A Roller Coaster of a Road Trip - Day 3

Tuesday wasn't just another vacation day--it was also my birthday!  Not that we had any special plans, nor did I expect to be able to pick my dinner of choice since our options were limited anyway, but I did figure I might need to pull the "it's my birthday card" to convince everyone to go along with our revised schedule due to the rain the previous night.  It was going to be a full day for sure.

Our plan for Tuesday morning was to grab breakfast at a restaurant in downtown Ocean City that had a great gluten-free menu.  As we walked from the van to the restaurant, Craig got a call.  It turned out that he had direct contact with someone who tested positive for COVID.  Seriously?!  It was one of his co-workers that he'd spent some time with on Friday and Saturday--including time in a car--but hadn't had quite the extended time close to him that others had.  Because he was vaccinated, he didn't really have to quarantine, but it definitely didn't start the morning off well to consider the possibilities.  In the end we figured if he was positive we were all already screwed with so much van and hotel time, but since we were masking indoors and trying to keep distance outdoors, we were just going to keep moving forward with the trip and hope none of us started to feel sick.  Testing is really hard to come by right now, so we knew he couldn't get one until we got home anyway.  We decided to just push through Thursday night after our last official activity and come straight home so we'd be free to figure things out on Friday.  It all felt even more annoying that he had just had a negative test before we left, and now we were dealing with it all over again.  

On the bright side, breakfast was awesome.  Jacob had amazing pancakes, Carter had french toast and bacon, Craig had oatmeal and toast, and I had Eggs Benedict.  I'd have enjoyed my first Benedict in years a lot more without the COVID stress, but it was nice to give Jacob a treat.

We ended up back at the arcade for a while, which featured some intense air hockey games.

Eventually it was back out to the boardwalk.  We walked to one end where the shops stop, then started working our way back.  It was impossibly hot and humid, the kind of day where the sweat just drips down your back no matter what you do.
  

Elaborately themed mini golf is a big thing here, and that one was indoors.

 I probably shouldn't have bothered to curl my hair, because the sweat and humidity were not helpful.  It was also not the best day to have forgotten a hair tie!  Carter and I took a break on a bench while the big boys shopped.

We made our way down, checking in shops, surveying food, and eventually picking a mini golf course to play.  There were so many options, and while the indoor ones were intriguing since they were air conditioned, I didn't love the thought of wearing a mask for it since we'd be inside.  

Take note of that coaster and its crazy twists and drops... 

We made it all the way down to Gillian's Wonderland Pier at the other end of the main boardwalk, which has rides and an arcade but unfortunately wasn't open yet.  We never did get to go there (we did 10 years ago, though), which was probably my only bummer aside from only being able to do one beach day.
 

We had to pick up some slushes and Polish water ice along the walk, and even take a shade break because the heat was just brutal.  

Ocean City Music Pier

One thing I was looking forward to showing Carter was the hermit crabs sold along the boardwalk.  They fascinated me 19 years ago.  We happened to catch a good, active cage, and this guy gave us quite the show.  

The cage was full of them, all brightly painted.  It was quality entertainment, and if they weren't so creepy (and a lot of work to clean, I imagine), I might have considered taking one home.  I loved them in Kindergarten when we had them in our classroom, but they freak me out now.  I actually found a book at the library before we left about a hermit crab that uses half an action figure as his "shell" and accidentally saves the day.  I think seeing the crabs helped Carter appreciate it more.

We didn't get a picture at the lifeguard stand like so many people do (and use it to measure their kids from year to year), but we did get one near a boat.

This pirate wheel cracked me up because the plaque on it says, "On this site in 1897, nothing happened."

We were getting quite overwhelmed by the heat, but we really wanted to play mini golf before grabbing lunch.  One of the things that struck me the most about Ocean City vs. Atlantic City 10 years ago was that Atlantic City's boardwalk was so not family-friendly--not just the massage and tattoo parlors, but they only had one mini golf course, and it was pretty tame.  Ocean City has probably five really cool ones that are elaborately themed (and some have multiple courses).  It took some deciding, but we finally settled on Congo Falls (which, as it turns out, I actually played 19 years ago--probably even the same course out of the three, although the theming was a bit different then).  

Note the massive gorilla on the left, and the helicopter with two animated gorillas over the main entrance.

We melted through our round, but at least a good chunk of it was half inside and shaded.

These mini golf courses tend to go vertical to manage their small slot on the boardwalk, and as we went deeper into the course, the view only got better.  The ocean was in one direction, and you could see the pirate themed course down the way, as well as Playland's Castaway Cove, the amusement park, in the distance.  Ten years ago we played mini golf at Playland's course, which was a lot of fun!

This was quite the hole.  We weren't sure how to play it because it looked like your ball would be lost forever if it went in the water on the left.  But sure enough, it actually channeled the ball to a separate spot and sent it right toward the hole!

Jacob actually asked to do a selfie, so of course I obliged!  Happy Birthday to me!

