LIFE ON 'THE PENN': Pohang Lighthouse Museum & Camping

For Father's Day my husband wanted to go camping. The for real camping in a tent and building a fire to cook and all that. I reluctantly agreed and our chosen destination was a beach in Pohang. We didn't plan for exactly which beach, we just drove till we found a quiet, clean beach. The drive was interesting in itself, on a narrow curvy road following the coast of a small peninsula. We discovered Guryeongpo, a small but almost deserted beach about 12 miles or so out of Pohang. The water was really cold, almost too cold even to walk in, so there was no water play. The girls had fun finding seashells and digging in the sand while the hubs set up the tent and did all the prep for a fire. We had brought some fish Matt had caught to cook, but didn't use all of it, so we gave it to two Korean men sitting in front of the minbak nearby. They reciprocated by bringing us some hot coffee and we all shared a few moments of smiles and mostly silent camaraderie. It was fun spending the day at the beach, but the night got cold, and brought some rather loud visitors to the beach, so we ended up leaving around midnight. This turned out to be a good decision, because it started raining as we were packing up and rained on us the entire drive home.

Can you believe I didn't take a picture of the tent after it was set-up?

Before settling at the beach, we made a tourist stop at the Lighthouse Museum, adjacent to the popular Homigot Sunrise Square. Somehow we missed the actual square, and I wasn't able to see the Hand of Harmony sticking up out of the water. (Disclaimer: borrowed picture!)

The museum was mildly interesting. It contained displays of lighthouse lighting equipment throughout history, lots of pictures, models of famous lighthouses around the world, and a few other things. There was also a small separate building of fishery science and another building with a small special display of ceramic lighthouses. The lovely park grounds outside the museum had some statues and miniatures of several lighthouses.