We started looking around at the websites and found that the most affordable places with the least amount of Guidos on the East Coast was Delaware/Maryland. The beach houses in Mass, which are much closer, are ridiculously expensive, plus you can't really count on the summer weather here. This is my 7th summer here, and each one is pretty different. Last year's was pretty rainy and cold, so I didn't want to get stuck paying a huge chunk for an abysmal week on Cape Cod.
At first, we tried to get some friends to go in on a house with us. Around February/March, we had a group that was interested, but when it came time to sign the dotted line, everybody had commitment anxiety. I was disappointed, and didn't think we could afford a place on our own. I figured we'd wait until the last minute and lowball all the available houses for the week we planned on, and that's exactly what I did.
2 weeks before our trip, I went online and found all of the available properties near our price range and emailed them all, asking if they would be willing to negotiate. Most people came back with 50 or 100 dollar off deals, which wasn't nearly what I had in mind. I had overestimated their despair, meaning that the owners were obviously not as desperate as I was hoping.
However, one of the owners of a 2 BR condo, very close to the beach, gave me a 250 dollar discount, which barely squeezed into our budget. We snapped it up and sent them a check. It was in Ocean City, Maryland, 5 blocks from the Delaware border. Ocean City is more of a beach city than a beach town, with large blocks of apartments and condos set up from beginning to end, in contrast to the beach towns of Delaware. I would prefer the beach towns, with the less-crowded beaches and less riff-raff and all, but it just wasn't affordable for one family by itself. Ocean City turned out to be a pleasant surprise, as it was almost entirely families. Although it was crowded, we visited a Delaware beach and found that it was equally crowded, so no big loss there.
When we arrived, it was obvious that we were paying for the location. This place wasn't exactly luxury, featuring some 70's decor, a 13-inch TV, old leather couches, and A/C units in every room. The kitchen was redone and updated, but that was about it. The building was this sad-looking brick affair, in contrast to the brightly-painted stucco buildings surrounding us. It was a little disconcerting at first, with Mel and I looking at each other with these "Can we be happy here?" expressions on our faces.
Then we walked to the beach. 74 paces from our building, and we were on soft sand. After that, it didn't seem to matter that our place was old, and we just adapted to the firm beds and covered the cheap leather couches with blankets. (Is it just us who hates leather couches? They're hot in the summer, cold in the winter, stick to your skin, what's the appeal?) It also didn't seem to matter that we tracked so much sand inside.
From there, it was just beach, beach, beach. Our regular schedule was this:
7AM - Hendrik wakes us
8AM - After feeding Hendrik and watching his beloved "Special Agent Oso", we put him down for his morning nap
9-10AM - Hendrik wakes up and we make our way to the beach, which only takes a couple of minutes.
10AM-noon - Hendrik crawls up and down the beach, making friends, double-fisting sand into his mouth, crying when the waves get too loud, and smiling at the camera. Everything he touches turns to sand. He's the King Midas of sand. King Sandus?
Noon-2PM - Mel takes Hench back to the condo for lunch/nap. I stay out on the beach to body surf, do crosswords, eat grapes and Cheeto's, drink Gatorade, and soak up the rays. Mel volunteered to go back to the condo mostly because she likes to take breaks from the sun and she's a peach in general.
2PM-4PM - Hendu comes back out with his Mom for more of the same (see above).
4PM-8PM - Dinner/naps/showers/bottles/Phineas and Ferb
8PM-11PM - FREETIME FOR MOM AND DAD!!!! YESSSSS!!! FINALLY!!!!! (Usually we just watched a movie and went to bed early.)
Below are the pictures of our fun, mostly of Hendrik, of course. He is easily the cutest of us, although Mel has her moments.
Peering out from behind the castle that somebody else made.
"Ladies, ladies, ladies! There's plenty of me to go around!" Hendrik made friends everywhere.
These toys entertained him for 5 minutes, tops.
"Nice guns, Daddy!"
More attention, more friends. These folks we sat next to all week. As most people were there for a week (Saturday-Saturday), we pretty much recognized everybody by the end.
He loves his shoulder rides.
Don't ask what I'm doing in this pic, but Hendrik's smile was so cute I had to include this pic.
Trying to get out of the pit I dug.
Being cute. Easier than it looks.
This looks like a Far Side cartoon. "Water, water!"
"How many times have I told you, young man!"
We went to this place called J/R's, The Place for Ribs. I love ribs, so we tried it out, and it was delicious. I gave Hendu my rib bone once and he gnawed on it like a dog for 10 minutes. Turns out he loves ribs as much as I do.
This is the only good thing that came out of a overpriced trip to Nathan's.
Family Picture!A week before our trip, on July 24th, the Carnival came to Whitman. They set up in the baseball fields and there were fireworks planned for 9:45. We kept Hendrik awake for it.
Ferris Wheel!
Spinny Thingee!
The carnival in its entirety. Pretty small. We didn't actually do anything, just walked around like cheapskates watching everybody spend their money on puke-inducing rides and games for crappy prizes. Mostly we were killing time waiting for the fireworks. I still had a lot of fun soaking in the Americana of it all. Hot, sweaty summer night, all the town folk out, smell of cotton candy, popcorn, and BO, cheap rides built in the 30's, teenagers trying to look cool, I loved it. I'm not being sarcastic. Seriously, I'm not. Why does everybody think I'm making fun of everything all the time! The fireworks went off at 9:45 and they were decent for a small-town production. The best part was that we could walk to the park to do all of this, and therefore didn't have to fight traffic or deal with parking or anything. Hench was scared by the loud booms and was too tired to enjoy anything.One last happening: Hendrik was crawling around our room and found a "fun-size" Reese's underneath the bed and somehow got through the wrapper before Mom noticed. Here is the result:
He's never been happier/prouder of himself.
