Let me tell you....thought I run a boring blog and life, it's never a dull moment when I'm around!
Hubs and I took a 3 night get-away to the ocean last week. That's part of the reason why I wasn't online. ;-)
There is a beachfront motel in Ocean City MD that runs a very nice off-season package including $80 in food vouchers. And let me tell you, $80 in food vouchers does NOT go very far in the 'OC'...but I digress.
I've been to Ocean City 3 times now in the last few years. Let me say, I am NOT a big fan of big, built-up beach places....like Ocean City. The place goes on for miles....over 140 blocks of big ass hotels/motels, junky souvenir shops, pizza joints, restaurants, putt putt golf, ice cream and candy shops and on and on and on. It's a cacaphony of Visual Clutter in bright colors as far as the seared corneas of your eyes can see.
Not only that but I hear the place swells to a population of over 300,000 in the summer. I am not a 'wall-to-wall obnoxious, touristy people' type of gal. Maybe when I was a college student I could handle a beach scene like this....
So we go in the off season when the college crowd and the families with children are back at home and in school. Having grown up in a beach town I relish the beach in the fall and winter when the tourists are scant and the locals rule. This was more like the scene on the Boardwalk last week in Ocean City, without the snow however...
Since the tourists are mostly gone until next spring, alot of the businesses are closed up as well at this time of the year so there are no outside pools, no go-karts, no rides, no arcades. Nothing that would make my head explode. Just lots of walking along the beach or boardwalk or renting a bike and looking out at the horizon line.
Last trip we did some historical type excursions in the area. This year, we just sat around and vegetated mostly, contemplating the water and the occasional surfers.
We stopped on the way down in Rehobeth at the Outlet Malls to do some promised clothes shopping for the teens and Hubs picked up some much needed shoes for a deal. We also did some Christmas shopping as well.....
I did some shelling our 1st morning, as a storm had just passed. Being among the first on the beach I was able to score this beauty.....
These whelk shells, especially of this size, are hard to come by intact off of OC or any mid-Atlantic beach for that matter. A predatory sea snail, a marine gastropod, use to call this beauty home. Sort of fitting that the Slugmama, a human gastropod, owns it now....though I don't exactly fit into it. ;-)
We talked with a local gal on our beach outing, who was oohing and ahhing over my shell. She had a beautiful Australian Cattle Dog that was an unusual Red Heeler coloring that you don't see much of in the US. She had adopted from an Animal Rescue Group. Real nice dog....and owner.lol
We headed over to West Ocean City later to do some shopping, food shopping. We picked up a few things to eat during our stay so we didn't have to go out and spend for the high-priced/mediocre quality restaurant offerings or for the ubiquitous fast food. Those seem to be the only choices in the off-season as alot of food joints are closed up. We had a choice of Subway, Arby's, Mickey D's type places or some Crab Houses, non-descript local overpriced Restaurants and Pizza Joints or Ruth's Chris Steakhouse where hamburgers start at $30, not including fries.lol
We also hit a Save-Alot grocery store looking for Smithfield Ham for ham biscuits. This place had it 2 years ago but not now. We did find the ham at Food Lion and on sale....woohoo! While at Save-Alot I found a couple of good deals....100% Juice for $.99 and $1.79 and Veg. Oil for $2 for 48 oz. sized bottles. Daughter has a 'thing' lately for deep fried ravioli and has been going through my oil stockpile, so I loaded up with 4 bottles, since it was almost half the price of what it goes for around here.
We also hit the Dollar Store and picked up some water for the stay and a couple of books to read on the beach.
I took a nap when we got back to the motel while Hubs took a swim.
We used our $40 dinner voucher Tuesday night at a nearby hoity toity restaurant that's been in OC for ages.
Authentic Italian food but the view was non-existent. Our hotel has a deal with this place for the food vouchers. The restaurant provides a price fixe menu(one price meal menu)with a small selection of entrees. Of course it's $20 a person, so your voucher covers dinner for two. The food was good but I wouldn't say that it was necessarily "worth" $40. But I am NOT complaining. It was a deal with the voucher and the place was empty so we enjoyed the peace and quiet.
We had drinks on the balcony of our room and just enjoyed listening to the water and the cool night air.
Hubs was up bright and early each morning to enjoy the sunrise.
Here's one of the photos he took. This is the only way I saw the sunrise since I don't "do" mornings.....
Part 2 tomorrow.....
Sluggy
