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I spent last week blogging about my July vacation to the beach. (In case you’ve missed my series, you can read Prologue, Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five.) I brought my Disney Nuimos with me on my beach trip and I took some photos of them as I traveled to various places. I made a video slideshow that I uploaded on to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
As for the music I used in the background, it’s the song “It’s a Shore Thing” that was written and performed by my late high school music teacher, Tim Landers. I remember that sometime last year, after I made my previous trip to Ocean City, I decided to do a search on TikTok to see if that song even exists in that platform’s extensive database. To my surprise, TikTok had a one-minute excerpt from that song available for anyone to use in their videos. So I used it as sort of a personal tribute to him. (You can read more about how he influenced my life in this blog post I wrote about him five years ago.) While I can’t say for certain if he would have liked how I used his song, I think he probably would’ve been thrilled to learn that his song is available on the currently hottest social media platform for anyone to use. In any case, here’s the song “It’s a Shore Thing” in its entirety.
If you like “It’s a Shore Thing,” you can either download it or stream it online (depending on the platform in question) from AllMusic, Amazon, Apple Music, Shazam, Spotify, and Qobuz.
Today was the absolute last day of my trip. I decided to do something that I haven’t done before. Here is some background.
For years I’ve had my LGBTQ friends talk about how much they loved vacationing in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. That beach resort had long catered to LGBTQ people even in the days when same-sex relationships were frowned upon.
I was always interested in checking it out once but, until my marriage ended, my then-husband used to insist on the two of us vacationing in Ocean City with members of his family for a week each summer. One year one of his relatives wanted to take a side trip to Rehoboth Beach in the morning where we could do some shopping and she invited me to come along. So I agreed figuring that I could at least see what the place was like since so many of my LGBTQ friends loved it so much.
Unfortunately she wasn’t interested in going into downtown Rehoboth Beach itself. Instead she only wanted to shop in the many outlet stores that are located outside of the town. No matter how much I begged her to consider going into the town for at least a half an hour, nothing I said could get her to change her mind about spending all of the time at Rehoboth Beach shopping at the Playtex outlet store then the other outlet stores to buy clothes and kitchen gadgets.
I remember the Playtex outlet the most because there was a bin full of bras which had a deal where if you buy three you get the fourth one for free. Not only did she insist on going through that bin, she pressured me to do the same. You wouldn’t believe how time-consuming it was to go through a tall bin full of bras that were all mixed together so you might pull out a 38C sized followed by a 28A size followed by a 42DD size and so on. So I eventually found four bras where I could take advantage of the “buy 3 get one free” offer. All of those bras I purchased at the Playtex outlet store that day ended up literally falling apart six months later. That’s pretty pathetic considering the fact that the bras I usually purchase at discount big box retailers like Target and Walmart can last at least five years (if not longer). Let’s just say that I haven’t shopped for any bras at the Playtex outlet store since then. I also gave up on the idea of actually going into downtown Rehoboth Beach with either my ex-husband or any of his family members.
That was then and this is now. Since I was vacationing by myself, I had the option to actually go into downtown Rehoboth Beach and skip all of the outlet stores. So I decided that this year was going to be the year where I finally get to step foot inside of Rehoboth Beach itself.
Once I checked out of the motel I took Coastal Highway north until I hit downtown Rehoboth Beach. I parked close enough to be within a short walking distance of that town’s Boardwalk. I took a couple shots of the beach.
Like the day before, the temperature was in the low 90s with high humidity. The only reason why I didn’t even go into the ocean on that day was because I was due to go home and I didn’t have a place to stay in Rehoboth Beach. I would’ve had to go through the effort of searching through my packed suitcase for my swimsuit, coverup, and beach towel, searching for a place where I could change into my swimsuit/coverup, finding a place to park my stuff on the beach while I went into the ocean, then search for a place where I could take a shower before changing back into my street clothes then walking out to the car to put my beach things away. It really wasn’t worth the effort for just a few hours.
So I decided to focus on the Boardwalk instead. Compared to the one in Ocean City, Rehoboth Beach’s Boardwalk is relatively less crowded and quiet. It’s smaller than Ocean City’s and it seems to be way more laid back and less raucous. (Unlike Ocean City, I didn’t hear any stores play loud music.)
I ate lunch at Grotto Pizza, where I ordered this personal size white pizza that was excellent. The service was excellent as well.
Here are some more shots of Rehoboth Beach’s Boardwalk, including a business with a rainbow flag (which indicates Rehoboth Beach’s longtime reputation of being LGBTQ friendly).
Rehoboth Beach has an amusement park on the Boardwalk known as Funland, which has a variety of different rides.
Like Ocean City, Funland has its own haunted ride that’s known as the Haunted Mansion. The line was long but it moved very fast. I went on that ride and I have to say that it might be better than Ocean City’s Haunted House ride. Maybe it’s because I’ve been on the Haunted House ride numerous times since I was a child and it was the first time I’ve ever ridden the Haunted Mansion ride so everything is new. In any case, I enjoyed it.
When I was a child and teenager I remember that the Boardwalk in Ocean City used to have fortune telling machines that purported to tell you the future. I haven’t seen any of those fortune telling machines on my most recent trip to Ocean City so I was pleasantly surprised when I found one in Rehoboth Beach. This one is known as Zoltar Speaks and he’s basically an animatronic who moves his head and hands when you put money into the machine until a piece of paper comes out with your fortune.
I got a kick out of using a fortune telling machine for old time’s sake.
Like I wrote earlier, Rehoboth Beach has long had a reputation for catering to the LGBTQ crowd and they even have t-shirts especially for them.
Even the stores in a supposedly pro-LGBTQ place like Rehoboth Beach sold Donald Trump t-shirts. At least this particular store sold one anti-Trump shirt (the “Pendejo” one). It also sold a “Fuck Putin” t-shirt with the lettering done in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. But the majority of t-shirts I saw were obviously catering to the MAGA Donald Trump-loving crowd.
There were also t-shirts that had nothing to do with either LGBTQ people or politics.
At one point I decided to walk about a block on a side street away from the Boardwalk where I saw all kinds of cool things. I saw this neat dolphin statue.
I also saw this really cool building that housed a British fish and chips place that was called Go Fish! Unfortunately I was still full from lunch and it was too early for dinner so I just took this one photo of the outside. (At this point I began to kick myself for not trying to get a hotel or motel room in Rehoboth Beach so I could stay for one or two nights and I could actually go swimming in the ocean and eat a meal in a place like Go Fish!)
During my time at Rehoboth Beach I made only one purchase. I bought a pastel the-dye souvenir t-shirt at a Sunsations store.
Shortly before I left I noticed some ominous looking clouds were starting to come in. The next picture showed how cloudy the weather became. I saw on my phone app that it was calling for rain again! I decided that it was time for me to leave Rehoboth Beach before the rain started.
I was in a laid-back mood so I decided to just continue taking Coastal Highway north until it became US 113. I continued north until I hit Dover then I took Delaware Route 1 and I arrived at the Christiana Mall. By that point I was hungry so I ate dinner at the Shake Shack. By the time I finished my meal it began to drizzle. Plus it was getting late in the day and I really wanted to be back in Maryland by nightfall.
Unfortunately the rain was a bit heavier but the good news was that it didn’t rain as hard as when I was driving to Ocean City. But I felt very nervous after sunset and I was driving along I-95 in northern Maryland and everything was unfamiliar, the roads were very dark, and, on top of it, I was dealing with very wet streets and tons of drivers who were speeding as if there was no rain at all. I began to wish I hadn’t stayed so long in Rehoboth Beach while a part of me felt glad that I had stayed as long as I could.
I began to relax a little bit when I reached Baltimore and there were plenty of bright lights. My GPS suggested taking the exit on to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway as a quicker way of getting home. I didn’t mind that suggestion because there were so many crazy people driving on I-95, including truckers, that taking the parkway would at least have me avoid the crazy truck drivers who were driving so recklessly in the rain. (The Baltimore-Washington Parkway is restricted to cars, buses, and motorcycles only.)
So I reached the exit only to find that there was construction on that exit. A sign said that the exit would be closed on the following day for renovations. At least I was lucky that I could still use that exit.
Here is where things became harrowing. There were traffic cones and giant steel drums set up along half of the road so the exit ramp was way more narrow than usual. One misstep while driving and it would’ve been total calamity for me. So I was driving very slow in the hopes that I could avoid hitting a cone or steel drum with the sky continuing to rain.
This went on for several minutes until I reached the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful for me. By the time I got home it had mostly stopped raining.
