HEY GUYS! (**long post alert!!**)
Wow. What a hell of a weekend.
I'm sad it's almost over. I'm kind of in denial that I have work tomorrow...
It all started with an invitation from my best friend Andrea-- she wanted me to go to the beach with her and her family. Destination? Ocean City Maryland. My family goes there every summer for two weeks, but I honestly couldn't pass up going with Andrea. She'd never been, and we had talked big about going somewhere fun together this summer. So we did. It was finalized. We were hitting the road Friday morning at 8AM to get there. It's about a 3-4 hour drive there from where we live, so we decided we'd finish our Harry Potter marathon in the car on my laptop/her portable old-school DVD player (that is thicker than 3 packs of cards XD) We only had Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2 to finish. We arrived in town around noon, and we found our hotel rather easily. However, check in was like, 3pm, so we had to wait around and occupy ourselves until then. Our hotel, considered a historic landmark, was in a great location. Right on the boardwalk and near the beach. It was old, but the Atlantic Hotel was really quaint.
Before check in, we wandered along the famous Boardwalk. 2.5 miles of shops, smells, smoke and sugar. We stopped by Thrashers, a food establishment known for their famous boardwalk fries. This means hard-core fries and vinegar. Lots of vinegar. In the past, it's always been "mmmmmm smell the fries! Yum!" However. Andrea and her family, open to experiencing everything OC had to offer, bought a container. Piled high with fries, the vinegar was poured on. And poured on. And poured on. I made the mistake of grabbing a fry doused in so much vinegar... it just about turned my stomach upside down. All at once I did not like the smell of that place.
We moved on, looking at all of the shops and whatnot... until finally our room was ready. We went to our room, checked it out, got settled, and then changed into swim suits and headed right for the beach. It was a beautiful day. The breeze was phenomenal and the sky was bright blue. The water looked clearer and bluer than normal-- may have been due to the brightness of the sky that day. We spent a large amount of time on the beach, half frolicking in the waves and half lounging on beach towels working on our tans because I can totally tan with my awesome pasty white skin. We did that until I got burned in embarrassing spots like on the backs of my knees...
Later that night, we went to a purty awesome seafood place called the Marina Deck. It was right on the water, (bayside) and we watched as all these boats just floated up and down in the gentle lapping water... We ordered crabs and other stuff and I taught Andrea how to open them. (My grandparents on my mom's side are legit Marylanders and they get crabs all the time from the creek they live on-- and my nana/uncle have instilled in me the invaluable skill of crab opening. XD) We were next to another restaurant that was more bar-like called Mr. Ducks, and the live music they had going on carried over to our table. Not to bash the performers or anything... but their cover of Billie Jean kind of sucked... but their cover of "Let's Get it On" or whatever was really entertaining... XD After our dinner experience, Andrea and I headed out for a night on the town. Er, the boardwalk. We visited the amusement park at the pier, called Jolly Rogers. Have you ever had those moments where it's like "DAYUM I GOT LUCKY"? (and no, I am not referring to any sort of risky behaviour... (; ) We must have been in the right place at exactly the right time, because right as we entered the park thing... we stood in line to buy our overpriced tickets/points for rides... This lady and her daughter came up to us. The woman handed us wristbands and the point card that holds the points to get onto the rides on it and says "Do you want these? We're done for the night and we thought you guys would like them-- we managed to slip the wristbands off so they're still valid!" Andrea and I kinda stared at each other for a moment like "...did this just happen??" We thanked them profusely and accepted the unlimited rides until 11pm wristbands, and then screamed/squealed/laughed with joy once they had gone on their way. It was a great feeling... We literally had just saved ourselves $40 some odd dollars... We used the wristbands until the magic time of 11pm (when they expired.. *sniff sniff*) and then headed back to our hotel to crash for the night. But not before grabbing some funnel cake and fried oreos! (yes, you read that right-- FRIED. OREOS. So good. Too sweet. My body will hate me in 10 years...)
