Mallipo Beach

We continued our wonderful Memorial Day weekend by spending Monday at Mallipo Beach in Taean Haean National Park on the west coast of Korea.  

It was a pretty typical Korean day:  Hazy.  

The temperature was lovely in the 70s.  The water was frigid though!  We didn't actually swim -partly because they don't really do that in Korea.  They stay out of the sun, and don't usually get in the water past their knees (aside from a few teenagers we saw dragging their friends into the waves).  We were in the sun -no umbrellas or long sleeves for us- and I'm sure we'll break out of the no swimming mold when it gets a bit warmer, but for now, in this small way we blended in with the natives:)

A friend of ours was telling a story of him and his (American) girlfriend going to the beach.  She was, um, scorned (I don't recall exactly what happened) for swimming in a bikini, and he had the Coast Guard called on him twice for going in water deeper than he is tall.

No scorning or Coast Guard calls for us, so I think we had a pretty good day.  We went with three friends and our friends' dogs (Charlie was at the kennel due to canceling our plans to go to Busan, but not being able to cancel the kennel without penalty-and we didn't even know if the beach would allow dogs.  Next time we will bring him for sure!).  We mostly played frisbee, catch with the dogs, and explored the tiny sand crabs and these strange straw-like things (plant?  animal?) coming up from the sand.  It was a great trip!

Monday night we came home to a big mess strewn all over the apartment.  Husband smiled at me, glad that this mess was indicative of a wonderful, fun, and relaxing weekend.  You could see evidence of all the good times we had.  We threw our mess on the floor, quickly changed, and headed out for sushi!  The mess can wait!!