One of the best things about going to Ocean City on a Thursday morning in March is that there is absolutely no traffic. If I was 17 years old again I would have made the 150 mile trip in about an hour and a half. But alas, I am a middle aged man, so it's within the accepted speed limit range in the slow lane unless I pass someone, and then it's with caution and proper turn signals.
Surprisingly, there were a fair amount of people in town on this Thursday afternoon. I guess this isn't the Ocean City winter wasteland of the 1970's anymore. Just after we arrived and had our items in the room I heard what sounded like the diesel engines of a bus or a fire truck coming down the little side street we were on. I looked out over the balcony and low and behold, 2 fire trucks and 2 police cars and a shift commander. No sirens. No lights. Just rescue boredom. We suspected a smoke alarm or something went off and they call came to check it out.
That afternoon there wasn't much open, so we went and played miniature golf at the Old Pro indoor center on 136th center. Now, being the dad I always made sure I won. Well, as you may recall, my daughter started beating me last year. This year, my son is starting to beat me. What the hell???? He sank four holes-in-one!
On Friday I went for a run down the Boardwalk and back. It's about 2 1/4 miles each way (obviously - it's not a shorter distance coming back). However, part of the Boardwalk is closed as they are rebuilding it using Nancy Grasmick's husband's lumber company. They even plugged their name on a giant billboard on Route 50 outside of Salisbury. Unfortunately I was driving, everyone was asleep, and I would woken them up to take a picture. Otherwise I totally would have stopped.
I think in the old days the Boardwalk was just a cantalever design with the floorboards across the joists. Didn't realize that the new Boardwalk has a solid base with cement reinforcement filled with sand.
....and overlaid with gravel. Kind of loses it's nostalgia when you see it like this.
Since I couldn't run on the Boardwalk through the construction, I veered onto Baltimore Street through part of Motel Row. I noticed this swimming pool. This must be where they store the plastic bottles during the off-season.
We ate at Tequilla Mockingbird on Thursday evening. Boy is that good stuff! Leftovers make an excellent lunch the next day. On Friday evening we had the pleasure of eating a complimentary meal at La Hacienda's. We've been there three times now and I think the food gets better every time. I had talapia topped with a corn salsa that was awesome! Add in a couple of margaritas (which I paid for) and it was a great meal. Thank you La Hacienda!!!You will recall that the Peeble's in Eldersburg is closing. Wonder where it's going? I think I found it! It's moving to Ocean City! Open this picture and you'll see the sign declaring that Peeble's is coming soon!
On Sunday night we were given a gift certificate for a free pizza from Ponzetti's on 144th street. It was really good! They have a wall of photos of the staff from the 1970's. One of those employees: House of Delegates member and former Mayor of Ocean City Jim Mathias.
It was cloudy and breezy most of the weekend, but we were able to get out to the beach on Monday afternoon to make some funny shadow faces.
Here's the new Boardwalk at the south end. It looks very nice. And abandoned.
Both ways....
Remember the old Western Auto in the old section of Ocean City? It's now a Dollar Store. Another sign of the times. I thought I had a picture of the store when it was Western Auto, but darned if I can find it.
So that's what I remember about our weekend. The kids had a great time. It was great to get away. Thank you, Believe in Tomorrow!!!
If you'd like to make a donation to support Believe in Tomorrow, they are having their annual Port to Fort 6K fund raiser. You can make a donation here.
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