Vacation Is Over. Where is Everybody?

Before we know it, school will be starting. What a great summer it has been ! We had a great trip to the shore last week. I know people talk bad about the Jersey shore; it's crowded and all, but it's so much fun. I think most people that go probably went as a kid, like me, and most people are from Philadelphia (like my family). My dad went as a kid and his dad went, too. My dad doesn't like it anymore, but I'm always up for going. I have my favorite spots and think it's just a great place for taking kids. This year we took our niece!

My Top 10 Favorite Must-Do Things in an Ocean City Trip:

1. Get Shriver's Fudge. This year I couldn't get J as excited about the fudge- he was more interested in other goodies on the boardwalk, but I left with plenty of their delightful yummy fudge. About maybe 8 years ago, my cousin B and I came and stayed at the beach for the summer. One night she woke me up in the middle of the night, fire in her eyes, saying, "Were you eating some of my fudge? I heard the wrapper moving and I know you did." Yes, it's that good. You wake up having nightmares that someone's stealing your fudge. For the record, I did not. I was sleeping. Check out all the crazy flavors.

2. Hit the beach. Love the beach. Usually go to the same one every year. Always a bit crowded, but I never mind it. Luckily, the weather was great all week. One day I took my neice to this water park and we had a great time. I should have brought more sunscreen though, because I left with a terrible sunburn. One of the days I buried my niece in the sand and a swarm of kids joined in on the fun... they wanted to help if they too, could be buried and sculpted into sharks, muscle-men, and mermaids. I buried at least 5 kids and my arms were killing me. Always fun, though. J has really gotten into boogey-boarding and that's fun to watch him tackle the waves. Read a great book called Icy Sparks and lathered on the sunscreen the rest of the week.

3. Hit the boardwalk (over and over). The house is only a few minutes walk (less than a block) from the boardwalk and beach, so we've got no good reason to stay home too long. When I was a teenager, my cousins and I walked up and down the boardwalk checking out all the cute Jersey boys. One of my cousins, H, said the boardwalk was a meat market. She was no fun. She wanted to stay at the house and listen to operas. Not B, S, and I! We walked up and down that boardwalk. We had so much fun! Really the most perfect place to be a teenager! This year we rented a surrey one morning- J and our niece had a good time going down the ramps, for me it was a little scary. The thing didn't have the greatest brakes!

4. Go downtown. I usually go to the bakery and the old downtown in the mornings, but it was so hot every morning that I only did that once. I love the old downtown- reminds me of simpler times. Took my niece one morning and here she is in front of an old ice cream parlor.

5. Eat lots of stuff that's bad for you. Like Mac and Manco's pizza (every day!)-- it is the best pizza in the world. Hands down. Funnel cake. Cotton candy. Gelato. Gelato. Any kind of treat you can imagine, they have here.

6. Do Fun Stuff. We played Putt-Putt, went to a water park, went to a mini-theme park called Wonderland. I can remember riding so many of these rides as a kid, and I hope our niece enjoyed all the rides. She's fearless when it comes to rides, and was willing to try the ones we adults wouldn't. We'll have to do let her try those when she's taller-- she was upset that she's "short for her age" and couldnt' ride many adult rides. Here we are on a scary ride for me.... Can you guess what we were riding?

The Ferris Wheel! They weren't really that scared, but I was. I was so scared to be up that high, I think I'm now scared of heights. Look what we saw below us only a quarter of the way up, and imagine only being held in place on the Ferris Wheel by a single bolt!

7. Take a fun day trip. Margate's fun because of Lucy the Elephant; Wildwood's fun. This year, though, we headed to Cape May. There's a great zoo there, and it's free! Since it was free, I thought they might not have very much, but it was huge. Had almost every animal we could think of. Afterwards we headed to Cape May. It's a great town to see old Victorians.

8. Shop. The shops there always seem to have things in stock that VA stores won't have for months, but I'm beginning to be a little old to wear some of the stuff- like sequins belts and huge earrings. But I did find some very classy vintage-style dresses.

9. Watch some TV. I won't lie. We don't have cable. So, I do like to watch all those channels I miss out on: Style, Bravo, Food Network, HGTV. J wanted to watch ESPN. Our niece wanted to watch Animal Planet, Animal Planet, Animal Planet. We never found much that all three of us wanted to watch, so we now know lots about Animals! :)

10. Get Some Color. A long time ago, when I went with my cousins to the beach, I had a dream of a beautiful tan. I'm Armenian, and my dad and most relatives tan beautifully and darkly. They use tanning oil, the one that smells like coconut. My cousin S and I are the only fair-skinned cousins. We thought we could change all that my using the same coconut oil, along with some Sun-In, and spending every waking hour that the sun was up in the sun. That resulted in really bad looking sunburns with bleached out hair! We looked so bad, I'm sure. But now we can laugh. We even bought matching dresses a few times! We were such geeks! My only hope now is that I can just add some color to my very pale skin!

That pretty much sums it up!

I was looking forward to reading some blogs when I got home, but everybody must be on vacation from blogging! Where is everybody? Have you left blogland?