A Day at the Beach

It's been years since either Orlando or I last went to Ocean City, MD, the closest beach to home. Ocean City is also home to several of Orlando's high school and college buddies. So, since Orlando has some free time, and we didn't have anything else planned for the weekend, we decided yesterday to take a day trip and show Annie the shore. She's seen the ocean before, but she's never seen a beach, so she didn't know what was in store.

It's about a 3 hour drive, so we left about 9:30, calculating that Anastasia's naptime would coincide with the middle of the drive, when she'd likely fall asleep anyway. That plan worked beautifully, and she slept for about 1 1/2 hours of the drive.



When we arrived, we first went to visit Kevin Poole, one of Orlando's college buddies who makes his living as a singer in Ocean City and Key West. He and his longtime girlfriend, Bethany, have a son who is almost 2, and we thought it would be a good rest for Annie after the drive to play with some toys while we caught up. Biggest surprise of the day came when we got into the bathroom and learned that Anastasia had made the whole trip without wetting her diaper.



So, Kevin and Bethany hosted us for a little while, the kids played with Kevin's piano and drums in the super cool music room. We said goodbye with a hug, and then it was time for us to hit the beach.



Our plan was to park near the Ocean Gallery, a shop on the boardwalk owned by another of Orlando's friends, this one from high school. We stopped in and said hi to Joey Kroart, visited for a little while before heading down to the sand and the water. That was where the day really got exciting.



Initially, Anastasia wasn't quite sure what to make of the sand. She fist thought it was sticky, but soon got the hang of walking in the sand and picked up two handfuls to carry down to the water.



We got out feet wet in the ocean (very cold) and walked back up to the boardwalk to buy a kite and some french fries. And by some I mean a small mountain.



Last stop on the boardwalk was a sweets shop for some cotton candy. Then it was off to M.R. Ducks to watch Kevin play. Anastasia really got into the show, dancing, jumping and bopping along.Here are a few highlights.





She particularly liked Don't Fear the Reaper. The sound on the video isn't very good, but the performance was fun.



Before leaving, we stopped for one more picture at Ocean Gallery and said goodbye to Joey for a while.



We left Ocean City about 8:00 heading for home. Anastasia fell asleep about 1/2 hour into the trip and when we got home, Orlando, Anastasia and I all settled in for a very sound sleep.