A Day at the Beach

Sunday, January 31, 2010

It feels strange to get up on Sunday morning and not get ready to go to church.

This morning we’re taking a walk. A few days ago I walked along the road across from the beach. It’s just two and a half blocks away, and Bernie wants to see it.
He wants to cross the highway and actually walk along the beach. It’s a popular place in summer-there are restaurants and concessions all along here, most closed now for winter.

As we step onto the beach, we can hardly believe our eyes. A few feet away a young man is stuffing his clothes in a duffle and is now wearing only bathing trunks. He dons a bathing cap and flippers, walks to the water and dives in (not before Bernie gets a few shots with his camera). He’s swimming. We can’t imagine forcing your body to do that.

I checked the temperature before we left the apartment so I’d know how many layers to put on – 36 degrees. We and the people all around us are wearing coats.

Our bather gets out of the water, but instead of promptly donning his clothes (you know how much colder you feel when you get out of the water and the wind hits you), he walks briskly up the beach and back, then just stands there in the cold.

We walk on up the beach, turning around several times to see if he’s still there; he is.

There is plenty of sunshine today and for those of us who are appropriately dressed for the weather it’s a pleasant walk up the beach along the sidewalk below the cliffs.

Along the way are sculptures that depict stories from mythology, mostly Greek mythology: a mermaid and merman, and Odysseus. But there’s also a statue of The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway’s modern story set in Cuba.

Signs along the way encourage good treatment of the plants that grow in the park:
“Please show your compassion to lovely plants.”
“Whoever bully green life merciless.”

Since I’m trying to get some real exercise today, we walk until the walkway ends at a hill and rocks below, then turn around and walk back to where we came on the beach.
Back at the apartment, we decide we’d better start traveling. We’ve been warned that all travel will be very crowded during the New Year celebration, which begins the night of February 13.

We want to go to Dandong first, since it’s closest, a four-hour drive. Dandong is on the border with North Korea, and we understand we’ll be able to look over into North Korea there.

If Autumn can drive us, we’ll go in the morning.

I call Autumn. She suggests starting out a five o’clock in the morning. Too early, I say. It’s a long way, Autumn tells me-can we go at 7:00? Compared to five, this sounds like a reasonable hour, so we agree to it.

Now, it’s early to bed, with visions of the Evil Empire in our heads.