We had a great time on our vacation!
Unfortunately, I forgot to bring along our new digital camera. This seems to happen with every vacation we take; I always forget something! Last year, we went camping and I forgot our toothbrushes and toothpaste. I know I forgot something on our honeymoon, but I can’t remember what…oh, our winter coats. It was pretty chilly with the wind whipping around the streets of NYC! This year it was the camera and hoodies/sweaters for the chilly evening air. Will I ever get it right? Fred claims that these are practice runs for when we have kids to tote around on vacation. I think we just have to be more through in planning what we pack, such as in making a list and checking things off.
Anyway, we do not have many pictures to share at this point, although we did buy a cheap one use camera (that cost an arm and a leg!) from one of the little gift shops and Fred’s camera phone. I’m working on getting the few we have scanned and cleaned up for digital viewing, I’ll add them to this post when I (Fred really, since he’s the computer tech) get that done. **pictures added are from Fred’s camera phone, not too bad right?
I do have some stories to share from our trip…
1. We stayed at a reasonably priced motel in Ocean City, since we were only there for 2 nights, we didn’t really see the need to stay at some fantastic hotel. And we were forewarned when we made our reservations that the week we chose to vacation was also Senior Week. No, not senior citizens, but high school seniors. Fred and I both felt pretty old walking around seeing and hearing all the teenagers with their parties, drama, and other antics.
2. Knowing we were going to be surrounded by teenagers, I was just a little nervous about spending the days on the beach. I’m 32 weeks, or 8 months pregnant now, and there’s no hiding my bowling ball belly. I figured I’d get some weird looks (Fred joked about being a walking public service announcement to all the boys…). However, I was not the only crazy pregnant woman on the beach! We came across a dozen or so other couples in similar pregnancy states. Of course, many of them had other children with them as well, but at least I wasn’t the only pregnant lady on the beach!
3. The beach was wonderful. We spent a few hours relaxing on the beach Wednesday and then most of the day there on Thursday. We took lounge chairs, towels, and books to read. It was very relaxing, just what we needed to begin our summer. The water was a little chilly, but we both made our way in to the point where we were swimming with the waves.
Both of us had been fairly sunburned the weekend before our trip because we neglected to apply any sunscreen while we sat out in our front yard for our yard sale, so we were both careful to apply sunscreen often as well as confident we wouldn’t burn like that again. Oh, were we wrong! By Thursday afternoon, Fred’s front side resembled the back of a lobster; very red from his chest to his toes. I got a little red as well, on my legs and the tops of my feet (I swear we both had sunscreen on, I guess just not enough!) Needless to say, we didn’t make it back to the beach on Friday before we left, like we had planned.
4. Senior week made the nightlife a little slow. On Wednesday night, we wanted to find a nice bar (of course, I wasn’t drinking, but Fred wanted to) on the boardwalk to relax at after dinner, but by 9:30, every place was closing down. After walking around for a while, we found a nice little bar to stop at right off the beach. We walked in to find that we were the only two people there – other than the bartender, who, thankfully, was very friendly, explaining that businesses, locals, and tourists usually avoid Senior week at all costs. So we stayed there for a while, chatting between ourselves and the bartender. When we left. about an hour and a half later, no one else had come in.
So, the next day, we saw an ad for an 80′s party at another bar and decide we’ll try it, we both like 80′s music and the place wasn’t too far from where we were staying. That night we make our way over to the “Block Party,” which is 3 bars all connected to each other, that take up an entire block. We walk in, and there are just a handful of people inside (which was really outside, since it was an outside bar, just surrounded by a very high concrete wall). At least there were more people here than where we were the night before. However, turns out that the bartenders were extremely rude to everyone there and their credit card machine was down (the bartender was rudely insisting that this guy who had a pretty hefty tab from treating all his friends to a couple rounds go to the ATM, which would charge him outrageous fees, to pay for his tab, when it was the bar’s technology error that was prohibiting him from paying). So, after just a short stay, we left and went back to the bar we had been at the previous night. There were a few more people as well, so we didn’t feel so alone. Then Fred mercilessly beat me in two games of darts and I was so mortified that we went back to the motel (not really, I am terrible at darts, so I expected to lose).