The next day I was unpacking my suitcase when I found something pretty amusing with the deodorant that I had brought with me to the beach. I had the suitcase in the truck and it was hot back there. It caused my deodorant to literally change its shape as these photos show.
The deodorant is still usable. I just have to remember that the stick is narrower than usual.
In any case, that’s a wrap for my 2022 beach vacation. I really enjoyed myself this time despite the frequent appearance of rain. Having the opportunity to go to the beach on a bright sunny day made up for the rainy periods. My only regret was that I underestimated how cool Rehoboth Beach was because it’s one of those places that warrants at least two days in order to appreciate it. Otherwise I felt it was the perfect vacation for me.
I’m thinking that if I were to do this again, I would definitely spend at least one night in Rehoboth Beach so I could have the chance to leisurely enjoy the beach and the ocean. Well, there’s always next year!
Other Posts in My 2022 Beach Vacation Series
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day One: July 25, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Two: July 26, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Three: July 27, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Four: July 28, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Five: July 29, 2022
If there was a day where I can say that it was a very perfect beach day, my last full day in Ocean City, Maryland was it.
My day began when I decided to drive into the neighboring town of Fenwick Island, Delaware where I could go shopping without paying any state sales tax. (That’s right, Delaware does not charge sales tax on anything.) The first thing I did was to purchase some caramel popcorn at Fisher’s Popcorn.
The next thing I did was to go to a two-story building that I attempted to go to on my last visit to the area last year only to find out that it was closed on Wednesdays. This time I went on a Thursday and it was open.
The lower floor of the two-story building houses Sea Shell City, a store where you can purchase all kinds of sea shells along with assorted souvenirs like t-shirts, toys, and decorative items (such as framed art). The upper floor houses the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum, which specializes in items that were retrieved from actual shipwrecks. I haven’t been there since I was married so I was very happy that I got to visit it again.
Unfortunately the only photo I have to show for it is this one featuring two pirates that are situated at the front entrance to the steps that lead to the museum.
That’s because the museum has rules regarding photography and videography. Shooting video is not allowed. Taking pictures is okay as long as they are for your own personal use. You cannot post any photos you shoot online without permission from the museum.
So I ended up just viewing the exhibits. That museum is just as I remembered it when I last visited it in 2011. It’s so fascinating seeing coins, books, and even china that were retrieved from shipwrecks. My personal favorite is the broken china that had coral growing through it, which made it look like a piece of avant-garde sculpture.
After I finished touring the museum upstairs and checking out the store downstairs, I decided to drive back to Maryland. On the way back I briefly stopped at the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, where I took this picture.
On the way back to the motel I decided to stop at the nearby bagel shop, Shmagels Bagels, where I ate a lunch featuring a bagel with cream cheese, a bag of potato chips, and a diet soda.
After lunch I went back to my motel room where I changed into my swimsuit and walked to the nearby beach. It was the perfect weather. The temperature was in the 90s and it was very humid. But getting into the ocean was totally refreshing and I was able to cool off quickly. On top of it I had sunscreen with me so I had the absolute perfect beach experience. Here is what the beach looked like that day.
For the next couple of hours I alternated between getting in the ocean then going back to my beach towel and read a trashy paperback novel that I had brought with me. (I purchased it at Five Below for only $5. It’s one of those novels that is so bad with cliched dialogue that it’s funny.) Towards the end of my stay at the beach I saw some nasty clouds starting to move in so I decided to return to my motel room where I took a shower and changed clothes.
Since it was my last night in Ocean City, I decided to go to OC Wasabi, which is a sushi restaurant that’s located near the motel. As I parked my car and started to walk to the front door it started to rain. At least I had this excellent dinner that was artfully arranged, as you can see in the next photo.
I decided that—rain or no rain—I was going to spend my final night on the Boardwalk. By the time I reached the parking lot it had stopped raining and I saw the remnants of this rainbow that appeared in the sky. Here are the photos I managed to take before it completely disappeared.
The Boardwalk was incredibly crowded that night. The next photo shows a long line of people waiting to get on the Haunted House ride. I got in line after I took that picture. I enjoyed the ride so much that I wanted to ride it again but I saw that the line was nearly twice as long so I decided to drop that idea. (I once shot a video years ago showing how lame the ride was but that ride has definitely improved since it underwent renovations a few years ago. One of these years I’m going to actually film the ride so I could do a comparison “before and after” video of that ride.)
The last time I was on the Boardwalk I didn’t have much energy to do a lot of walking because I had spent the afternoon walking around the Salisbury Zoo. I came up with an idea which enabled me to see more of the Boardwalk. I got on the Boardwalk train where I rode it until it reached The Kite Loft then leisurely walked back until I reached the parking lot where my car was parked. While I was riding it I was treated to a bunch of lovely sunset photos where the clouds turned a variety of very pretty pastel colors.
I finally reached The Kite Loft, which was another store I haven’t been to since 2011. (I didn’t visit that store last year because I had to cut my Boardwalk visit short due to the hurricane remnants that arrived in Ocean City.) As you can guess from the name, The Kite Loft specializes in kites and related products (such as wind socks). Here are a few photos I shot while I was in that store.
As I was walking on the Boardwalk I noticed a Hooters restaurant that wasn’t there the last time I was in that particular part of the Boardwalk back in 2011. Ocean City had long prided itself on having locally-owned mom-and-pop businesses on the Boardwalk and Hooters is a national chain. (I’ve only eaten at Hooters twice and both times I found the food to be not very memorable. I only ate there because I was with guys who wanted to eat there. That’s what happens when the owners focuses more on hiring sexy young women to wear skimpy uniforms so men and boys can ogle them and less on having tasty food that would actually entice people to come back.)
I saw this guy dressed as Batman on the Boardwalk.
There was another store on the Boardwalk that I wanted to visit. Ocean Gallery is an art gallery that has been on the Boardwalk as far back as when I was a child. I remember my parents going there where they purchased two paintings that hung on the living room walls of the house that I grew up in when we lived in Glen Burnie. It was such a fun place with seeing the eclectic outside and the walls literally covered with art. I had looked forward to visiting it again only to find out that it’s no longer open in the evenings, which was a bummer. I don’t know how much the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent Great Resignation had to do with the now-limited hours. It looks like the next time I go to Ocean City I’ll have to go in the daytime. At least I shot some photos of the outside so you can get a general idea of how unique that store is.
For years there have been an artist who makes these giant sand sculptures featuring Christian images. You don’t have to be a Christian to appreciate how amazing these sand sculptures are. This person spends so much time on each sculpture that is destined to eventually melt away by the wind and the rain.
I took a photo of some of the t-shirts that were on sale on the Boardwalk.
Here are a couple of photos of the 9/11 Firefighters Memorial.
Here’s the Esskay Clock. (Esskay was a local Baltimore-area manufacturer of hot dogs and sausages. The face of the clock includes a hot dog graphic. The company has since been taken over by Smithfield Foods and it discontinued the Esskay line. The clock is one of the few Esskay relics that still exists.) When I was a child and my family used to go on vacation with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, we kids were instructed that if we ever get lost while we were on the Boardwalk, we were supposed to wait at the Esskay Clock. I actually got separated from the family once when I was young so I waited by the clock for a few minutes where my mother found me. I remember she praised me for doing what I was instructed to do.
I ended my evening on the Boardwalk with a visit to Dolle’s Candy shop. Dolle’s specializes in making salt water taffy in a variety of flavors, including exotic ones like coconut, peach, and piña colada. I purchased a small bag of taffy in chocolate, vanilla, key lime, lemon, and cinnamon.
The last photos show what I purchased that day. I purchased a the-dye Fenwick Island, Delaware t-shirt from Sunsations that morning.
I also purchased two tiny sea shells from Sea Shell city for only 98 cents each.
They are perfectly scaled for my Disney Nuimos.
Other Posts in My 2022 Beach Vacation Series
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day One: July 25, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Two: July 26, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Three: July 27, 2022
My 2022 Trip to the Beach Day Four: July 28, 2022
The week before last I finished the work in the last class I needed to take before I can get my IT certificate. (For nearly a year I’ve been taking online classes through a program that’s jointly offered by Google and Coursera.) The only thing I needed to do before I can be finally finished is to take the last few online classes that deal with finding jobs in the IT field.
I have delayed taking those classes. That’s because I realized that since I’m still in-between jobs and since I have the money from my late mother’s life insurance policy, I have this unique opportunity to do some traveling. Lately the weather have been very hot and humid (which is typical summer in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States) and I began to feel a desire to return to the beach. Late last summer I went to Ocean City for three days where I ended up not swimming at all because I arrived at the same time as the remnants of Hurricane Ida and, well, that was quite an experience that I didn’t expect.
