Another day at the park :-)

I went to the park again this morning because I thought it would be a good idea to start my first full week with some lovely outdoors time.  And it really was :-)  Also, I realized that I didn't show pictures of the other side of the lake, so here they are!  (aren't you excited!)

You may have to click to make it larger in order to see them, but there are several baby ducks in this picture.  They are just amazingly camouflaged. 

Isn't this beautiful?  This whole section of the lake is just covered in these water plants.  And there's a lovely little dock going through it. 

Pretty little water flower on the lake :-)

These fish are actually enormous!  These were the fist the little four year old girl and I were watching together my first day in Korea.

A different lovely water flower.  This one was sort of far away, so I couldn't take a great picture, but it was beautiful and hopefully you get the idea.

A very inviting stair case, no?  I didn't go up this time, but probably tomorrow. . .

I just love the landscape!  And it couldn't have been a more beautiful morning!  The rock walls, I think, are a wonderful touch :-)

What's this?  I didn't see this my first day!  There were two of them on a separate trail, so this time I just had to explore...

Isn't it lovely??  I walked all the way through the first one before realizing that they actually had several different climbing plants all growing on these trellises.  I wasn't sure what they were, but I was looking and looking at all the different things.  Just as I misdiagnosed the last one a man on a motorized scooter came up to me.  He told me he was the manager of landscaping and grounds for the park.  I told him he was responsible for one of my favorite places on the planet.  His name was Jason and he spoke English really well.  He said his grammar wasn't very good, but I told him his pronunciation was fantastic and you know what he said? "I learned how to speak by listening to heavy metal."  I was completely blown away (get it?) and asked him which bands and he said he'd been listening to Metalica and Pearl Jam and bands like that since he was in fifth grade, and they taught him how to say things.  I thought it was too cool.  Then he says "Do you have any questions?" Boy did he ask the wrong person that!  So I told him I did as a matter of fact and then we walked around as he explained everything to me!  Yay!!

This, he told me, is not a cucumber.  It's a sponge. (!!) He said grandmother's still use this, they dry it out and it works just like a sponge and they wash dishes with it and everything!  Which ended up making a lot of sense because there's no way cucumbers of this size would be able to hang on like that!  I thought it was too cool. 

This is a Tara Vine, he told me.  And there's fruit as well (which I thought were pears of some sort) but these flowers I thought were really pretty.

Grapes :-)  He said that they would stay green, but he couldn't really remember the English name for them.  They looked pretty yummy though :-)

Here's the fruit from the Tara Vine...doesn't look quite ripe yet, but he said that it's edible and there was none within reach, so maybe it was :-)

 

 Isn't this just the most beautiful place??  And such a lovely day!!

My camera stopped working at this point...so I'll have to take some more pictures tomorrow of the rest of the things I saw.  There was a beautiful walkway up to the swimming pool, a tennis court, and the stadium.  There was a bamboo forest with benches all the way through, and that was a great stop to sit and take a little break :-)  I was really mad at my camera for not working though...

Then, on the way back it started working again.  I saw this:

What's this?

I mean, it would be an actual shame not to check it out, right?  I just have to know what's down there!  And if someone yells at me, then, I'll leave.  But there are no subways here. . .so what could it be??

Why?  What is this?  A huge underground room for no purpose at all?  What on earth!

And then it hit me...it's a way to get across the street, YAY!!  No more waiting endlessly for the lights to change! Now I have an underground walkway!  I'm sure this comes in handy big time when there are soccer games.  This place is probably full to the max at that point.  :-)  How fun :-) 

Yay!  I made it across the street with no sun!  :-)  Fun times.

Okay, it's time to go now but I'll have to go back and take pictures of the things that my camera decided it wasn't interested in...and some of the other paths that I didn't have time to explore...and the whole other side of the park I haven't seen yet!  One park, so much to discover.  This is my favorite place here, no question about it!  :-)

Have a great day guys, and thanks for reading!!  :-)

This weekend the plan is to go somewhere really amazing on the Ulsan Scenic list, so that should make for some really great pictures :-)  Thank you!!