. The next thing we saw was the Queens of Hearts (From Alice in Wonderland) Castle and her castle grounds. The castle was huge and was made completely out of flowers. The grounds looked like the magic carpet from Aladdin or just like the obvious answer, a queen's card guard. The card design was about the size of a football field. It was so big. It was also so gorgeous.

There was a tunnel that was across from the castle. It was a tunnel that was sadly partly fake flowers, but mostly was real flowers. The arched flowers made a beautiful tunnel that had so many colors and so many different types of flowers.

After the tunnel, we decided that it was time to call it a day. on the way back, mom quickly snapped her usual selfie. It was such a wonderful experience and the flowers were so cool and gorgeous. I loved these adventure from the beginning all the way until the end.