Basically I decided to return to Ocean City while I still have free time because I’m not sure what kind of job I’ll get. If I’m lucky enough to get one of those work from home jobs (which have been proliferating since the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic back in 2020) then I would at least have some flexible time where I could possible indulge in traveling. But if I end up with a typical 9 to 5 corporate office job with structured leave time, I don’t know when I’ll get the opportunity to go on any vacation in the future. So last week I went back to Ocean City. This time I spent five days there (from Monday to Friday). I couldn’t really afford to spend the whole seven days there so I decided on the weekdays since I know from previous experience that Ocean City tends to be more crowded on the weekends (due to a combination of people just traveling for the weekend and local Eastern Shore residents going to the beach and Boardwalk). There was no hurricane this year so I was able to wade into the ocean. I spent a couple of nights on the Boardwalk. I even managed to spend my last vacation day at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. I took a bunch of pictures and I’ll write more about my trip in a future blog post or two.
This week I washed and put away the clothes that I packed on my trip. I also finished the latest round of postcards that I’ve been writing on behalf of UU the Vote and Reclaim Our Vote. It’s a project that my Unitarian Universalist congregation have taken on where we send postcards to certain districts that are majority BIPOC in an effort to encourage them to vote in the primaries. A couple of months ago we focused on sending postcards to BIPOC people living in Virginia encouraging them to vote. For this latest round of postcards, we focused on sending them to BIPOC people living in Florida. We sent the same postcards as the last time so I didn’t take any new photos this time. Here’s a photo of one of the blank postcards that we are currently using. It has a very colorful design.
It has been two-and-a-half years since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. So far I’ve managed to dodged the Coronavirus. It’s due to a combination of both luck and following the guidelines set out by both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control. My last housemate moved out of my home just a week or two before the pandemic arrived and I’ve been living alone since then. During the worst of the pandemic I maintained social distancing whenever I ran into another person and I wore a mask. Even though the mask mandates have been relaxed, I still wear a face mask whenever I go inside of an indoor public place (such as a shopping mall).
When the vaccines came out, I made sure to get vaccinated whenever I can. As of this writing I’ve received two shots and one booster shot. I’m now entitled to getting a second booster shot and I plan on doing so soon because the authorities have said that it’s likely that a new surge will come this fall.
Then on top of the Coronavirus, there’s another virus that’s making its way to the United States. It’s called the monkeypox and it leaves these sores that remind me of chicken pox. I’ve read that if you’ve had the smallpox vaccine then you have a greater chance of avoiding getting monkeypox altogether. I know I had the smallpox vaccine shot back when I was a child. I still have memories of getting a vaccine needle every time I went to the pediatrician for a checkup. I got shots for all kinds of illnesses including whooping cough, polio, and rubella. Like most parents back in the 1960s and 1970s, my parents were firm believers in getting vaccinated so I received a variety of shots. So it’s very likely that I received the smallpox vaccine as a child and I’m probably protected from the newer monkeypox right now.
Speaking of the Coronavirus, I belatedly learned that COVID-19 had touched my extended family. When I was married my husband and I used to visit Arizona each year because his mother had gotten remarried and she decided to move to her second husband’s hometown of Phoenix. My ex-husband’s step-father had four children from his first marriage and they all happened to live in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. I had always gotten along pretty well with my ex’s step-brothers and step-sisters and their spouses. Their children had accepted us as their aunt and uncle and they loved it when we visited. They thought that we were the cool aunt and uncle who came from the East. (LOL!)
The last time I saw my then-husband’s step-siblings and their families was in January, 2011. It was for my husband’s step-father’s 80th birthday. My mother-in-law had died suddenly the year before and it was the first major family event since her funeral. At the time the oldest of the nieces and nephews had reached their late teens and early 20s. I silently thought about how fast they had grown because I remembered when they were still infants and toddlers like it was yesterday.
It all ended when my husband abruptly walked out on me in late December, 2011 without even telling me that he was unhappy in our marriage. (He left just three months after I had undergone hip surgery and I was still undergoing physical therapy as a result. He also left three days after we spent a lovely Christmas together.) At the time I was Facebook friends with one of my husband’s step-sisters. She was someone whom I got along really well and I’ve always personally liked her. She was among those who reached out to me after he left me. But one day several months later I realized that I hadn’t heard from her in a long time. I went over to her Facebook page and I learned that she had not only unfriended me but she had friended the woman whom my husband left me for (and who married him just two months after our divorce was final).
In addition I hadn’t heard from my ex’s other step-siblings since my marriage ended. At that point I realized that a door had closed on those relationships and they are now in the past. It doesn’t help that I live in Maryland and they live in Arizona so there is that physical distance. I don’t feel financially secure enough to make a long flight to that state and none of them have ever felt the need to travel east so we just stopped communicating. The only reason why I knew that my ex’s step-father had died in 2018 was because one of my ex’s relatives whom I’m still Facebook friends with had made a post announcing his death.
Today I saw a post from one of my ex’s relatives whom I’m still Facebook friends with (and who isn’t among the Arizona relatives) and the same ex’s step-sister who unfriended me on Facebook responded to that post with a message where she got cryptic about how she had been through rough times. I began to get curious so I peeked on her Facebook page. I learned that another step-sister had become a grandmother for the second time with the recent birth of her first granddaughter, who is currently struggling with health problems in the NICU unit of the local hospital. So far it looks like the baby is doing fine and hopefully she’ll recover enough to get discharged from the hospital so she can be home with her parents and older brother (who’s a toddler).
But then I scrolled down where I learned some sadder news. The step-sister’s oldest daughter had passed away from COVID-19 in December, 2020. Learning that had really hit me because I remember when my husband and I met our niece as a baby for the first time the same weekend as the wedding of my mother-in-law and her second husband. Over the years I saw the niece grow into a friendly kid who loved to sing and who also loved Disney movies (especially Lilo & Stitch—I remember when she and her younger sister acted out scenes from that movie during one of our visits to Phoenix). She also had an artistic bent and she showed a lot of potential as an artist and writer. One time I even showed her one of my sketchbooks in an effort to encourage her to continue with her interest in drawing while taking as many art classes as possible.
She went through some tough times as well. I was told by my mother-in-law that she endured frequent teasing from the other kids at school because they thought that she was somehow “inferior” to them. I don’t even know why the kids thought that way about her. I found her to be a sweet, charming, and creative kid.
My niece was among the Arizona relatives whom I saw for the last time in 2011 before my marriage ended. She had just turned 20 and she was trying to decide on a future career path at the time. Now she’s gone at the age of 29 because of the Coronavirus. What was really sad was that shortly before her death, she made a Facebook post announcing that she was soon going to attend an online college in an effort to get an associate’s degree in criminology. Sadly she passed before she had the chance to go back to school (even if it was going to be online only).
I know that I’m only learning about her death over a year-and-a-half later. That’s what happened when her mother decided to unfriend me on Facebook. If I hadn’t come across her response to another in-law’s Facebook post tonight, I still wouldn’t know about my niece being dead.
I went through the last month or two of the niece’s Facebook posts and it seemed like she had grown into a decent woman who seemed to have a liking for pop culture. She still maintain her interest in Disney as an adult. I’m sorry that I hadn’t been present for the last nine years of her life but, judging from her Facebook posts, it looked like she had a happy young adulthood. She still lived in the Phoenix area and, based on her Facebook posts, she remained close to her parents and siblings. It’s really sad that such a sweet woman had to die from such a horrible virus like COVID-19.
I still remember that then-President Donald Trump didn’t even take COVID-19 seriously. He politicized a virus that should never have been politicized in the first place by doing things like ignoring expert advice on how to deal with it. Had Trump decided to take a serious approach to combating the virus, it’s possible that my niece would’ve avoided getting the Coronavirus and she would probably still be alive today. Instead she is now one of the 1.03 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 since it arrived in the United States in March, 2020. It was no wonder that Joe Biden won the 2020 elections—people were fed up with Trump’s handling of this pandemic while more people died.
Ironically I saw that the niece had also made a couple of pro-Trump posts. Luckily those posts were rare so I don’t think she was a MAGA Trump fanatic. (Most of her Facebook posts tended to be more into Disney and some aspects of the gothic/fantasy aesthetic.) But she made enough of those posts for me to conclude that she probably voted for him in the 2020 election. I find it ironic that she voted for a person who didn’t do much of anything to directly confront the pandemic and the Coronavirus had spread so much that it ultimately killed her.
