Ocean City Sojourn

Perhaps you noticed that The Grandstander has been inactive for the last several days.  That is due to the fact that Marilyn and I took leave of the Home Base last week to celebrate our birthdays in the resort town of Ocean City, New Jersey.  I first visited Ocean City in the Summer of 1971, and it was the site of many Sproule Family vacations into the early 1980's.  Marilyn and I made, as best as I can recollect, five trips to Ocean City early in our marriage, but we pretty much stopped going there when we began our annual trips to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Our last visit there came in 1996, so when we decided to take this birthday jaunt to Ocean City, we were also taking trip into the past.

I'm happy to report that Ocean City is largely unchanged.  The Boardwalk is still bright, noisy, and honky-tonkish:

I was bit dismayed to see some invasion of franchises on the Boardwalk - a Subway, a Dairy Queen, and, inexplicably, a Verizon Wireless store (never saw a soul in there) - but for the most part, it is still all t-shirt shops, carnival games, miniature golf, pizza, fudge, taffy, caramel corn, and funnel cake joints.  Real Americana!

Work has also been done to enlarge the beaches.  Don't ask me how they do that, but the beaches where we stayed were much deeper than I remember them being:

Our weather was absolutely terrific - high 70's/low 80's temps, no wind, no clouds.  We got to the beach every day, and were surprised at how crowded they were for weekdays in September after Labor Day.

We had some absolutely fabulous meals patronizing Spadafora's Clam Bar, the Tuckahoe Inn, the Happy Days Cafe, Luigi's Italian Restaurant, and, best of all, a place in Cape May called the Lobster House.  At the Lobster House, you place you order, wait for your number to be called, and then you eat your meal at outdoor tables along a wharf.  There are some great places to eat in Cape May, but if we ever go back there for an extended stay, I do believe that we will eat at the Lobster House every single day.

All in all, a great little getaway, and a nice exclamation point on what has been a nice summer for us.