Nicole and I visited a local cherry blossom festival in nearby Jinhae. The trip was through a local Korean tour guide named Pedro, its his adopted English name. He was the same tour guide we used for our second snowboarding adventure a month or two earlier.
Getting to Jinhae
We met across from the bus terminal in Gwangju and hopped aboard the bus Pedro had rented for the day. He usually just uses his van, but he booked a big trip this time so he rented a full size bus. The trip out to Jinhae was about 3 hours and we arrived a little after noon. Driving through Jinhae, the streets were packed with Koreans eager to witness the majestic beauty of blooming cherry blossoms.
The City of Jinhae
The city was familiar with cherry blossom crowd management and setup 
a temporary parking lot at the naval base just outside of town. Our bus dropped us off here and we took a $2 shuttle bus into the actual city. Central Jinhae is laid out like a bicycle wheel with a park in the center and many spokes reaching out in various directions. The central park was hosting a singing competition/music revue. Nicole and I made a note to come back for it, but we had bigger plans for now.
Environment Eco-park Riverside
We walked straight through town and headed North to walk along a beautiful river and get some photos of blossoms over the river.
365 Steps of Mt. Jaehwang-san
Later we made our way to the 365 steps of Mt. Jaehwang-san. The steps were surprisingly manageable and only took a few minutes to climb.
Watching the Korean Naval Band
After out steps we were pretty beat. So we headed over to the local stadium to see the Korean Naval Band perform. Their drumline was really impressive to see. Somehow I lost the picture for it.
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