In contrast, when the Ebola virus reached the United States when Barack Obama was in office, he tackled the threat of that virus head-on. As a result, only four Americans contacted Ebola and they all survived.
She died before the COVID-19 vaccine became widely available. I can’t say if she would’ve gotten the shots had she lived just a bit longer. I’d like to believe that she would’ve been vaccinated because I really want to think the best of her.
I’m sad that she wasn’t able to live a full life due to the pandemic. Rest in peace, dear niece.
I devoted my last post to my three-day and two-night trip that included Ocean City and Berlin in Maryland along with Fenwick Island and Dover in Delaware. I packed a few toys on that trip, mainly my 15-inch Ariel the Little Mermaid doll and my Disney Nuimos.
I packed Ariel because the box that she came in said that one can actually take a bath with her and engage in other types of water activity, like a pool. I tried dunking her in the ocean where I had her wait along the shore until a wave rushed over her while I filmed the whole thing. I uploaded the video on TikTok and YouTube.
I did another trip related video featuring both Ariel and the Disney Nuimos. It’s basically a slideshow I shot of the various toys in various places in Ocean City (the beach, the motel room, and the Boardwalk), Fenwick Island (the Fenwick Island Lighthouse and a dolphin-themed wall mural that’s on the side of a Sunsations store) Berlin (the Mermaid Museum), and Dover (the Johnson Victrola Museum). I uploaded that video on TikTok and YouTube.
I’m going to set the tone for this blog post by embedding this music video for a song that’s about Ocean City, Maryland. It’s called “It’s a Shore Thing” and it was written by my late high school guitar teacher, Tim Landers, who was also the lead singer and guitarist on this track.
If you like “It’s a Shore Thing,” you can either download it or stream it online (depending on the platform in question) from AllMusic, Amazon, Apple Music, Shazam, Spotify, and Qobuz. If you’re more interested in learning about the life and music of Tim Landers as well as my days when I was one of his high school guitar pupils, you can read this blog post I wrote back in 2017.
I’ve wanted to make a return trip to Ocean City for the first time since my marriage ended for a long time but I wasn’t able to do it until recently. The first few years were due to tight finances. Last year I received the payout from my late mother’s life insurance policy and I was working on the 2020 Census so I was able to feel financially secure enough to consider making at least a one-day trip. But then the Coronavirus arrived followed by reports that several bars and restaurants in Ocean City were closed due to employees testing positive for COVID-19 and I decided against going there.
This year I got vaccinated and I decided that it was time for me to revive my dream of returning to Ocean City. The main reason why making a return trip was on my mind is because of what happened the last time I was there back in 2011 (which was just five months before my husband literally ran away from home). And my last trip had been under a dark cloud for me. Starting in 2001 my husband and I used to take an annual week-long trip to Ocean City with his sister, her son, and another person. (Some years it was a friend of my nephew while other years it was a friend of my sister-in-law.) This went on until my nephew graduated from high school then joined the Navy. From then on until 2011 it alternated between just the three of us some years and being joined by a friend of my sister-in-law’s other years. My husband especially looked forward to making that trip and he wanted me to come along. Even in 2008, when my hip began to deteriorate so much that I ended up getting a hip replacement that year, my husband was adamant that I went to Ocean City despite the fact that I had a hard time walking around. I really wanted to stay home that year but he pressured me so much that I gave in. I really didn’t enjoy the trip that year because of my hip.
After my hip replacement we continued to make the annual trip and I felt well enough to enjoy that trip. But then early in 2011 I had two falls over a one-week period. The first fall (which happened during a trip to Florida) I managed to recuperate from but it was the second one (where I slipped on a patch of ice during a trip to Annapolis) that had really started to affect my walking. I really didn’t want to go to Ocean City that year because of my health problems but, once again, my husband pressured me into going. By then I had started this blog and I wrote this blog post about how my health problems had affected my ability to enjoy going to the beach. It didn’t help that before I left for the trip the doctor diagnosed me with a bad back. However, that turned out to be a misdiagnosis and after the trip I was initially diagnosed with the fact that the two falls I went through had misaligned my hip replacement by the surgeon who did the original hip replacement back in 2008. That surgeon said that I would need more surgery but, for some reason, he was very reluctant to perform it on me while also saying that I was a big girl. (Yeah, he was an asshole.) So I got a second opinion from a different orthopedic surgeon who agreed with the initial diagnosis and he ended up being the one who did the second hip surgery. I underwent hip revision surgery in late 2011 in order to put my hip replacement back into alignment.
And if all that weren’t enough for that 2011 trip to Ocean City, I ended up with a buildup of excessive ear wax, which wasn’t as bad as my mobility issues but it added to the misery I felt throughout most of this trip. Plus the weather was frequently rainy during that trip. And then there was an unexpected encounter on the Boardwalk from someone who had recognized me from my high school days but I had lied to her about attending that high school because I wasn’t sure who she was and I didn’t want to risk the possibility that she might have been someone whom I never wanted to speak with again.
Then there were the times in the condo when I felt like the third wheel as my husband and his sister cooked these elaborate meals that required lots of prep work, which was the opposite of when I used to go to Ocean City as a child and we basically ate cereal, Pop Tarts, and frozen meals that could be prepared very quickly. While they were preparing these elaborate meals my husband and his sister would reminisce about their childhoods, which I couldn’t get into because I didn’t know them until my early 20’s.
In any case, I really regretted letting my husband pressure me into going to Ocean City that year. It felt like he valued that trip more than my own well-being. I’ve always felt that had I been diagnosed with a terminal illness where the doctors warned my husband against making me travel because it would shorten my lifespan, he would’ve had me go to Ocean City anyway because that annual family vacation was THAT important to him.
So for the past few years I’ve really wanted to go back to Ocean City so I could replace those crappy memories with something better. I was encouraged in making an effort to travel on my own while I attended weekly meetings of the support group for people who are separated or divorced and I was told that traveling alone could really increase my self-esteem while learning how to have fun on my own.
In addition, for years I would see posts from my friends on Facebook about their cool trips to places like Myrtle Beach, the Jersey Shore, Greece, Italy, and so on. I would secretly get envious and jealous of them because they were having the time of their lives going on these carefree trips and for years I was too broke to do anything like that. I had to make do with taking day trips to places like North Beach while returning home by sunset.
Finally I decided to go on that trip to Ocean City. Due to uncertain finances and the ongoing pandemic, staying there for a full week was out of the question but, thanks to the life insurance payment, I could actually afford to stay at least one night in a cheap motel instead of trying to make a day trip out of it. (It would’ve meant getting up between 5-6 a.m., getting out the door between 7-8 a.m., make the four-hour drive to Ocean City, spend the full day there, then leave no later than between 7-8 p.m. in order to return home by a reasonable hour.) I also decided to take a break from my online IT program after finishing my second course on networking because I just didn’t want to deal with taking video lessons and exams while I was at the beach because it would’ve detracted from my enjoyment of this trip.
Basically I waited until I finished with my second IT course (on networking) before I made the arrangements. Due to things like room availability, I wasn’t able to book anything until the last week in August. I decided to make my trip from August 31-September 2. I timed it where I would leave Ocean City the day before the start of the Labor Day weekend because I know that holiday is among the worst times to be in Ocean City due to the increased crowds everywhere, complete with difficulty in finding parking or an uncrowded restaurant to eat a meal. (The other two worst times are Memorial Day weekend and the Fourth of July.) And being in a crowded situation in the middle of a major pandemic would even be a far worse idea than usual.
It would be only the second time in my life I had made hotel arrangements myself. That’s because when I was growing up, my parents used to make all of the arrangements. I got married just 10 months after graduating from college and my husband became the one who made all the arrangements. It wasn’t until 10 years ago that I finally did it myself. It was before my husband abruptly left me. What happened was that my husband had made arrangements to go to Phoenix to go through some more of his deceased mother’s things because his step-father (who has also since passed away himself) decided to move to a retirement community. I would stay behind due to my bad left hip. But then Hurricane Irene abruptly showed up and it was heading towards our area. I really wanted my husband to postpone the trip because I didn’t want to face a hurricane with a bad hip by myself but he refused and flew out to Phoenix just before Hurricane Irene arrived. So I was home alone when the power outage happened. I decided to spend the night in a local hotel that still had power because I didn’t want to spend the night by myself in a darkened home with a bad left hip. My night at the hotel went pretty smoothly as I booked my stay there using the wi-fi from a nearby Wegmans (which still had power). The power was restored at my home by the next day so I was able to return. The worst of Hurricane Irene was over by the time my husband returned from Phoenix.
