Greetings all, I know it has been a while since my last blog post so let me explain why. Plain and simple it is called “Vacation”. Now when I originally knew we were going to Ocean City, MD, I figured I would get in a few blog post while being there. Well I was wrong. First off the WiFi in our condominium sucked and I mean big time. Even talking on your cellphone was a chore. Now the good news is it forced me to concentrate solely on having a great time with family and friends.
We had 3 condominiums rented. Floor 2 was rented by my sister Dolly and my brother-in-law Curt. Floor 3 was rented by my sister Mary and my brother-in-law John. Floor 4 was rented by my extended family Audrey and Cam. Yes, 3 floors on top of one another with 3 balconies so we could people watch from any floor. Each condo had all rooms full for a total of 28 of us enjoying an ocean view right on the boardwalk. Now we have been doing this trip for many years and we always have a blast. Normally my wife Denise would also be there but she choose the lake house this year instead, that was the only sad part.
When my family gets together it is an instant party. We always have a drink of the day board where someone is in charge of making a specialty drink for everyone that day. My drink was an Apple Bikini Martini, which is basically an Apple Martini but with a little more kick. Our days and nights were filled with sand, boardwalk, beach, food and lots and lots of drinks. With all the drinks come the drinking games, we played flip cup, some game that you had to wear a dental mouth stretching piece and try to have people guess a sentence that you pull out of a bag. Talk about laugh, we had so much fun with that one. The kids main objective was to get their wrist bands and ride as many of the rides that they could during the time the bracelets were in effect. I did get to go on the Haunted House ride with my niece Brielle, it was fun and I was glad to see that they had made some nice improvements on it.
One afternoon a bunch of us went down to Secrets. Secrets is a restaurant and bar on the bay where you can literally sit at tables in the bay and enjoy cocktails and that is just what we did. Now I was not expecting to sit in the bay but when we got there my nieces Krystal and Katie had already had a table there for us to sit. Again being unprepared to sit in the bay, I was in a pair of denim shorts which did get wet a little. My phone must have also gotten wet at some point because after we had left the place and went to another bar near the condo’s I noticed that my screen was acting up on my phone. I made the mistake of plugging it in when I got back to the condo and lets just say the phone never worked after that. Now I need my phone, especially when traveling, so I was lucky that there was an AT&T store nearby. That was an expensive lesson to learn, plus they don’t allow you to just by your phone like you used to, now you have to lease it, which means you are paying full price on the phone by time the payments are done. No longer do you get the $200 upgrade cost, now you pay a hefty monthly fee. ChaChing, that is the sound of my shore vacation not even 3 days into the trip.
I am also a big fan of Claw Machines, I am also usually pretty good at them and I did end up with a few small items. Mind you I said a few small items, I swear every year they make the claws on the machine a lot harder to pick things up, especially anything that is worth more than a dollar. I would really love to know how much money they rack up on those machines because I was not seeing a whole lot of people walking around with any big prizes, or little ones for that matter. Oh well it is the shore and that is one of the things that keep people like me going year after year. This year though I decided since the claws were not being very nice, that I would concentrate on the games that give you the tickets that you cash in for prizes. Those of us who played these machines, ended up getting plenty of tickets for the kids to get some small cheap prizes. I really miss the days when the machines used to cost you a quarter and you would walk away with lots of stuffed animals. Now the machines cost at least $1 and you are extremely lucky to walk away with any money in your pocket, let alone prizes.
One thing I did walk away with and I would not change that for all the world, and that is good memories with great people in my life. For all the ups and downs I must say that the time spent with family and friends is priceless. This was not only at the shore but at my sister’s house as well. I did get to see friends that I have not seen in many years. As with any vacation the time just goes by so fast. So dear friends and family, know that I miss and love all of you. My vacation is now at a close, my pocket feel poorer but I feel richer for the memories I will keep dear in my heart.