There was even an animatronic monkey who sang.  It was pretty silly!

We had a lot of fun and hopefully we can go back another time and try a different course!

After golf we were completely done with the heat and humidity, so we opted to go outside Ocean City for lunch.  As awesome as the boardwalk offerings can be, they're not super gluten-free-friendly, and by this point we just needed some air conditioning and some reliable food.  The next town over had a Chipotle, so we headed there and very much enjoyed our late lunch.  God knows my body needed some salad by this point in the trip.

I thought it might be an interesting exercise to check out Atlantic City for the afternoon.  The last time we went to the shore 10 years ago, we ended up staying in Atlantic City because Ocean City is crazy expensive and the beach was free to access.  The boardwalk is a far cry from Ocean City's, but I thought it would be an interesting experience for the kids to see another spot.  And, honestly, I was slightly interested to see post-Trump Atlantic City, since both of his casinos there are no more.  One had its tower imploded within the last year, although parts of it are still standing, and the other was converted into the Hard Rock Hotel.  So, I figured if nothing else it would be interesting to see the evolution of those parts of the boardwalk.  

However, as it was my birthday, I made the executive decision that we were first going to stop at Borgata, which is in the Marina District.  If you recall from our last trip, we tried to stop there to eat (in part because I knew there was a Chihuly there somewhere), but were greeted with a sign that said no unregistered guests under 18 were permitted inside.  This time I figured at worst I'd just leave the boys in the van and run in myself to find the Chihulys, of which there were now more!  This time the signs only said that people under 21 weren't allowed on the casino floor, and that was good enough for me!  We walked into the retail area, at which point I left them behind because I honestly wasn't sure just how close they could get to the casino floor.  Could they go on the tile walkways but not on the carpet?  I feel like that's how Vegas was, but I just wasn't sure how much criss-crossing of the floor I might be doing and figured maybe I'd be more efficient solo and they could entertain themselves in the shops.

I had no idea what I was really looking for, but I stuck around the perimeter of the casino and figured eventually I'd see something.  Sure enough, maybe a quarter of the way around I caught a glimpse and walked into the front lobby.  YES!

It was beautiful!  Between the hanging piece and the two towers, I didn't know where to look first!

The towers were cool and quite different.  I've seen individual pieces like those but not so much in a tower like this.

After getting my fill, I continued around because I knew there was one in other spot.  As I walked, I noticed this one down a long hall that was blocked off.  I'm not sure if that went to the sister hotel, or what, but I grabbed the best pic I could with my actual camera through dim lighting and zoom.  The colors looked really pretty on this one and I wished I could have gotten closer. 

As I continued to walk it became apparent that almost every "crossroads" in the casino had a smaller Chihuly dangling above.  I felt weird whipping out my phone every time I walked under one, especially since they don't like cameras in casinos, but I made it pretty obvious I was just going for the Chihulys.   

I eventually made it back to where I left the boys, and they were bearing a gift--they bought me a birthday cupcake in a cup from the Borgata Bakery!  However, I still hadn't found the one other spot I was looking for, so I used Craig's phone for a minute (mine was being grumpy) and did more research until I had a better idea of what I was looking for.  I left them one more time and followed the signs to the sports book area.  There was a hallway I didn't go down the last time, and sure enough, at the end of it was another lobby.  And this is what greeted me!

There were even those round floats under the panels of the glass bottomed bridge.  It was so lovely and pretty, and I tried to grab pics from every possible angle as quickly as possible while still trying to appreciate what was in front of me.  On my way back, I walked back through the first lobby one more time, soaked in every bit of those red and orange masterpieces, and then headed back to the boys, jubilant and successful!

I can't say the guys were particularly excited to go to the boardwalk, but we forged ahead.  We drove up and down the main drag just eyeing things up and looking for a good place to park.  We saw the backs of the casinos, including one of the remaining structures from Trump Plaza.  You could just see where the letters were, and that the center of the crest was removed.

We also saw the Absecon lighthouse down at the far end of the strip, which I don't recall seeing last time.

Eventually we found a $5 lot to park in near the center of the boardwalk.  It was much cloudier by this point, so while it was still quite hot, it wasn't as oppressive as it was in the morning.  Still, I knew this would be a battle.  As we walked up to the boardwalk, we were talking about how crappy and shady our hotel had been the last time we were there.  It was only a block from the beach, though, and was a branded hotel, which had given me hope.  But admittedly, it wasn't the best.  But as we were walking, I had a realization that the taffy advertisement on the building nearby was near our hotel, and we had literally just walked right by the hotel!  We had parked on the same street, almost right across from it.  Ha, what were the odds?!  It seemed to be even more of an island in the middle of nothing than I recall it being before, and it definitely looked just as shady.  Given our hotel issues the night before, seeing that one likely made Jacob question my hotel choosing abilities even more.  

The boardwalk was actually worse than I remembered.  Not only was the contrast to Ocean City even clearer, but everything that had been there had 10 more years of wear and tear.  Things were more faded, crumbling in spots, and just generally more rundown.  Still, there were a couple nice spots.

