This was one of the coolest things we've done so far! I've been dying to blog about it. Remember, in the bible when Moses parted the seas and the Israelites walked through on dry ground? Well, now the Days have done it too.
There is an island off the south western coast of Korea called Jindo. It's quite a large island surrounded by a few other small ones. It's most famous in Korea for the dogs that are bred there, but a strange phenomenon discovered by a French Ambassador to South Korea in 1975, put Jindo on the map worldwide. Once a year, when the tides are right, the sea between Jindo and one of these other smaller islands actually separates, leaving a completely dry path of about a mile and a half connecting the two islands.
To be honest, I had read about it on the internet, but I was somewhat doubtful that it would be as amazing as it sounded. Well, I'm here to testify that it was!
Here's what the water looked like when we arrived. This was about 6 hours before the sea was supposed to part.
This is the part of the sea we were about to cross. It's hard to tell from this picture, but there are cement steps going down into the water at the bottom of the photo. The water here was at the top of the steps.
Now here's a picture of the same steps after the sea is beginning to close. (The steps are in the distance to the left hand side of the picture -- right above Ali's head.)
I was shocked how much the water moved. It was truly incredible to watch.
We arrived at the festival around noon so we could take advantage of all the fun activities planned in conjunction with the sea parting.
Emma loved the Jindo dog show. Apparently Jindo dogs are some of the smartest dogs in the world. To showcase this, they put on a little dog show.
Afterward, you could play with the puppies. The kids were in heaven!
These were seriously some of the cutest puppies I have ever seen.
Apparently the Korean photographers thought the same thing about our kids, because every time I tried to get a picture of my children, I had to fight a crowd of people.
I finally pushed my way to the front, though, and got one.
Next we did a little painting. . .
...and the photographers followed.
We took part in a traditional rice dance. It reminded me a lot of some of the hulas from Hawaii.
The kids did a little drumming.
After that we headed into the market area to find something to eat. One of the stands was selling live octopus and asked if we wanted to hold one. Of course, the answer was YES!
Octopus are hard to hold on to. It was super slimy and kept trying to squish out of my hand.
This one kept trying to climb up Ali's arm.
The kids found some fun treats to eat, and then we decided to check out the water to see if it was beginning to part yet.
Here we are in our super, sexy boots! Ali and Emma actually had rain boots from home. The rest of us purchased these knee high waterproof ones from a local vendor. Unfortunately for Peter, I wear the largest man size Korean shoes that they make, so he was stuck in tennis shoes and plastic bags. Bummer.
Note to self, next year, bring boots for Peter.
The water was starting to go down, but it still had a long way to go. Again, I was starting to doubt this would really happen.
It was fun to watch all the families scouring the rocks for clams and other tasty morsels.
As we wandered around on the rocks we came across a man selling fresh octopus right out of his bucket.
First he would squeeze out all the sea water from the tenticles. Next he popped out the head.
Finally he laid it out on his cutting board and began to chop. Notice how nice and straight it started.
By the end of the chopping, everything was all over the place because the tentacles continue to move for a good 20 minutes or so. I'm not sure exactly how long, but I know it's long enough for them to wiggle like crazy in your mouth while you try to eat them.
This one was ours.
We found ourselves a little piece of rock to eat it on.
The flavor was pretty good dipped in the hot sauce, but it was incredibly difficult to eat because it was so chewy and kept sticking to our tongues and teeth.
Even the kids (minus Emma of course) gave it a try.
Ryan couldn't quite get it to stay still long enough to pick up with his chopsticks, so Peter gave him a hand.
Normally we don't condone playing with your food, but this was one time when we couldn't resisit. It was super fun to have it suction onto your fingers.
And finally, after all our waiting, the sea began to part.
A lot of people left before the water was completely cleared away because the land bridge is only open for an hour. If you want to make it to the other island and back in that hour, you need to hustle.
It was amazing to watch the water dry up and the actual land bridge appear.
The kids had fun digging for sea creatures in the little puddles of water left behind.
And because there was a little water left behind in some places, it made for some fun pictures.
Here are the kids walking on water.
Ryan wanted to see how deep the water was off the land bridge. We were all surprised by how far down it went. Thank goodness for the knee high boots.
They even brought a parade across between the two islands.
Here's how the land bridge looked when it was complete.
Finally, they blew a whistle to let us know the water was returning. (I'm pretty sure Moses didn't do this for Pharaoh's army.) We had to turn around and head back.
Here's the view after the water returned. It was hard to imagine we had been standing in the middle of the sea just a few short minutes ago.
Jindo is one of my new favorite places.
