Donghwasa part 1

Okay, I was itching for a little adventure and since the kiddos and the hubby have a 4 day weekend they were going to be included. I've been wanting to see the giant Buddha they have here on Dongwasa mountain. We had sketchy directions from a person at a gas station so we were off. Here is a map of the mountain. They have Buddha's all over this thing. I wanted the easy route not the hard one...can you guess where this story is gonna go??
Before we get started on the "big buddha adventure" here are some weird and wacky things you get to see on the highways. Yep that's a goat!
And in case you are a big fan of horses these are lawn ornaments made just for you. Notice the size of the horses compared to the size of the car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We get to where you park your car and realize with much talking from the parking attendent in Korean and Sonja (who was with us) that we are at the wrong place. SIGH! We are at the back of the mountain...the hard part...and the giant buddha is actually lower. We decide to park the car and start climbing to see what we can see. I smelled a grand adventure and got the camera out. Here is the first stone buddha we saw. It's at the bottom and in the box to the left are candles lit for prayers.

These are big stone...ummmmm....thingies. I couldn't tell what they were. They were off to the side and I thought they were pretty. Plus I was stalling cause we were at the bottom of our climb but it was already so steep that we had to bend over a little bit. Here we go!!!Look how gorgeous the trees are!!! All of them were this color. The trees started changing colors a couple of weeks ago. The mountain was so pretty!This stone had a plaque on it telling you what it was. It was in Korean but I know that it said you have climbed a mightly long way and you have a mighty long way to go. Don't listen to your husband tell you that you can make it...go back now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This was the first of many temples. Here is a stone turtle that was next to another buddha. There were stone turtles everywhere. I think that they stand for good luck. Can you see the turtle smiling at me and mocking me??We are halfway there. The reason Sarah isn't in the picture was cause she was still running! up the mountain. Here is Normica, Lauren and Sonja. Get up and get going girls!!
These stones represent prayers and thoughts of good luck. My stone is there on the far right. I was praying that God would get me to the top of the dang-gone mountain!!! By this time little old ladies (Adashies) were passing us. They were clapping and smiling at us to help us along. I tried to convince Kareem that this was the buddha we came to see and no we did not need to go any higher. Do you think he listened...read next installment!! hehehee