Beach Week

Olivia loves her sandbox, so when choosing our summer vacation destination we figured it would be a good year to do the beach.  We'd only been to NC beaches before (Duck, Sunset Beach), so we decided to check out Ocean City, Maryland because it's much closer.  Plus it's just the three of us so we wanted a place with condo options.  Olivia did indeed love the beach; she would dig in the sand and play in the water with Steve all morning and nap all afternoon.

Sometimes we'd do the pool after dinner and have to drag her out even though she was shivering. 

We found lots of great restaurants, mostly over the border in Delaware (closer & less crowded).
Favorite meal: Brunch at Harpoon Hannah's: Eggs Neptune (Eggs Benedict + jumbo lump crabmeat) and coconut muffins.  Oh, and the ribs from Nick's.  And the spicy short ribs (and birch beer) at Dogfish Head.  And the pizza from Mancini's.  Okay, I love food.  And we were usually hungry by the time Olivia woke up, so we got to beat the dinner rush.  One night we just ate on the boardwalk: Thrasher's fries, Fischer's popcorn, Dumser's ice cream... all so good!  Plus we got to see my pal Cheryl and her family, who were staying at Bethany Beach the same week.

One morning we took a break from the beach to drive down to Assateague.  I've wanted to go there ever since reading Misty of Chincoteague as a kid, and we did see some wild ponies. 

We drove around the peninsula and considered going to Tangier Island from Crisfield, but the boat schedule didn't jive with ours.  I never thought I'd be "that mom" who plans life around my kid's naps, but I am.

Looking at the jellyfish

I loved seeing the sunsets over the bay, too.  Another natural thing of beauty was the Delaware Seashore State Park which, if you're an OBX person, is a lot like driving from Duck up to Corolla -- ocean on one side, sound on the other, nothing else but sand dunes. 

We had a great week at the beach!