I’m so glad it’s camping weather again! It so refreshes me to enjoy a weekend outdoors where the kids can run around wild and play freely while I can relax and read a magazine.
This weekend we drove out to the Taean National Seashore where we’ve been before. We camped at at a nice campground along Gurypo beach. The kids played in the sand, searched for shells and seaglass, explored tidepools and sketched in their sketch books. The water was too cold to swim, thankfully, so I didn’t need to worry about all that.
We pitched the tent on a nice hill overlooking the beach and spent the afternoon out by the water. I sat on our mat and read most of the time; it was bliss. Later, we returned to the tent to find a group of Ukrainians having a giant cookout right by our tent. I guess it’s their regular spot, as Igor explained to me, but they just came for the day. I was irritated, but let it go. Avi and I spent some time resting in the tent, reading and playing Uno. Zoe ran around with the Ukrainian kids Yulia and Igor; it all worked out fine.
At night we had a great fire for hotdogs and marshmallows. All the kids came over for roasting and playing with fire… what could be more fun. Once the Ukrainian friends left, we moseyed into our tent for books and bed. I slept like a baby!
We spent all morning today walking along the water – the tide was in – and then following the coastline trail a mile or so up to the next beach. The coast in Korea is quite rocky with cliffs falling into the water. It’s pretty. We had fun a the next beach collecting things and watching the giant barges go by. On our return trip we picked our way along the base of cliffs – the tide had gone out a bit – and even had a fun, kinda sketchy, adventure crossing around a bit of a ‘gorge’ where the water was still rushing in and out. Luckily, the water is very shallow and we were all careful!
On the way home we stopped at a roadside memorial to a particular Korean who helped lead the resistance to the Japanese occupation at the turn of the century. His birth home is there and was super neat to see with it’s traditional courtyard and thatch. There was also a memorial with missiles and tanks and carved flags of ally nations. Seemed to immortalize a particular battle. Not sure if this was anti-Japanese fighting or Korean War era; it’s was hard to tell. Still, neat. The kids especially thought it was cool as we had seen some bunkers facing the sea along our hike earlier.
