Splash...but wear a swim cap!

One of the things that makes me homesick is seeing all the outdoor pool, lake and swimming pictures  that friends post on Instagram and Facebook. Outdoor pools here are only open mid July - mid August. And indoor pools? Well, we have one, but it is interesting. 

Our hotel has a pool, but it is connected with the hotel spa. So it has lap lanes, and three of the lanes are reserved for members of the spa/gym. The other two lanes are for hotel members, so if lots of people are at the pool you have to share a lane. There hasn't been a lot of kids at our hotel, which has been surprising. We thought there would be more, but we make do. I feel lucky to have this time with Hudson. We dive for rings, play hide and seek with them and have fun swimming multiple times a week.

Our pool also requires swim caps. I'll post a picture of Hudson in his awesome Tom & Jerry swim cap we bought, but mine will never be immortalized in picture form, much to the dismay of my friend Janelle (hi Glacier hills Janelle!) who texts me for my swim cap pic regularly. Not happening, lol!

Midday on weekdays has been the best time for us to swim. It usually has a few people using the lanes for lap swim, but its not busy. There is a great hot tub pool with a big screen tv. On the weekends it plays Disney, which has been fun for Hudson. I'm very glad we have a pool, but it isn't slides and lakes and splashing, thats for sure!

Hangang River Park

We continued our park exploration this week, and made it to the end of the loop for Yeouido Park. However, we still haven't found the playground. And at the end of the loop, where I thought the river would be, was a busy street!

So we crossed the street, and saw a big group of stairs that led down to a cement area that you could tell was usually a splash pool. No water in it though, so we kept walking! We talked down the stairs and finally found a little cement river that Hudson enjoyed playing in. People would walk by and smile and say hello, and a little girl, maybe 2 or 3 came and played with him for a bit. It was sweet and a great way to cool off!

why you have no water, pool?

so you can't swim here?

Ooh! We found a little creek!

This park runs for about 6 miles along the Han River

Garden of Morning Calm

The Garden of Morning Calm, in Gapyeong, South Korea, was by far the most beautiful thing we have seen since coming here earlier this month. It is the oldest private garden in Korea, and was developed by a Korean professor who, while on a teaching exchange to America, came up with the idea of the garden to share the beauty of Korea, which is often called "The land of the morning calm".  It is over 30,000 meters (about 18 miles if I can tackle the conversion) and houses over 5000 plants.

I can't even begin to imagine how beautiful this must be during cherry blossom time in the spring, or the fall foliage in October. In the winter, they even cover this place in amazing lights, which you should totally google to see!

One of the things we are realizing here is that traffic takes forever to go anywhere. We decided to drive to the Garden, which is about 40 miles away. Even with weekend travel which you would think would be lighter, it took us over two hours to get there. It was a beautiful drive, however, getting into the more mountainous area of Korea.

Once we arrived we parked and entered the gardens. I don't know what I expected, but it was so gorgeous. It was cloudy and a bit foggy, but we had all packed our umbrellas so we were just fine (more on that later!) Enjoy the pictures - sorry they are iPhone pictures that don't do its beauty justice,  but we didn't bring a better camera :)

One we came in we entered a little atrium with tons of hydrangea. They have a spring hydrangea festival, so I am guessing these were in full bloom a month or two ago.

Some of these bonsai were 300 years old!

Bonzai garden

English garden

people create pagodas out of rocks in this creek. Hudson had fun creating a few!

We stopped at the tea house during a downpour. Around 20 people were crowded in the pagoda trying to escape the storm!

If you look really closely you can see a frog. or maybe a toad, I have no idea. Actually I think it was a toad.