Beach paradise in mirissa? Or not

The day after Roh's birthday we woke up and set about actually exploring Mirissa!
Mirissa is a little different in that the beach is pretty hard to get to, unless you are staying in a really expensive beach front place. It's back off of crazily noisy Galle Road which is nice though.  

Once you do find the beach, you find tourist land. Beach front cafe after cafe. Umbrella after beach chair. If you don't want to pay for shade, then you won't find any.. Luckily we visited early in the morning, so we were able to stop and take shelter without having to pay 300 rupees for a juice.. (Normally 150)

In the afternoon we visited nearby Weligama so our friends could surf. The beach was really beautiful, with lots of shady areas. Gypsy made a new friend and built her first cubby house! Be careful you don't get hungry though! A fried rice from the restaurant on the beach was going for 900 rupees!!!! (Normally 150)

Both Mirissa and Weligama, and even Midigama for that matter were quite nice. They are very much surfing areas though, so unless you like swimming in crashing waves, there's no real place to swim. And unless you are a surfer, the other surfers might not want to talk to you.. It's cliche, but unfortunately often true..
The beaches are clean. and especially in Mirissa, there is a good variety of accommodation available. We were able to find an awesome cabana for a really good price. Food however, was much harder. If you are nearing the end of your travels, or you have a more flexible budget than we do, than the fresh seafood and meals in the beachfront restaurants are probably delicious! For backpackers on a budget like we are, paying 3 times the normal price even for a cup of tea wore our budget very thin. We did find some nice, cheap and delicious local restaurants in Weligama, and one not-so-expensive place on the main road in Mirissa though, which was a great relief. 
It was nice, but not what we would call beach-paradise.. But that's just us.