Ocean City, Maryland, 2009

The family took a day trip down to Ocean city, Maryland over the weekend. We had heard wonderful things about it on TV and decided at the spur of the moment to wander over there and see what all the fuss was about. We left around 7:00am on Saturday morning and after wandering around for about four hours, we arrived around 11:00am.

Ocean City, Maryland follows a similar layout to Wildwood, New Jersey, but, on a much larger scale. There is a long boardwalk with shops and attractions on one side and the beach on the other side. But, while in Wildwood, most of the attractions are clustered around the boardwalk, in Ocean City, the attractions are spread out over the entire city. Also, Ocean City, Maryland is much larger than Wildwood, New Jersey.

In many ways, the scale of human activity at Ocean City is somewhat similar to the scale of human activity in Coney Island, New York, but, of course, Ocean City is a much more attractive destination than Coney Island could ever hope to be. I've been to Coney Island and three things stick out in my mind; the people on the beach looked like so many nature documentaries of seals packed onto beaches, virtually one on top of the other; the line of people waiting to use the restrooms, carrying their own toilet paper; and the generally run down appearance of Coney Island and lack of simple amenities, like benches.

We spent a little time at the beach dipping our toes in the surf and taking in the scenery. Anthony and Alex, my nephews, ventured into the ocean for a quick swim. Mom just got her feet wet, while Liz and I, kept an eye on the advancing tide line, her kids and other beach goers. I saw one child, probably less than two, who was absolutely terrified to get near the ocean. Her mother had to sit in the sand, just short of the tide line and keep the child occupied. After a half hour or so at the beach, we headed over to a nice little pizza shop for a bite to eat.

Liz couldn't resist the temptation to inform her daughter, Amanda, about how much fun she was missing - Amanda had to work. After lunch, we rode on a handful of rides and spent much of the rest of the day exploring. For one thing, we discovered that Maryland allows cigarettes to be sold from vending machines -- that's a no-no here in Philadelphia. We hand dinner at a nice restaurant at the far end of the boardwalk and headed home around 7:00pm. After a very long day and a very long drive, we got home around 11:00pm.

The kitties were happy to see us return but were probably a bit agitated by our long absence. They had a little spat and we had to separate the two for the night. The next day, all sins were forgiven and they seemed to have settled down.