A Wasted Weekend Not Wasted

Pohang is technically a beach town, sitting on the coast and having beaches, therefore, beach town. So Sara and I want to beach. However, the weather has been terrible this year, with rain, clouds and wind on nearly every weekend. Last Saturday and Sunday both looked like they had the potential to turn into decent opportunities to get to the beach, and on both days we were on the sand for about five minutes before heading home. This weekend was hot, humid, and cloudy, which meant every single person south of Seoul and north of Busan headed to the beaches around Pohang. Every beach was tent to tent and towel to towel. The water was body to body at almost every beach. Cars lined up for miles going to and getting away from the beach. And it rained off and on the whole time. So what to do when the weather lets you down and literally every other human within 100 km's of you has the same idea? We ended up driving around the Korean countryside taking pictures and stopping at a temple. We didn't end up staying at the beach, but we did end up having a great weekend. This post is all about the country. Summer is an awesome time to drive around, it's green, the constant storms make everything shine a little bit when the sun comes out, and there's always plenty of places to stop and take pictures. As always, here's 10 pictures and some foolish comments.

I drive around looking for places to pull over and take pictures.  The rice fields are just so lush and green right now.

We made it to the beach!  And we found a spot with very few people.  There were a couple of industrial boats and cranes and crap, but hey, water!

Very calm.  Right before the rain.

Lots of times we find really pretty things right on the side of the road.  These giant flowers were just sitting there, all we had to do was contend with all the passing traffic.  Other than that, really beautiful spot.

Here's another one, isn't it nice on the side of the road?

I've been playing a little baseball and softball with some Pohang people.  It's a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Here's another place we stopped, by this crazy abandoned, I don't know, hotel?  It won't be long before all that green just swallows it up.

In every little nook and cranny, in every little valley, there's a farm, or a rice field, or something useful.  There is very little wasted space.

Beach day 2.  It was so overcast and so weird looking, Sara said it looked like a post-apocalyptic beach day.  Lots of people though.

It wasn't all lost, here's one from a bridge crossing a dry river.  It was so humid all of the mountains had these little clouds trapped in them.  A beautiful day.

Beach day was basically a failure two days in a row.  But it turned out just fine in the end, with a couple of great days of driving around and taking pictures.  Next weekend, it's supposed to be 100 and sunny, so hopefully we'll be back in the car headed to the coast.