A Roller Coaster of a Road Trip - Days 1 & 2

This year's family vacation was honestly a mess from the time we started planning it.  We originally had visions of trying to cram in Disney (finally) near the end of the summer, since we've been talking about going for at least a couple years now.  But then COVID started getting worse again, particularly in Florida, and it became clear that it wasn't going to work.  So on to Plan B.  We knew it would likely have to be close to home, mostly outside, and in areas where spread wasn't as likely to be rampant.  Well, when we started looking at dates, it became clear we had an issue.  Jacob had basketball through the late spring into early summer, and Craig had his college league through early August.  Work started to complicate matters (including when my boss was taking vacation), my brother and his kids were in town after that, and finally we settled on the week of the 23rd.  But then the bookending weekends ended up busy, we had multiple appointments pop up, and everything eventually ended up pointing to moving it back one more week to the week before Labor Day.  Switching also meant that I wouldn't have to take off an additional day for my birthday since it would already be part of the week.  And with school starting the week after, that's where it would have to stay, no matter what.

Even once we figured that out, it was hard to plan anything because outside activities meant that weather would be a big deal, and we needed to schedule the week accordingly.  A changing forecast and a pending COVID test for Craig (he had a cough and congestion within a couple weeks after getting back from California) just left me feeling powerless to book anything.  I was getting pretty down about it and wasn't sure it was even going to happen at all.  What if his test was positive or any of us got it?  What if it wasn't safe to go anywhere with only one partially vaccinated kid?  What if the weather stunk the whole week?  I was just really struggling with making any sense of it at all.  But the thing is, we haven't taken a real family vacation that didn't involve a sports tournament in years.  Last year was COVID, and the year before that we did Lake Placid and Alexandria Bay before Jacob's last lacrosse tournament ever.  That one was decent but still short.  The two summers before that we spent a bunch on hotels for lacrosse tournaments, so we just made the best of wherever we went for those, but most of it was pretty minimal on the family fun side.  I will say that Baltimore in November 2017 was pretty decent with the aquarium, Fort McHenry, and Camden Yards, but again, it was short and most of the time was spent sitting at lacrosse games in the freezing cold.  The last good non-tournament vacation was in 2016 to Toronto.  However, that trip was a disaster because of the boys' behavior and one disastrously long line that derailed our last day.  Since Carter was only three for that one, he didn't really have any memories of true family vacationing that didn't include hours of sports in the middle of it.  And considering we only did two day trips last year and nothing much of note this summer, we really needed the change of scenery, the adventure, and the opportunity to make good family memories.  So we pressed forward. 

The only couple things we knew were that we wanted to do the new Legoland downstate and brave the long drive and head to Ocean City, NJ, which is one of my favorite places in the world, but one we hadn't visited since Jacob was three.  Everything else was a question mark.  We finally decided by Friday to leave on Sunday regardless, and just plan hotels and days on the fly as much as we could as weather became clearer.  By Sunday it looked more hopeful that Monday and Tuesday would be decent--chance of thunderstorms but likely decent days--so we shifted Ocean City first and planned to drive most of the way Sunday but break it up with a hotel stay outside Philly somewhere.

I was up until almost 2am Saturday night into Sunday, between packing, weighing options, finally booking a hotel, and having insomnia when I finally laid down.  Oh, and I did I mention that I spent Friday night and part of Saturday moving furniture, picking up a family heirloom, cleaning it up, and moving stuff (including my entire workspace) all over the house?  More on that soon.  Saturday night Craig was working the NLL Draft, and once he got home (late) I tried to get some feedback before booking.  I first had a mystery hotel picked on Hotwire, but then did a last check of Hotels.com and found my beloved Holiday Inn Express for the same price, just a little further away from Ocean City but a half hour shorter drive on day 1.  But free parking, breakfast, and internet, plus having two guaranteed queen beds, was worth booking it.  Plus it left us only one night away from a free night in the future.  I was happy to have something booked, but it ended up being a short night of sleep, and I was rather unhappy with the 7am wakeup. 

We were just going to play it by ear (like everything else with this trip) to see when we were ready on Sunday morning, but in the end we decided it would be best to go as a family on our way out of town to hit up the special sale at Under Armour on the other side of the city for Jacob's new basketball team.  So that meant getting ready by around 10am to make it there in time for the sale.  We managed (barely--after a lot of organized scrambling courtesy of my travel checklist), spent a bit at Under Armour, then decided we needed a stop in Victor to find clearance flip flops or slides for the kids.  They had outgrown their old ones and had not needed them this year, but they'd be beach necessities.  Luckily we found 99 cent flip flops for Carter and $10 slides for Jacob at Old Navy, before going to Target for a couple other things.  Then we finally got on the road.  We had to stop about an hour later to get lunch at a Firehouse Subs outside Syracuse.  After that we drove to the Pennsylvania border before a bathroom break/driver change, then did what was supposed to be a quick pitstop in Scranton for some Office lore.  We almost accidentally drove past the Steamtown Mall, which was mentioned on the show multiple times, and then went to Poor Richard's Pub, which was also a frequent spot--although in real life it's inside a bowling alley.  

