Sokcho Vacation, finale

The last morning, we got the kids up at 5:30 so that we could watch the sunrise. So, we wrangled the grumpy bunch to the lookout point, but didn't see much since it was overcast. Still, it was nice to get up early to look at the ocean. Not many people out that early, but we weren't the only ones at the lookout point.

One of the pagodas had a painting of the area on its ceiling.

The photo below is my favorite. I like the colors. It's just really very beautiful there.

Below is a view of Sokcho, the fish market, and harbor.

After leaving the scenic view, we headed to yet another hot springs for a relaxing bath. The hotel/spa lobby was fairly typical of lobbies here. You don't see a lot of tshirts and bumper stickers for sale for tourists. Instead, you'll see local wine and honey, dried fish, dried seaweed, and other types of edibles associated with the area.

Ronan, the only non-grumpy child in the bunch (despite a fit thrown in the bathhouse over some milk), so we walked a bit along a trail next to the hotel/spa. We found some birds--what are these--turkeys? Anyway, that was something new to see.

After checking out of the minkbak, we drove to the beach for one last walk.

There's a cool little lighthouse there that I've seen in postcards. As we walked to it, we saw crabs and birds.

And, more advertisements. They're everywhere.

The beach was lovely. It was so clean and crowd-free. And, the sun FINALLY came out. Would have loved to have stayed and just hung out on the beach that day. It seemed that, as soon as we loaded the car, the sun appeared and the temp shot up. Oh well. At least no sunburns this trip.

Oliver felt the same way. He was not a happy camper when we announced it was time to pile into the car and head back up to Seoul.

Along the way, we found this fabulous rest stop. Years ago, every rest stop I visited reaked of urine and the floors had at least 1/2 inch of water on them. Trot music (music in a one-two rhythm that older people tend to listen to; tacky stuff, but can be a lot of fun to poke fun at) blasted from speakers, etc. Now, it seems people are competing to have the best rest stops. This one won--if there was a competition. I've never seen a cleaner, more relaxing one anywhere--Korea or the States. There was a little garden out back where we had some snacks.

When we reached Seoul, we faced traffic. Basically, when we entered the metropolitan area, it took us an hour to finally reach our home. But heck, who cares about traffic when you can buy coffee and snacks from masked freeway hawkers weaving their carts through traffic? Yes, one of the great things about Korea.