This time I booked a motel through Expedia, where I got a bargain at around $50 per night so I booked a two-night stay. The big irony is that I booked a room on my own around the same time as another hurricane decided to show up.
Basically Hurricane Ida had showed up to wreck havoc on Louisiana and Mississippi just a couple of days before my trip. I didn’t pay it any mind since I was in Maryland. I was just looking forward to a nice laid-back trip. So here’s a rundown of what I did on my first multi-day trip by myself since my divorce.
Day 1-August 31, 2021
I spent the last few days trying to prepare for everything. The biggest change on this trip is that, for the first time in my life, I had to pack face masks along with my clothes and swimsuit. That’s the cost of traveling during a major pandemic. I received an email from the motel after I booked a room saying that I would need to wear a mask when I went to the office to check in and check out. And I know that there will be other indoor places where wearing masks is required so it made sense to pack masks.
Then I learned that taking Route 50 to the Bay Bridge had totally changed since my last trip to the Eastern Shore 10 years earlier. The bridge now only accepts the EZ Pass transponder instead of cash like before. I once had an EZ Pass when I was married but my husband took custody of that one as part of the divorce settlement. The EZ Pass Maryland website mentioned that Giant carried the transponders but when I went to the Giant located near me, I was told that they hadn’t received any new EZ Pass transponders in over six months.
I could’ve gone to the MVA in Beltsville but I got diverted with taking my online classes and I didn’t purchase one in time for the trip. I learned on this website of an alternate way of getting to Ocean City without taking the Bay Bridge. It involved taking I-95 until you reach the Christiana Mall in Delaware then take Delaware Route 1 South until Dover then get on US 113 South until you reach the Eastern Shore. I thought I would take that route instead. I knew from a previous one-day trip to Hershey back in 2013 that there are some stretches of I-95 North that are toll roads so I packed a small bag full of coins that I would dole out as I reached the toll booths.
After I ate breakfast at home I hit the road. As I traveled on I-95 North I realized to my horror that all of the toll booths in Maryland are now EZ Pass only. I had no transponder on me so I had no other choice but to go through those EZ Pass gates. It’s only a matter of time until the MVA tracks me down and I’ll probably have to pay a fine.
I ate lunch at one of those fast food places in Maryland House, which is one of those giant travel plazas located in Aberdeen then I went back on I-95 North where I had to endure going through a couple of more EZ Pass gates without a transponder.
It wasn’t until I reached Delaware that I had a choice of either the EZ Pass lane or the traditional toll booth. I chose the toll booth at each of the Delaware toll roads and I felt relieved that I could at least pay those tolls.
So I went through Dover and took US 113 South until I hit the town of Berlin, Maryland, whose greatest claim to fame is that the 1999 Richard Geere-Julia Roberts movie Runaway Bride was filmed on location there. I had heard about a new museum that had recently opened known as the Mermaid Museum and I hoped to visit it while I was there. Unfortunately I had arrived late enough that the museum had closed for the day. In fact, a lot of the local shops tend not to stay open after 5 or 6 p.m. I found Berlin to be such a charming town that’s full of art so I took a couple of quick photographs before I decided to head on to Ocean City.
So I headed on to Ocean City where I stayed at the Thunderbird Beach Motel. I found it to be a nice motel for the price. I wanted a basic room without the extra fancy trimmings of a 4-star hotel but still relatively clean and I got it. I would definitely stay there again.
This motel had all the basic amenities, including free wifi, a TV with basic cable, a safe where I could lock my valuables, a small refrigerator, and even a microwave oven. I was so thrilled by the refrigerator that the first thing I did was to go to a local grocery store where I purchased a box of Cocoa Puffs cereal and a small quart of milk. Even though both were expensive compared to what I could find back home, they were still cheaper and much quicker to prepare and consume than eating breakfast at restaurants so I was able to eat in my motel room in the morning.
The most charming thing about my motel room was this tile in the bathroom that had a single tile depicting a fish in the middle.
Once I settled in my motel room I went to the nearby OC Wasabi restaurant where I had a sushi dinner. I loved the fact that it was so artfully arranged, complete with a flower. (The food was also excellent.)
After dinner I returned to the motel room where I did some web surfing and read a library book that I brought with me until I went to sleep. I thought it was important for me to rest up from a long day of driving since tomorrow I had planned an extended beach and boardwalk day and I wanted to be well-rested for that.
Day 2-September 1, 2021
My original vacation plan for that day was to eat breakfast in my motel room with the cereal and milk that I purchased the day before, go on a morning walk along the beach in my street clothes where I would dip my feet into the ocean, then eat lunch, followed by going on an early afternoon driving tour followed by going back to the beach in my swimsuit where I would do a full body immersion into the ocean. After that I would take a shower, dress back into my street clothes, eat dinner at a nearby restaurant, then spend the evening on the Boardwalk. It was a great plan. The only thing was that I didn’t include any kind of contingency plans for dealing potential monkey wrenches that would interfere with that vacation plan, such as the arrival of the remnants of a major hurricane.
So breakfast went off okay. Afterwards I took the walk along the beach. The weather was very sunny and it was already hot and humid. It was also incredibly windy, which was annoying at times, but still manageable. I felt this incredible joy at being able to dip my toes into the ocean at long last and I felt thrilled. I also took a few beach shots that morning, which showed how the day started off very lovely.
I had packed my 15-inch Ariel the Little Mermaid doll mainly because the package she came in indicated that one could take a bath with that doll. (You can even see the original package that indicated that she could be plunged in water in this video I shot when I originally purchased that doll.) I thought it would be a bit wacky to plunge that doll into the ocean while filming it for a short video. I ended up just placing the doll along the edge of the shore and let the ocean waves roll over her while I shot the video. Then I ran quickly to scoop up the doll before the next wave arrived because I didn’t want to risk having the doll swept out to sea. Once I finished with making the video, I dipped my feet into the ocean a few more times before I decided to return to the motel room where I quickly edited that video and uploaded it on to TikTok and YouTube.
For lunch I went to Shmagels Bagels, which was located in the same shopping center as OC Wasabi (where I ate dinner the night before). I had a bagel with cream cheese, a bag of chips, and a diet soda. The bagel place didn’t offer indoor seating due to the pandemic but it had a couple of tables outside where I was able to eat lunch and soak up some sunshine.
After lunch I wanted to take a digestion break before going back to the beach. I decided to use that time to take a driving trip around the island. I traveled north on Coastal Highway until I crossed the state line into Fenwick Island, Delaware. I went to Fisher’s Popcorn, where I treated myself to a bucket of caramel popcorn without having to pay sales tax. (That’s the main allure of shopping in Delaware.)
I originally thought about going to Sea Shell City where I would browse whatever that shop had for sale and I would go to the upper level where the DiscoverSea Shipwreck Museum is located. I always went to that place at least once on previous trips so I thought it would be good to revisit it for old time’s sake. Except I arrived and I discovered that the entire place was now closed on Wednesdays, which was a bummer. I don’t ever recall that place being closed at all during the summer season but now that is the case.
As a consolation I stopped at a nearby Sunsations where I purchased a souvenir t-shirt for myself.
I decided to return back to Maryland. On the way back I stopped off at one of the many lighthouses that dot the Delaware shoreline where I took these pictures.
By that point the direct sunlight along with the constant wind, the high heat, and the high humidity was getting to me. I decided to go back to the motel and rest for about a half an hour then get dressed in my swimsuit and head down to the beach. When I went inside of my motel room it was still sunny outside and it looked like a great day for swimming. I had the curtains drawn while I was in my motel room for privacy reasons so naturally I assumed that the weather would remain the same. After I rested for a little while I changed into my swimsuit and coverup, grabbed my beach bag, chair, and towel and stepped outside of my room.
I soon became shocked at what I saw. These intense grey storm clouds suddenly came and it was even windier than before. In any other situation, I would just go back inside of my room and cancel the idea of going on the beach. However I only had one day in Ocean City and I really wanted to experience the beach as much as possible. I began to hope that these clouds would just be fleeting and the sun would come back. So I continued on to the beach. On the way there I saw this sign urging people to practice social distancing, which was yet another reminder that we were still in a major pandemic.
When I arrived at the beach, I saw how bad the situation was. Many people were starting to leave and I saw no one swimming in the ocean. I also saw the waves getting way rougher, as this next picture shows.
The wind was blowing even harder than before. In fact, the wind was kicking up so hard that it was starting to blow up sand. Grains of sand was hitting my skin so hard that they literally stung. I tried reading my book along the beach but the wind and stinging sand made it impossible. When I got up from my chair, the wind had knocked it down. I also noticed that the seagulls weren’t flying at all. They basically stayed on the beach. In fact, there was one seagull that was very close to me.