I felt weird about going in and not staying for a drink or bowling (which we definitely didn't have time for), so Craig and the kids ran in and out after taking a couple photos.  Jacob spent much of the rest of the day (and the trip) insisting we go bowling, and was very annoyed when we had to move on.  That detour ended up longer than expected because the road signage and GPS were unhelpful as we got out of town.  Once we were back on the road again, it wasn't long before we had to make another stop for gas.  That whole PA stretch was LONG.  We tried music, we tried travel bingo, and Carter had movies, but he still asked about a dozen times how much longer until the hotel.  Considering his lack of a concept of time passage, I think Disney will have to be a day-of surprise someday.  Just a couple scenes from that part of the trip...

Killing time and having no luck!

Sign of progress

Keystone detail at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center

Mercifully, we finally got to the hotel as it was getting dark, and regrouped before heading out for a late dinner at Elevation Burger, which had good gluten-free options.  Then it was back to the hotel and time for me to book hotel #2, which was turned out to be my first Hotwire fail.  I use Hotwire a lot because I can usually determine what the secret hotel is, and I can get it for significantly cheaper than anywhere else.  But this time they were quite deceiving in their "hints", making it seem like it would be a chain hotel with a 3.5 star rating--but it wasn't a chain after all, which didn't bode well.  Anyway, day one was rather...meandering?  A little underwhelming and frustrating at times, but not terrible.

On Monday morning, we started with a good breakfast at the hotel, but much to my dismay, there were no cinnamon rolls!  They're my favorite, and I was so sad when COVID prevented me from getting them in January, so I was really looking forward to them here, and yet...no luck again even though the rest of the breakfast was awesome.  Well fed, we set off for Ocean City.  

Carter, looking like the seasoned traveler (and he had juice in his cup--this kid does NOT need coffee!)

The drive once again seemed to take forever.  Between Philly traffic and construction it took much longer than expected, and we didn't get to Ocean City until around 1pm.  

We briefly got our bearings on the boardwalk, but fairly quickly bought our beach passes and walked down to the beach.  We rented an umbrella and a couple chairs and finally settled in!  It was a gorgeous beach day--rather hot but tolerable in the shade and with the ocean breeze, and especially with a few dips in the ocean!  I forgot how much I love it there.  The sounds, the salt, a beach with scattered shells rather than tons of rocks, and delicious food choices a short walk away.  I'm not a huge fan of the sweat and sand combo in general, but it was worth it to just embrace it and enjoy the day.

Happy to be back on the best boardwalk ever

Craig isn't a big fan of the beach, although the chairs and umbrella were a big help.  Jacob can take it or leave it most of the time, but Carter's a huge fan.  I wasn't sure how long we'd last but I was in it for the long haul if we could manage it.

As I said, the beach was gorgeous.  It's so nice to go to a beach that isn't instantly painful to walk on, and despite the hot day the sand was very comfortable.  I loved looking up at the boardwalk and seeing all the fun stuff we had yet to explore!  I've lived through 10 years of my college friend's pics from her multiple family trips here--sometimes annually, sometimes more often--so I was practically pinching myself that I was actually back!

The boys and I started building sand castles pretty quickly with our IKEA bag full of sand toys.  The boys tried to dig a moat, but of course the sand just kept absorbing it.  We built a castle in the middle anyway.

Finished product

We all had our feet buried at one point or another.  Jacob and I worked on Carter's for a while when he got some chair time.

The water was perfect--refreshing but warm.  There were some pretty decent waves and it was so nice to go out and stand there a bit when grabbing buckets of water.  I could have actually stood there all day, or maybe just plopped down in a beach chair with the water flowing around me.  It was heavenly.

Jacob came out to enjoy it with me at one point...

It was sometimes nice to get back in the shade, too, because the sun was still pretty intense and it was very humid.  Craig preferred that spot in between a few water trips.

Eventually castle #1 was demolished, but we added a tower to one of the foot burying mounds.

Enjoying shade while the big boys went on a food hunt!

After Craig and Jacob went in search of a late lunch, Carter and I took our turn for food before coming back down for more building, including this three-way tunnel Jacob and I worked on.

Eventually the boys figured out that their moat building might be more successful near the saturated sand down by the water.  They spent a solid half hour both digging together.  I can't say they didn't battle, but it was almost the best working together I've seen them do in a while!