5. We had some good dining experiences while in OC. Wednesday night we ate at a little restaurant on the boardwalk. We ate outside, watching the setting sun, which was great, but it was a little chilly by then and by the end of our meal, both of us were shivering. That’s when I realized neither of us had packed any sweatshirts, and I almost always have one with me, just in case.
Thursday night Fred picked the restaurant. He loves seafood and wanted to find a good place where he could get it fresh (personally, I don’t like anything that smells even remotely fishy). Last time we visited OC, we had tried to go to this seafood buffet place, but they had closed before we decided on dinner. So this year, that’s where we went; Jonah and the Whale. It was alright, a little pricey for our budget, but they had a nice sized selection of seafood and non-seafood. I think Fred was a little disappointed after the anticipation though.
6. The best food, however, was breakfast. As Fred will attest, breakfast is my favorite meal. I have never been able to skip breakfast, whether I have time for a quick bowl of cereal or a big stack of pancakes and bacon. Now, I also like little coffee shops or bagel places for a good quick breakfast. One of my favorite things to do if I have to be somewhere early in the morning is stop at a bagel place for breakfast and coffee (decaf for the past 8 months now). So, when I found The Fractured Prune in a little shopping center we walked by, I knew we’d have to try it for breakfast. It was a little donut shop that advertizes specialty donuts and fresh coffee. They serve your basic fried donut with any glaze and topping imaginable. They had banana, chocolate, plain, lemon, and peanut butter glazes, chocolate chip, sprinkle, nut, gummy bears, fruit, and coconut sprinkle toppings (just to name a few). Now, being sensible people, we knew we couldn’t just have a big junkfood topped donut for breakfast. So we both got bagles with cream cheese, coffee (I opted for an iced decaf mocha), and then split one donut. We ate there both Thursday and Friday mornings, so we tried two different specialty donuts; a Reese Cup (peanut butter glaze with chocolate and peanut butter chips) and a trail mix donut (banana glaze, nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips). Both were very good! If you’re interested in starting a local franchise, I’m sure I can offer some patronage!
7. Before and after going to Ocean City, we stopped for a night at my good friends’ house, Dan and Michelle. They were kind enough to let us stay with them Tuesday night and Friday night, to make the drive a little easier (plus I wanted to see their new house!). We didn’t really do anything spectacular while visiting them; no trips to DC or extravagant shopping sprees (next time, we’ll have to go to Tyson’s Corner Michelle!). We went a couple good restaurants we don’t have in Akron, like BD’s Mongolian Barbecue and Micinty’s Irish Pub (listened to a great Irish band…just my type of thing to do – good friends and good music!). But we got to spend time with good friends, and that’s what I enjoyed most. Oh, but they do have some very sweet cats!
I almost forgot, Dan and Michelle introduced us to a new ice cream place: Rita’s. They serve Italian ice and frozen custard (my favorite!). The best part; there is one in Cuyahoga Falls 
. Now I have another ice cream stop to make (besides my favorite Strickland’s, Stoddard’s, Cold Stone, and Handel’s) this summer!
8. I almost forgot…on the way from OC to Dan and Michelle’s, Fred and I stopped at one of my very favorite stores: Ikea. For those who don’t know, Ikea is a home furnishing store that sells decent quality furniture and accessories for very reasonable prices. There are no Ikeas in the Northeast Ohio area; the closest one is actually in Pittsburgh, but when I lived in Maryland, there was one 10 minutes from my apartment. While browsing the store, I fell in love with some of their baby items. I’ve wanted to make the nursery as bright and atypical as possible; no cutsie pastel patterns or cartoon decorations for my baby! I found this set that’s bright and fun and reasonably priced:
We didn’t buy any of the items yet, except for the pillow, but I plan on making a trip to the Pittsburgh store soon (if anyone wants to go with me, let me know!) to get the curtains and bed set and who knows what else .
So, in conclusion (sorry for going on and on…just wait until we take a full length vacation!), we had a great trip. The beach was a refreshing getaway (even with the teenagers and sunburn!) and it was great to get to spend time with my good friends. The only thing I wish we could have done was visit my little brother Pat and his wife April, but they were visiting here in Ohio at the same time. Next time we’ll go see them also.
Now, Fred and I are settling into a summer routine and beginning to get things ready for our baby’s arrivial in August! I’ll post more on that later.