I took that chair being knocked over as a sign that I should just give up on doing any kind of swimming in the ocean on that day (or any other kind of beach-related activity for that matter) and just return to my motel room. The first thing I did was take a shower. Afterwards I decided to eat an early dinner then go out to the Boardwalk since that was another thing I wanted to do while I was in Ocean City. I saw that there was a crab place called Higgins Crab House located across the street from the motel. I decided to give that place a try so I walked over.
I ordered the soft-shell crab sandwich with french fries and a diet soda. I found the whole meal delicious and the service was excellent as well.
After dinner I walked back across the street, got in my car, and decided to head towards the Boardwalk. The wind was so high that it was blowing my hair around to the point where I was totally annoyed. I decided to stop at CVS and buy a pack of scrunchies so I could tie my hair back. I managed to tie my hair back but the wind was still determined to blow my tied up hair around while I was still on the Boardwalk. At least it was better than not having my hair tied back at all.
So I parked at the Boardwalk and started my walk at the inlet, where I took this sunset photo. The giant wave on the left side of the photo is the only indication of how bad the weather had become.
The only ride I went on that night was the Haunted House ride. It was running that night because most of the ride is indoors so it wasn’t affected by the high wind. The last time I rode it was back in 2009. At that time I felt that the ride was a pale reflection of my earlier memories of going on that same ride as a child. I shot a video titled Lame Haunted House Ride on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland and uploaded on to YouTube. It had gotten a lot of views over the past 12 years along with a lot of comments, some of which are hostile. I still stand by my assertion that it was a lame ride when I last rode it in 2009.
Anyway, I saw this sign that said that the ride was refurbished in 2012. I decided to ride it again partly for old time’s sake and partly to see if the ride was still lame or if it had improved.
Having gone on the ride I have to say that it has improved a lot since my last ride in 2009. They added some really cool effects, including ones that looked like ghosts were about to approach you. I really enjoyed that ride. I didn’t shoot any video because I just wanted to see for myself what the ride was like and I just wanted to enjoy myself. I could have ridden it again a second time just to shoot video but I really wasn’t in the mood that night. Having the high wind constantly whip around me had put a damper on my mood. If I ever make it back out to Ocean City again, I will shoot a new video showing how improved this ride had become.
I was determined to enjoy the Boardwalk despite the weather-related obstacles. I noticed that the Boardwalk Train that usually carried passengers up and down the Boardwalk wasn’t running at all that night. I suspected that the wind had a lot to do with that. As I walked I noticed that there were far fewer people than there would be on a late summer evening.
I stopped in a few stores and I purchased a couple of Ocean City souvenir face masks at one of them. I also stopped at Dumser’s Dairyland where I purchased a soft vanilla ice cream cone with a chocolate dip top. I sat on a bench and ate my ice cream as the wind was whipping around me.
After I finished my ice cream cone I decided that I needed a break from the constant heavy wind whipping around me so I decided to ditch inside of the indoor part of the Trimpers Amusements amusement park. The only rides that were operating that night were the indoor rides (such as the aforementioned Haunted House). These rides were mainly kiddie rides along with warped mirrors and trashcans like this clown one in the next photo.
I sat on a bench while I was recuperating from outdoors. I also took a look at the carousel, which is the same carousel that I used to ride on as a child (when my family used to take vacations in Ocean City). As an adult I can appreciate the artistry of the carousel, which not only has horses but also different type of animals like a giraffe and a sea monster.
I decided to go to one of the video arcades. In the past I would spend quarters playing the various video games, some of which were the vintage video games from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s (such as Space Invaders and Donkey Kong). But I saw that the arcades on the Boardwalk have changed. They decided to emulate the newer arcades like Dave & Busters and The Main Event by now requiring people to get a plastic card where you’d load it with cash then use it to swipe the machines in order to play the game. I didn’t think that it made sense for me to get a plastic card just to play a few games since I was leaving Ocean City the following day and I’m not going to be able to return there too often. Here is one of the machines where one can get the plastic card.
Most of the stores and restaurants on the Boardwalk were open despite the weather although there were a few places that were closed down, such as these two fast food places.
All of the outdoor amusement park rides weren’t running due to the intense wind. But they still kept the lights on despite that.
A lot of stores were starting to close down around 9 p.m. I was getting so tired of having the wind whip around me that I decided to go back to the motel. My decision was further solidified when it started to drizzle. I arrived at my car and proceeded to drive back to the motel. At that point, the heavens opened up and it began to rain really hard. I drove my car very slowly in order to avoid any accidents and fortunately most of the other cars on the same road were also driving slow as well. I was so glad that I had a relatively short commute because that rain was intense. By the time I reached the motel, the heavy storm had slowed down to a drizzle once again. I was so glad to reach my motel room.
Here are a couple of photos of the stuff that I purchased that day, including a tub of Fisher’s Popcorn, a the-dye souvenir Ocean City t-shirt, two souvenir Ocean City face masks, and a pack of scrunchies.
I wound down from the crazy weather by surfing the Internet. I learned that the crazy weather in Ocean City was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida that struck the Gulf Coast states a few days earlier. So I was frolicking around Ocean City in the middle of a hurricane remnant. But I have to admit that Ocean City was pretty much unscathed despite the high wind and the bouts of rain. I later learned that Annapolis and Edgewater bore the brunt of Hurricane Ida as a tornado struck the area. Here’s a tweet from Governor Larry Hogan as he checked out the area on the following day.
As the remnants of Hurricane Ida went north, there was even more damage. Here is what happened to Philadelphia.
Here is how the remnants of Hurricane Ida impacted New Jersey.
New York also suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Ida.
Those reports of what happened in other parts of the Mid-Atlantic Region really made me pause and think that I was relatively lucky that day. Had one of the more damaging remnants of Hurricane Ida hit Ocean City, I’m sure I would’ve seen flooding and other kinds of life-threatening situations. I was so lucky that Ocean City was unscathed. The Wikipedia has listed Hurricane Ida as being the second most-damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana and the sixth-costliest cyclone on record.
Day 3-September 2, 2021
I admit that I was disappointed that I couldn’t do a full swim yesterday due to Hurricane Ida. I had thought about making up for it by doing another walk along the beach in my full clothes while I dip my toes into the ocean just like I did on the morning before. I ate breakfast inside of the hotel room then I started to pack thinking that I would make my walk once I loaded everything in the car and formally check out of the motel.
But when I stepped outside to load my things into the car I saw that the weather had dramatically changed. The weather was very sunny but the temperature was much cooler and the humidity was also way lower than the last few days. The temperature had gone no higher than 73 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a lovely day to be outdoors but it felt way too cold to be doing any kind of barefoot walking along the shoreline. I decided to just give up on doing any kind of ocean plunges on this trip and get out of Ocean City.
Since it was such a lovely day I thought it would be a cool idea to eat an al fresco lunch outside somewhere. I decided to stop at Shmagels Bagels once again and get a bagel with cream cheese, a bag of chips, and a bottle of diet soda to go.
Once I got the food I drove the car along Philadelphia Avenue then I crossed the Route 50 bridge to West Ocean City. The first thing I did was stop at Candy Kitchen, which has a big store in West Ocean City. It is also dotted with some candy-themed sculptures outside.
As you can guess by the name, Candy Kitchen is full of candy. (I purchased a bag of chocolate licorice, a bag of dark chocolate nonpareils, and a bag of pretzels covered in dark chocolate.) Candy Kitchen was also loaded with all kinds of stuffed animals, especially the currently popular Squishmallows.
Candy Kitchen also carried Squishmallow-like plushes made by other manufacturers, which was how I learned that Ty, the company responsible for the 1990s Beanie Babies craze, have its own line known as Squish-A-Boos.
Candy Kitchen was located near the White Marlin Mall, which I briefly stopped at but it was mostly the same chain stores that I could find back home. It even had a Five Below, which I actually went inside but I didn’t stay long because it sold pretty much the same stuff as the Five Below stores located close to my house.
I decided to drive back to Berlin just so I could visit the Mermaid Museum, which was closed when I previously went there just two days earlier. This time the museum was open so I was able to visit.
