Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Foggiest Day I Ever Saw

Not long after the beach photos in the post below, Sara and I took a visiting friend to the beach by our campus.

Our friend came to us from Chongqing, a misty mountain metropolis in southern China.  We had been talking up Rizhao's famous blue skies and seaside.

Hahaha!  We ended up giving her a foggier day than even Chongqing could produce.  Join us at the beach on April 14, 2012, the foggiest day I ever have seen.

Can't see the water from the path.  Ocean, where are you?
For comparison's sake, here is the same section of the beach on a typical day:

...and on an exceptionally clear day last summer:

It was amazing to see the cold mist literally rolling in off the water, swirling thickly across the path.  The ocean was brewing enough fog to cover the whole city, and especially the strip closest to the water.  We decided to make the best of the weather, since it was the only day we had for exploring before our friend left.  We played some Frisbee...


We rode the length of the trail...





We took some photos....


Beads of condensed fog (not dew or rain).  Crazy!




We ate some snacks...


And we rode this ride:





Our original plan was to ride twice.  We had bargained for a lower price, but instead of lowering the price too much, the lady told us since business was slow we could ride for longer.

As soon as we got on, tourists below started gathering to take photos of the foreigners penduluming over the beach.   After our first go-around, two men in cowboy hats got on, ignored the 25 other empty seats on the ride, and planted themselves directly next to me.  They made a comment in Chinese about being next to two pretty Russian girls and their Korean friend.

After the second ride, more people gathered and a few more got on.  We were good business.  The ride operator offered us a third ride.  Two girls got on and, ignoring the 20 other empty seats on the ride, giggled themselves into place directly next to Gloria.  Cowboy #1 got off, so as to better take photos of his buddy on our left.  We were surrounded.

We decided to get off after three times.  But no one came to let us out of our seats.  They just started the ride again!

Four times!??!

And that is the story of how we literally got more than we bargained for on the foggiest day the Rizhao beach has ever seen.

4 comments:

  1. hahahah! I love that last picture! I literally busted out laughing. Esp. your face in the background holding up the number four combined with Sara's shock heheh

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    1. That was about one minute after we realized what was happening.

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  2. What a fun day! Love the beautiful pictures!

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