Ocean City scrapbook

[serinde]

I tagged along with Brian to Ocean City, MD this weekend for some glorious Fun In The Sun[tm].

So this is a beach resort in the classic sense, and the direct descendant of places like Coney Island and Asbury Park. It's almost wall-to-wall hotels and rental apartments; I would say that less than 15% of the buildings do not contain some portion of tourist residency, and that might be a lowball estimate. There's a boardwalk along the beach with shops etc. (often on the first floor of hotels), a mix of eateries, beach/surf shops, jewelry stores, and the kind of place you see along St. Marks containing primarily t-shirts with crass mottos. (Though I think the world needs more shirts that say "You looked better on MySpace".) The character of the boardwalk changes as you go along--the north end is more shiny and genteel, then it gets cheesier as you proceed southward to the oldest section. The southern end is very Coney Island-esque, including two small amusement parks where you pay points for rides, and thereby get nickel-and-dimed to death.

Ocean City's beach is deeply superior. The water depth is up to about my shoulder for a good many feet out, so those who are less sure of themselves can still play in the good waves without too much worry. It's also the, and this is going to sound weird, but cleanest ocean water I've yet seen--there was very little seaweed or other wrack coming in and wrapping around you. Brian notes that they actually rake the beaches every night, and sweh points out that most oceanside crap is from stuff that gets washed up and then circulates back in, so I'm guessing that's why.

There are baby dolphins cruising inshore! I didn't see them, but the couple who parasailed right before us did. We saw about 10 manta rays and a couple jellyfish, which look very creepy from above, let me add. Also saw wild ponies on Assateague Island. My eight-year-old self screamed in ecstatic delight.

I'm evolving a theory that there's some American college equivalent of the Grand Tour, only with more throwing up. They start at Mardi Gras, then go to Florida for spring break, then to Ocean City in the summer. The place was jam packed with loud drunken yobs, many of whom were drag racing their riced-up yutzmobiles up and down the boulevards. Since a lot of those roads are not over-supplied with traffic lights, there can be a definite Frogger element to crossing them. We did see one group of goobers in a shouting match with a little old lady in housecoat and curlers who was giving them whatfor, but I couldn't make out what the issue was. And then the cops showed up. I really would like to see the police blotter entry for that one.

The place also seems to be a Mecca for foreign students looking for summer work. I swear, there were more accents (proportionately speaking) in Ocean City than in The Great Melting Pot, here.

It is not in any way a food vacation, except insofar as junk food is concerned--ice cream, funnel cakes, fresh lemonade, fudge, that kind of thing. Those are all awesome. The restaurants, however, seem to answer to the lowest common denominator. (And you're paying NYC prices for it, at that.) It might be that the seafood is what to get, but since I was with a vegetarian, I may never know.

They aren't lifeguards now. They are Surf Rescue Technicians.

Comments

[missionista.livejournal.com]

BABY DOLPHINS!!!!! *dies from cute* Sounds like a fun weekend.

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

The guy driving the parasail boat said they look like little footballs.

OCEAN CITY!!!

[msg1138.livejournal.com]

I grew up for a while in Maryland, and we would vacation in Ocean City (even after we moved to Connecticut). This description brought back so many memories!! I almost want to go down to OC now myself to hang out. As far as junk food goes, Bull on the Beach is fantastic (various permutations of roast beef and barbecue); there is also some kind of french fry place that does ONLY fries, but they are really good, and come in a large-drink-sized-cup. People put vinegar on them; they are more potato-ey than crispy, and are excellent.

There is also a restaurant somewhere in the city that I believe is called The Hobbit, but is anyway Middle-Earth-themed, although with pictures from the cartoon. In any case it far pre-dates the movie. Worth driving by but probably not worth going into.

Yeah, I'd imagine decent vegetarian options are pretty thin. When I would go I was even more of a meat-and-potatoes-and-more-meat sort of guy than I am now so I never even thought about it. If you don't like meat, the seafood is pretty good. Crab is a vegetable, right?

I also remembered that they did import a lot of Irish kids to work the ice cream shops and so forth.

I also fondly remember the video arcades. For you kids out there in LJ-land, back in the old days we didn't have "PlayStations." We used to have to go to arcades where we'd put quarters in and play games STANDING UP. At least one arcade still has the ORIGINAL Star Wars video game from, like, 1980. So much fun. I still played it in the mid-90's when I was last there.

Oooohh, thanks for sparking the trip down memory lane for me. Glad to hear that OC is pretty much the same as it's always been.

What occasioned your trip down there in the first place?

Re: OCEAN CITY!!!

[syringavulgaris.livejournal.com]

Brian's family goes down every summer and has since time immemorial, and he invited me to come with. We did not, alas, try his favorite french fry place, as we managed to be full every time we passed it. He told me about how they used to toss fries to the seagulls, who would catch 'em mid-air.

The arcades I was not so impressed with. They're mostly skee-ball, pinball, and stupid jackpot games now; the only REAL game, by my lights, in either arcade we went in was a dual machine that had Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. So I saved me a few quarters there, at least.

[crypticgirl.livejournal.com]

Interesting that you should say a beach without seaweed is 'particularly clean'. I grew up on the coast about halfway between Sydney and Brisbane and the beaches I attended regularly as a child only ever had seaweed issues right after a storm. Now that I think of it, that's true of almost every beach I've been to in Australia.

The beaches I grew up on were also good for regular dolphin sightings, and during the right time of year you could also see whales migrating up and down the coast.