We walked down to the Steel Pier area near the Hard Rock Hotel.  Carter was practically salivating at the sight of the rides, but we weren't going to do that here.  We were saving it for that night!

Definitely a different look than when it was Trump Taj Mahal!

Then we walked down the other way as far as the famous Boardwalk Hall.  I realized that last time we were there they were doing some upgrades, and it definitely looked better.

It's definitely a majestic, historical building!

But as a whole, it was sort of depressing to see how things had gone downhill.  Even the mall that was out on a pier looked like it was a shell of its former self.  We didn't even go in.  The visitor center on the boardwalk where we took a cute picture with Mr. Peanut was closed and dilapidated.  It was just...sad.  Meanwhile, the boys were basically doing nothing but complaining about the walk, particularly when I vetoed Jacob playing a basketball game on the boardwalk because it was extra expensive and we know all those things are rigged.  Sigh.  Eventually we made our way back to the car and headed back to Ocean City.  It was almost 6pm and it was time for the rides to open!  

Since Craig and Jacob are anti-rides, they went back to the arcade.  Carter and I went to Playland's Castaway Cove, and I double checked the ticket counts before buying just enough for us to go on three rides--Double Shot, Alien Invasion, and GaleForce.  First up was Double Shot.  Since Carter wasn't big enough to ride the drop tower at Darien Lake, I figured this was a good opportunity to experience one, especially since it wasn't super tall.  Darien Lake's is 185 feet tall, and Cedar Point's is 240 feet.  This one turned out to be 110 feet, and though it looked shorter from the ground, it felt every single foot tall when we were on it!  It shot up and bounced down a few times, and then did it all over again.  I'll be honest--it was intense!  The free fall feeling as it shot up and started to drop was crazy, and I could hear Carter screaming next to me, just hoping he was learning to love that momentary fear feeling as it transitioned to adrenaline!  I was actually a little worried, because if it caught me off-guard, how would he do?  I checked to make sure he was ready for the second round, and he seemed shocked but ready.  We screamed like crazy, but when we got off he insisted he liked it!

Next up was Alien Invasion. It was just like Devil's Hole at Fantasy Island, which Carter rode at three years old and LOVED!  We hadn't been on one since and I figured this was a good opportunity to do it again.  He wasn't quite as giggly as he'd been the first time, when it cracked me up watching him, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

Our last ride was even a little intimidating to me!  GaleForce was new since the last time we were there, and it looked like quite a ride!  It was extra interesting since it was practically intertwined with another more standard coaster.  I had never been on one quite like this.  You can see more pictures of it here.  It had a near-vertical drop, and lots of twists and turns.  I had no idea what to expect, so Carter and I were on equal footing!  It wasn't cheap to ride, but it was totally worth it!  It started out by shooting forward about halfway up the hill, then shot backward, and then flew forward fully up the hill.  It whipped up and around a couple times, and then did the whole thing over again!  The one funny thing about it was that you got such a beautiful view over the beach and boardwalk, but that just as you were at the top, it whipped you away from the view!  It was crazy and I was again a little nervous about Carter because he's so serious on rides, but he came off excited!

Our tickets were gone, but on the way out I had to take a pic of the ferris wheel, and we also eyed up something I might like to do next time--it was like a paratrooper ride but with wings you could control to change up your ride.  It looked so cool!  You can see one in action here.

We couldn't pass up the photo op back out on the boardwalk!

Happy riders!

Just as we got back to the arcade, I heard some interesting music and realized it was the weekly Mummer's Night on the boardwalk!  The Mummers are a string band that parades down the boardwalk in crazy costumes.  It was really cool.  I only took a quick video because I wanted to get pictures, too, but here's a little sample:

I was so glad we caught it since I see them on Facebook all the time.  They're definitely a tradition there, and it was a great way to end the night and our time in Ocean City.  

With that, it was time to head back to the hotel.  We thought about food on the boardwalk, but ended up settling on picking up some snacks at a Wawa gas station and getting Chick-fil-A next to the hotel.  I was desperate to get a Philly-style pretzel at Wawa (I got two!), and the boys ended up with some Dippin' Dots-style ice cream.  We drove back to the hotel and waited in an eternal drive-thru line for Chick-fil-A.  I just got mac and cheese, Jacob got fries, and Craig and Carter got their usuals.  We ate in the room and I was once again on hotel booking duty.  Since we had cut a night off our trip and were so traumatized from this hotel, we ended up upgrading to a Tru by Hilton, which was the same brand that we once stayed at in Syracuse that had a basketball court.  This one did not, sadly, but we were eager for a good breakfast, decent gym, and comfortable room.  After that was settled, I ended up being too full for my cake in a jar, but it was a pretty decent birthday nonetheless.  I was so happy to have seen the Chihulys and done those three rides with Carter, and aside from the Atlantic City complaints, it was a fun day.  We had two days left, and on to the next stop in the morning!

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!