The Mermaid Museum opened last year and it bills itself as the first museum dedicated to mermaids. Unfortunately I don’t have too many pictures mainly because I saw a sign saying that photography and videography was prohibited with the exception of two designated selfie areas. The museum takes up just one large room and I was able to go through it in an hour. There is plenty of mermaid art including a few sculptures, drawings, and paintings. They had one of P.T. Barnum’s notorious Fiji Mermaids (which is really the upper half of a monkey sewn on to a fish tail). They had one wall that listed mermaids as they appeared in various cultures (such as ancient Greece, Haiti, Africa, and Asia) along with books (such as Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid) and movies (such as Disney’s adaption of The Little Mermaid). Another wall listed people who claimed to have actually seen mermaids. They had smaller display cases with a few mermaid-related items, such as a photo of actress Darryl Hannah when she famously portrayed Madison the mermaid in the film Splash and it was autographed by Hannah herself.
There was even a movie screen that showed two mermaid-themed shorts on a constant rotating basis. Both of those shorts can be found on YouTube in case you’re interested. One is the 1904 film La Sirène made by the early French director Georges Méliès.
The other is a vintage 1961 promotional film for the mermaids at the Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida.
One of the designated selfie areas had a bathtub that one could crawl into in an effort to recreate Darryl Hannah’s famous bathtub scene in Splash. I decided not to try going in because I was feeling a bit on the stiff side after doing a lot of walking along the Boardwalk the night before. But it was a cool selfie staging area that would make a great Instagram post.
The other designated selfie area was larger and it was located near the front entrance. It featured a wall that invited visitors to draw a mermaid.
Even though there were provided art supplies that people could use, I ended up not drawing anything because that wall was so completely filled with drawings that I had a hard time finding an empty space.
That designated selfie area had a small altar made from seashells and a starfish with a sign inviting people to place their hands over it to receive a “mermaid’s blessing.”
When I placed my hand over it, I got a puff of water. I thought it was quite cute!
The Mermaid Museum had a tiny gift shop located just outside of the front door of the museum. They had mostly t-shirts and postcards although I did purchase this hardcover book because I fell in love with it. It’s called The Mermaid Handbook, which is written by Carolyn Turgeon, and it features a mix of mermaid literature, mermaid-themed recipes, and mermaid craft projects. I’m currently reading it now and, so far, I’m enjoying it.
After my visit with the Mermaid Museum I stepped back outside where I saw a couple of wooden adirondack chairs. I decided to eat my bag lunch from Schmagels Bagels there while I enjoyed the lovely weather. After lunch I briefly walked around the downtown Berlin area and even stopped in a few stores before I decided to head out of town.
I took US 113 North into Delaware then I merged on to Delaware Route 1. I headed to Dover where I visited this really neat little museum called the Johnson Victrola Museum.
Eldridge Reeves Johnson was a Delaware native who co-founded the Victor Talking Machine Company and was instrumental in popularizing the Victrola (which was an early record player). That museum had plenty of Victrolas on display.
The museum also had stuff related to the famous dog Nipper. He was originally a mascot of the Victor Talking Machine Company in the United States until that company was sold to RCA and RCA subsequently adopted Nipper as its own mascot.
I was given a guided tour by a young man who demonstrated one of the Victrolas. I also learned that the phrase “put a sock in it” originated with the fact that if one wanted to lower the volume of a Victrola, the only way to do it was to place a rolled-up sock into the horn, which muffled the sound. That’s a pretty cool piece of trivia that I can drop at a future party. (LOL!)
The upper level of the museum had later Victrolas that were redesigned as pieces of decorative furniture. The tour guide told me that the company felt that making the Victrolas that way would entice more women to consider buying Victrolas. (Apparently men were more likely to purchase a Victrola than women.) The company even offered Victrolas in cabinets that could be customized and painted to what the buyer wanted. These one-of-a-kind Victrolas were far more expensive than the mass-produced models.
As I was doing some research for this blog post, I found that the Library of Congress has digitized many of the records that were released by the Victor Talking Machine Company through its Victor Records subsidiary and one can listen to them online for free at the National Jukebox website.
After my visit to the museum I decided to hit the road again. I traveled north until I reached Newark where I decided to stop at the massive Christiana Mall. This particular mall is located close to the Maryland border and the big allure of this mall is the opportunity to do some sales tax-free shopping. The only thing is that if you’re expecting locally-owned stores, you’ll be disappointed. All of the stores in that mall are chain stores, such as Spencers Gifts, Target, Nordstrom, JC Penney, Pottery Barn, Lolli & Pops, and H&M. I walked around hoping to find a place where I could eat dinner but I found the food court to be very lacking.
So I got back in my car and drove to the Christiana Fashion Center, which is a giant open-air shopping center that’s located across from Christiana Mall. That shopping center had more chain stores, such as Trader Joe’s, Best Buy, REI, Ultra Beauty, and Famous Footwear. I ended up eating at the Shake Shack.
My take on both the Christiana Mall and the Christiana Fashion Center is that both places have many of the same chain stores and restaurants as elsewhere. The only real appeal is the chance to go shopping without paying sales tax. But, to be honest, unless you are planning to spend a huge amount of money in one day (at least $500 or more), I don’t think it’s really worth the effort to make the two-hour drive from the DC area. The gas and tolls would erase whatever money you saved on not paying sales tax unless you end up buying a huge amount of stuff.
While I was at the Shake Shack I went into Google Maps on my smartphone in order to figure out a way of going back home while avoiding toll booths because I just didn’t want a repeat of driving through EZ Pass lanes without a transponder once I was back in Maryland. Basically it involved taking the direct exit from the mall on to I-95 South then getting on the Baltimore Beltway and, finally, going on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. It added an extra half-an-hour on the trip but at least I didn’t have to deal with gritting my teeth as I drove through an EZ Pass gate without a transponder.
So I arrived home at around 8 p.m. where I felt tired but happy because I finally made it back to Ocean City. I wished that Hurricane Ida hadn’t showed up but, otherwise, I was content with my trip and I arrived just in time for the start of the Labor Day holiday weekend.
UPDATE (December 14, 2021): As I wrote earlier in this post, I ended up going through a few EZ Pass gates in Maryland despite not having a transponder. I didn’t get a notice from the State of Maryland until just a couple of weeks ago when the envelope finally arrived. Today I managed to pay the tolls online, which turned out to be a total of $18. I’m definitely going to get an EZ Pass transponder for any future trips since EZ Pass seems to be the wave of the future.
This year is the fifth anniversary of this blog. For the first year I was unsure about how many photos I could actually upload because of the free WordPress.com blogging account has a space limit. So I kept photo uploads limited to just my arts and crafts along with any photographs that I actually exhibited in a show. Over time I learned such things as graphic optimization so I was able to upload more photos that way than I thought I could. So for the rest of the year I’m going to devote Throwback Thursday to photos from previous blog entries (along with links to the original posts) that I should’ve uploaded five years earlier but I didn’t.
In late June 2010 my then-husband and I went to our annual trip to Ocean City, Maryland. We usually went with his sister and any other friend and/or relative who wanted to tag along. (We originally started with the two of us, his sister, her teenaged son, and one of his friends. Once the son grew up and joined the U.S. Navy, one of my sister-in-law’s friends would join us. Although there was one year or two when it was just the three of us.) That year I thought it would just be the two of us because his sister’s son was preparing to get married just two or three weeks later and his mother was busy with helping out with the long-distance wedding preparations. (She lived in Pennsylvania while the wedding was taking place in Connecticut, where her son was stationed.) I was surprised when I learned that she was going to take a break from the wedding preparations to go down to the beach with us. In fact, I would later hear her brag to other relatives about how she managed to make time to go to Ocean City with us despite her son’s wedding taking place so soon afterwards.
It turned out that I wrote just two blog posts on that trip. One was on June 28, 2010. Here are the photos I took on June 28-29.
Some of what one can ride on one of the carousels instead of horses on the Boardwalk.
Some paintings.
The Boardwalk after sunset.
A local sand sculptor who, for many seasons, have done sand sculptures based on the life of Jesus and various scenes from the Bible.
The other post I wrote about that trip was on June 30, 2010. Here are the rest of the photos I took between June 30-July 2.
The Boardwalk in daytime.
Some surfers trying to catch the perfect wave.
Ocean City Firefighters 9/11 Memorial.
Wall paintings based on old photographs and postcards of Ocean City circa 1890-1920.
An unusual store clerk. LOL! (The dog belonged to the owner of the jewelry shop.)
A young couple rests on the Boardwalk benches with their latest oversized winnings from the various midway games.
A coin-operated kiddie dolphin ride.
The Fenwick Island Lighthouse located just over the border from Ocean City into Fenwick Island, Delaware.
A stone marker marks the state border between Maryland and Delaware.
