The drive down was sheer hell, thanks to Pennsyltucky's non-stop construction and the crappiest highway designs I have ever seen. Ever. The people in charge of roads and traffic near Philly should be beaten and shot. We decided to get the hell away from our original path and wound up going through the delightful city of Chester. What a frigging cesspool. The city smelled like urine and was filled with shacks in which the locals displayed their stained mattresses on their porches. Periodically, we saw police having chats with some of the fine, upstanding young men of Chester (just seeing if they were interested in joining a mentoring program or some other such thing, I assume...).
Delaware, OTOH, was beautiful.
By the time we got to Ocean City, it was 12 hours later (have I mentioned how much I hate Pennsyltucky?). We got to our beach house, which was a new build in a "gated" community (actually there was no gate, just some dudes at a booth that checked to see if you had a permit to enter the area). The house was four stories. Air-conditioned. Nice. Everything we pretty much needed to get to was within walking distance.
First night there, we ordered pizza and wings from what was reported to be (by the local paper) to be the "best" pizza in Ocean City. The pizza sucked - sauce was too sweet, crust too thick...but then again, I'm a pizza snob (thin crust NYC-style for me). The wings were frigging abysmal. That was a constant theme - I tried wings in about four places, and they ALL sucked. Let's get this straight, Maryland: BUFFALO WINGS ARE DEEP FRIED (not baked or parboiled), NEVER, EVER BREADED, and the sauce is basically just Frank's Hot Sauce, vinegar, and butter.
On to happier stuff...
The weather was awesome - high 90's and up all week (it hit 104°F one day). We were at the pool and/or beach every day, in addition to whatever orchestrated family stuff was set up for the day. Each family took turns making dinner. My wife and I made pulled pork for the first time and it came out great (I just wasn't expecting the "roadkill" appearance of the meat prior to the shredding of the meat).
On Monday, the dads took the oldest sons (all age
flounder fishing on a charter boat. None of the flounders were big enough to be "keepers," but watching the kids' reactions to catching flounders, sea bass, croakers, starfish, and one scary-ass and pissed-off spider crab was great. By the way, flounders are ugly frigging fish.On Tuesday, the wives had surf lessons. Props to them - they got slammed by the boards and waves and did OK, but wound up with some serious bruises. Some of the hits they took looked damned painful. They were glad they did it but said they'll stick to wakeboarding.
Wednesday was the birthday of myself and one of the other guys, so we got a sitter (provided by the complex's nanny service) and went to Castaway's for dinner. Good food and service. My wife handed me a gift my folks bought for me and sent via her - a Steve Tasker replica jersey. Nice. My folks and my wife got tired of me using birthday and holiday $$$ on practical stuff for work or the house, so they got me something that they knew I'd never buy myself.
On Friday, we took a "nature cruise" over to Assateague Island to check out the wild horses and marine life. That was freaking cool, especially when they sent us off the boat with nets to collect specimens. I snagged some hermit crabs, a clam, and a croaker, and the kids snagged various bivalves. The guides (marine bio grad students from UNC) passed around some jarred live specimens of other marine life (to be released at day's end). I thought my two-year-old was going to have an aneurysm when the horseshoe crab was brought around. Scared the shit out of him.
On the whole, it was a great time. Props to Maryland for their hospitality. Nice people, even if they can't make decent wings.