By this point I noticed that Jacob had picked up quite a sunburn (he neglected to tell us he needed sunscreen on his back), and despite lathering myself up, I had a few spots, too.  Things were starting to die down near dinner time and our rental was almost up, so eventually we started rinsing off sand toys and formulating a plan for the evening.  We rinsed off in the beach's outdoor shower and stopped at the van (parked at a cheapish lot half a block from the boardwalk) and did some changing where we could to prepare for an evening on the boardwalk.

By this point it was clear that some rain was going to roll in, but we still did a pit stop in the arcade where we parked, which had quarter pinball and 10 cent skee-ball, among a bunch of other $1 games.  It was a cool building, which I correctly guessed once housed a carrousel.  

 

Jacob immediately set out to break the basketball record, which he ended up doing multiple times in two days, earning himself a number of free games.

Eleven skee-ball games for a buck was pretty good, too!  I even hit my first 100 point target ever!

And one of the big Simpsons fans in the house definitely wanted to play quarter pinball!

We enjoyed ourselves for a bit and then walked out to explore the boardwalk a little and make a dinner decision.  I was so enchanted by the old classic buildings and iconic businesses from the first time I visited 19 years ago, and it was good to see them again.

As we walked, we realized the rain was imminent and was going to be pretty bad.  That upped our urgency to find a spot to ride it out.  There aren't a lot of obvious gluten-free-friendly spots on the boardwalk, but my favorite pizza joint, Manco & Manco, did list gluten-free pizza.  Still, we weren't 100% sure how safe it was (or what Craig could eat that didn't have dairy) but headed there anyway since it was fully indoors.  It definitely struck up Jacob's anxiety a bit, between the storm and the food options, so that was a rough patch for us.  But it turned out the food was safe and delicious.  While we were waiting for our food, I could see it was getting dark from the rain clouds so I ran out to take a couple pictures.

This doesn't do justice to how dark it was, but the clouds were clearly thick.

    

Shriver's Taffy looked pretty lit up!

The rain was intense!  It blew and thundered and poured.  It turned out that earlier in the day a lifeguard died elsewhere on the Jersey Shore when he was struck by lightning, though I'm not sure if that was the same line, or a pop-up that preceded it.  The storm lasted for a while, but thankfully we were enjoying our food by then.
  

By the time we finished, it was still raining pretty good, so we ran across the way to Shriver's to pick out taffy.  After that we tried to walk up and down the boardwalk a bit more hoping the rain would stop, but I think we were all losing hope and patience by that point.  

It was raining harder than it looks, in spite of the clearing in the distance.

Where we ate--this used to be the one modern-ish movie theater on the boardwalk.  It was nice having so much seating compared to other Manco & Manco locations.

My biggest concern was that the amusement parks didn't open until evening each day, and I wasn't sure how to work our activities the following day to ensure we'd still be fresh enough by evening to fit in a couple rides for Carter and me.  I knew I likely couldn't do another beach day given Jacob's and my sunburn and how it would dominate the schedule (not to mention the added expense of more beach tags, chairs, and the umbrella), so it was back to the drawing board to figure out our new agenda.

Another reason for sticking around was that the roads leading up to the boardwalk all flooded from the storm.  Ocean City is prone to flooding from hurricanes and rainstorms, and I guess they had flooding in town on Sunday, too.  This flooding seemed to clear up pretty quickly, but admittedly I was a little nervous about what we'd find around our van.  It turned out the van was fine, but there was a pretty big pool of water slowly receding on the road we needed to use to leave. 

Our van is visible just above the fire hydrant just to the right of center.  It had mostly cleared by the time we left, though.

 

After we gave up, we had a half hour drive to our hotel, and given the Hotwire issue, we were nervous about what we might find.  But it was still supposed to be a 3.5 star hotel, so how bad could it be?  Well...we missed the driveway twice because there was no illuminated sign, and the parking lot was completely dark.  There were lights in the windows, which was mildly reassuring, but we had to drive around the entire building before we saw some real light and the entrance.  It was so weird and immediately everyone was a bit creeped out.  Our check-in experience was underwhelming, and while the room wasn't terrible at a glance, it definitely didn't seem like 3.5 stars.  It just screamed of a hotel that once had a brand and got rundown enough that the brand bolted.  There were some stains on the walls, carpets, sheets, and curtains.  The elevator was pretty battered.  The shower curtain rod was pulling at the plaster and dipping down.  The gym equipment was rusty.  And worst of all, Jacob found multiple hairs on the sheets and the towels, which completely grossed him out.  He wouldn't even sleep under the covers.  Ugh.  He was SO upset--even more than he usually is when I go with the decent but affordable option, which was always a thing for us when lacrosse teammates were staying at $300 hotels.  And of course this was the hotel we were stuck at for two nights.  UGH.  So frustrating, and you can bet I not only wrote a brutally honest review, but also specifically sent Hotwire a message complaining about the false advertising.  It was not a good night at all.  But I was still hopeful that the next day would be better, if only because we would be away from the hotel!