For the last three or four of my annual trips to Ocean City (before my divorce), my husband, sister-in-law, and I would go to the Angler Restaurant for dinner at a certain time because that time had this bargain: You get a free half-hour boat trip when you eat dinner there. So we would arrive in time to eat dinner then we would board a boat where I would take some really cool sunset photos.
Just a few hours before we had to check out of our condo on July 2, I went down to the beach for a last early morning walk along the shoreline.
Early morning seashell hunting is a really big thing in Ocean City.
It was also during this trip that I saw street performers on the Boardwalk who portrayed living statues. I shot this short video so you’ll know exactly what I mean. (I have to admit that they were a hoot!)
Today was the day that we had to vacate our rented condo. We spent the morning packing and loading our cars. Once we left the condo, we drove to Harpoon Hanna’s in Delaware where we saw live coverage of the last space shuttle launch ever that was broadcast on one of the TV screens. After the space shuttle Atlantis was successfully launched into space, we did some web surfing using the restaurant’s free wi-fi while eating lunch there.
After lunch we drove on to this store called Made by Hand which specializes in handcrafted goods made in many countries around the world where the workers are paid a fair wage for their work. The store also sells a variety of foods that has the Fair Trade designation on the labels. I purchased a bottle of olive oil that was made in the Galilee area of Israel whose profits would help Arab growers receive a fair price for their olives and to find international markets for their olive oil.
Afterwards my husband and I said good-bye to his sister and we went our separate ways. My husband and I drove through the Eastern Shore until we hit Easton and my husband wanted to take a break so we went to a Panera Bread where we ordered drinks while doing some web surfing using the free wi-fi there.
After that break, we continued on Route 50 at the same time as this nasty storm front came in. It started to rain really hard. In fact the windshield was barely visible because there was so much rain coming down at once. We began to see cars pulled off to the side of the road because the drivers just couldn’t handle the poor visibility.
At that point my husband and I decided to make a return visit to Harris Crab House, the same place where we ate steamed crabs for lunch on the second day of this trip. It was 5:30 p.m. by then so we decided to eat dinner while waiting the storm out. We split a half-dozen of the largest crabs available while we ate our own appetizers (I had fried onion rings) then we finished the meal by each ordering a bowl of their cream of crab soup that has a shot of sherry in it.
After dinner it was still raining but it was nowhere near as heavy as it was earlier so we continued on to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge then eventually made our way home.
All in all it was a pretty good trip despite the Fourth of July crowds the first few days of the trip and the frequent storms that cut our actual time on the beach short.
Yesterday was my last full day in Ocean City, Maryland and I was determined to make the most of it. It was also one of the few days that had no rain in the forecast and it was sunny and hot all day long. That morning I finally was able to do the one thing that I couldn’t do earlier either because of my back problems or the weather or both—go for an early morning stroll along the beach. Aside from a few early-morning swimmers and angler fisherman, the beach was mostly clear, as you can see in this photo below.
After my brief stroll, I returned to the condo for some breakfast. After that my husband, sister-in-law, and I decided to make a last visit to The Bookend Cafe where we had some drinks, browsed the gifts and books sold there, and did some web surfing using the cafe’s free wi-fi. On the way back from the cafe, we stopped off at the same Fenwick Island lighthouse that I took a nighttime photo of just a few days ago. Here is what the lighthouse looks like in daylight.
After lunch we spent some time in the afternoon at the beach where we took a few last dips in the ocean then did some final book reading on the beach. Then we changed out of our swimsuits and headed to the Boardwalk for one final time. Unlike the last time I went to the Boardwalk, the day was much brighter and I was able to do some more walking than I was before since I didn’t have to worry about raindrops. Here’s a photo I took of the landmark Esskay Clock. When I used to go to Ocean City as a child with my extended family (including my cousins), we kids used to be instructed to wait by that clock if we somehow became separated. I remembered when I did just that one crowded night when I got separated by my family and they were all happy that when they found me at the clock.
Next to the Esskay Clock is a newer Boardwalk landmark. This is the Firefighters Memorial and it was erected to honor the firefighters who perished in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
Here’s a different kind of landmark. For many years a sculptor and minister Randy Hofman has been creating these gigantic sand sculptures based on events in the Bible. They are really a sight to behold.
If you want to see more of Randy Hofman’s work, check out his website right here.
The Boardwalk have long been home to would-be artists and musicians who try to ply their trade among the vacation-goers. Sometimes you’ll see someone who is both an artist and a musician, like the guy in the photo below.
After walking around on the Boardwalk, we headed to the Angler restaurant to take advantage of its dinner and sunset cruise. We ate a wonderful dinner in the restaurant then we went out on the dock in the back of the restaurant where we boarded a boat. I took a whole bunch of sunset photos. Here’s one of the sunset over the Route 50 bridge that leads into Ocean City.
Here’s another sunset photo, this one over Assateague Island.
And here’s sunset over West Ocean City, Maryland.
And here are a few sunset photos of the Boardwalk, where you can see the bright lights from far away.
In this photo, you can see the kites that are located right outside The Kite Loft. The kites are flown day and night during the summer.
Towards the end of the boat trip, things took a really dramatic turn. Our boat got word of another boat that had literally run aground and the boat I was on decided to go over to see if it could offer some help. By the time we arrived, the Coast Guard had already arrived to offer aid to the boat. I managed to take a few photos of that ship that ran aground but it was really dark and my camera had a hard time picking up the image so the next two photos are blurry. Here is the white boat that’s stuck among the rocks.
The blue lights in this photo are the ones from the Coast Guard boat.
Man, the weather has really been variable on this trip. It has gone from rainy to blistering heat to more rain. My back has adjusted accordingly. If it is going to rain, my back tends to hurt worse. But once it rains, my back feels normal.
When I woke up yesterday morning my back was aching a lot. It was very cloudy outside and the ground was wet from the rain the night before. We were wavering as to whether to even go down to the beach or not. I went on a few errands after breakfast and, while I was out, the weather became very sunny and it turned really hot and humid. I took a few photos while I on these errands in both the northern part of Ocean City and Fenwick Island, Delaware.
Happy Harry’s was a chain of pharmacies that was prevelant throughout the Delmarva area until Walgreen’s took over the chain a few years ago and converted the bulk of them to Walgreen’s. This Happy Harry’s store in Fenwick Island, Delaware is one of the last of the pharmacies that still has the Happy Harry’s name and logo. Even though this store carries bags that has the Walgreen’s name and it carries a number of Walgreen store brands, the store is still known as Happy Harry’s. I don’t know how much longer it will be known as Happy Harry’s so I decided to take a few photos of it for posterity (I’ll admit that the drawing of Happy Harry reminds me a lot of comedian Drew Carey.)
On the way back to the condo, I decided to treat myself to ice cream from Dumser’s Dairyland on 124th Street in Ocean City. Next to that ice cream parlor is something I have never seen in Ocean City before—an abandoned mini-golf course. For those of you who have never been to Ocean City, I’ll say that this place is loaded with all kinds of mini-golf courses with a variety of themes ranging from dinosaurs to pirates to vikings. Miniature golf is probably the second biggest thing to do right behind going to the beach. Normally min-golf courses are very profitable businesses, which is why I found it jarring that there was an abandoned course. I guess the ever-worsening economy is a factor in this particular golf course being closed permanently.
These space aliens wait in vain to greet miniature golf players who don’t visit anymore.
One mini-golf course is closed but another mini-golf course opens for the first time this season. I saw this place under construction last year and it is now completed. This one is located close to my condo so, after dinner, I decided to check it out. This mini-golf course is an indoor course, which is great for those rainy days. It also has a small arcade complete with an air hockey table.
This indoor course is really big. It has a jungle theme and, as you can see, it’s a very elaborate course.
After I checked out the indoor mini-golf course, I drove by the Fenwick Island Lighthouse located near the Delaware state line. This lighthouse hasn’t been used to help boats in decades but it still gets lit up at night.
The weather has veered between rain and hot and humid so much that we weren’t sure whether we would go to the beach that day or not. In the late afternoon, my husband and I decided to try the beach because it became very sunny, hot, and humid. (My sister-in-law opted to do some shopping instead.) By the time we put our suits on and smeared suntan lotion over the exposed parts of our body, the clouds returned. We decided to go to the beach anyway and we managed to get a brief swim in the ocean. (I still stayed in the shallow end. It was just as well because the waves were a bit on the rough side.) We hung around on the beach (I was still using the tall chair from the balcony of my rented condo) reading our books for a while until we felt raindrops. We managed to get an hour’s worth of beach time despite the crazy weather, which wasn’t bad considering the circumstances.
Sagittarius Dolly 
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