The next morning we took forever to get up. Probably because we had stayed up so much the night before... We ate breakfast at noon at a little place outside our hotel called the Muze Cafe. **NOTE: Their mango smoothies are TERRIBLE. Just sayin'....*** Their Greek omelette with feta cheese and spinach was amazing, though. And so was their vanilla frappuccino-- so I'm told. We then went to go get on swimming attire and head to the beach. It was much cloudier and colder than the day before... and getting in the water was like torture. We opted for a game of psuedo volleyball and live music on the beach instead. ...It was there where this guy (twice our age, no doubt..) tried to hit on us and get us to "hang out with him". We were like "uh... no, buh-bye" and promptly left to go find a legit volleyball net. (We had just been bumping the ball back and forth between ourselves in the sand). He tried to stop us from going by saying "oh, they took all the nets down-- you won't find one". Yeah. Well. Nice try, bud. Because when we walked further down the beach? We saw at LEAST five. We're not stupid.
We ended up playing a game with these older guys.. they invited us to play "a REAL game". It was alright... I think it would have been fun had they been a bit younger...and not tatooed and probably half drunk, but you know. You live and you learn. We left after the second game and went shopping. Towards the evening we got pizza and sat upon our balcony to people watch and look out at the ocean/pier. Then Andrea and I headed out for night on the boards Part Two, and experienced the wonderful world of Trimper's Rides and Amusements. It's been around since the 50's, I'm purty sure, and it was definitely super awesome. Sadly, no one came up to us offering their tickets, so we did end up spending a good $40. But it was soooo worth it. Andrea wanted to try all the high-thrill rides... the most awesome one was the only coaster in town-- The Tidal Wave. I have admired it ever since I have been coming to OC... I loved how the ground rumbled when it went by and flew right over your head... We rode it twice and cherished it twice. After we had run out of tickets, Andrea was bent on winning something at one of the game booths. We walked past this one booth that had a guy speaking into the mic in a British/maybe Australian accent. It was kind of like moths to a flame, guys. We went over and talked to him, and we figured we'd play. We had been the only ones there, so one of us was bound to win if we played against eachother. Well. For some reason, all these people showed up who wanted to play. Before we knew it, it was a full game-- Andrea and I against 10 other people. The object of the game was to roll balls into holes-- a lot like ski ball. Getting your ball into higher value holes meant your "horse" (in the horse race apparatus on the back wall) would sprint further ahead. Well we played a great game-- Andrea was on fire and I wasn't far behind. And then it was over, and Andrea's horse was in first place! She squealed so much-- I'm purty sure it was like, her first time winning anything like that. She picked out a fluffy stuffed horse as her prize and walked away, unable to stop smiling. I was so happy for her-- and even more amazed at the odds. Think about it-- we were the ONLY ones, and then, out of 12 people who randomly show up, she wins....? That's purty fantastic.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a Dumser's Dairyland stand on the boardwalk and had some of the BEST hand-dipped/made ice cream ever(!_ We then crashed for a second time back at the hotel, dreading the fact that we had to wake up really early the next morning to be checked out by 7am so we could drive back to VA before noon because Andrea had an appointment to attend.
And it has felt like such a long day.
Upon my arrival back I wasn't home for long... I turned around and left somewhat shortly after I got home to go hangout with my friend who's leaving for college in a matter of days... We chilled with some of her friends (J was there too (: ) at the pool and then came back to her house to watch Frozen in her huge home theatre. Yeah, we're an interesting bunch. Also. This is the same friend who left us a while ago at the park to go make out with her boyfriend behind a tree... And watching Frozen was no different....
Only, we were not blessed with the fact that they had gone off somewhere. No. There they sat, seats away from us, just going base to base like it was a home run. Not cool, girl. Not cool.... Lol. Thing is... well.
Two things. 1) I love her dearly. 2) I know how it feels to uh... do whatever she and her boyfriend were doing, and it's addictive. I admit it.
SO YEAH.
This coming week should be all sorts of intersting... I have so much planned.... And then VBS is coming, and then before you know it I'll be hitting the beach for the second time, (but for two weeks this time around!) forced to do like all of my school work in the hellish month of August...
This should be fun.
xoxo