Vacation, Part 8: The Beach!

We were so excited about going to the beach! Elias had never been to a saltwater beach, but he has seen them on shows and he'd been talking about wanting to go to one. There were actually two beaches at Amasra on opposite sides of the peninsula, and we were fortunate that our hotel was on the less crowded one. (Come back tomorrow for shots of the other one!) Here's a view of our beach from out on the water.

We think this beach wasn't as crowded because it wasn't free, but we thought it was worth paying 15TL (appx $8) to rent the umbrella and chairs for the day. We brought a little bucket/shovel set, and Elias LOVED playing in the sand!

The same people who rented us the umbrella & chairs also had a menu we could order lunch from, and they delivered it to us right on the beach!

Then we hit the water! We had heard that the water of the Black Sea was very cold, but it was just cool. It was actually perfect for swimming in since the weather was so hot!

This is the first time Elias got in the water and the only time you'll see him with his feet touching the bottom. As much as he loved playing in the sand on the shore, he REFUSED to let his feet touch it in the water!

So I carried him out to the deeper water...

...and he floated in his floatie! Win!

It's always interesting in Turkey to see the great variety of people. At the beach, we saw ladies in bikinis, but we also saw fully-covered conservative ladies also enjoying their swims. As Justin mentioned previously, many Turks don't know how to swim, so we saw a large number of adults wearing floaties and water wings to stay safe! (Not pictured: The middle-aged man who was rescued while drowning and had to be taken to the hospital.)

We absolutely loved the beach and were so thankful for the opportunity to visit! Check back later for the final (finally!) installment of our vacation blogs where we take a boat tour around the peninsula and enjoy the famous fish dinner!