Back From the Beach

Yesterday, we ended our vacation at the beach.  My son was on his summer break which began on August 2nd and was to return back to school yesterday.  So, our plan was to schedule our annual trip to Ocean City MD around his return to school yesterday.  The vacation itself was rather nice, but yesterday was another story entirely.

My son had been really looking forward to this vacation.  All summer long, he would ask us, "Where are we going in August?"  That was his way of prompting us to ask him that question so that he could respond "Ocean City."  All he could talk about was going to play miniature golf at Maui Golf and wanting to eat at Hooter's restaurant on the boardwalk.

We headed out to the beach on Thursday morning and got to the beach that afternoon.  After unpacking our things, we headed out to the boardwalk.  My wife was hobbled by a bit of a sprained ankle, so it took us about half an hour to walk the boardwalk to have lunch at Hooter's.  My son enjoyed his usual fare of hot boneless buffalo wings and curly fries.

After lunch, we did not have time to get a round of miniature golf.  We had to hit the grocery store to pick up some food supplies.  Another tradition that we have when we head out to the beach is to also attend some Delmarva Shorebirds games.  Thursday night was hat night at the stadium and my son wanted to go.  There was a fairly long line to get into the stadium.  My son, fortunately, got the last hat given out to our line and the rest of us were out of luck.  With the long drive, everybody was pretty worn out and we only made it through half of the game before we headed back to the trailer.

The next morning was a beautiful day.  We got out fairly early and headed out to Maui golf for some miniature golf.  Originally, my son told me he wanted to play two rounds of golf, which was fine with me.  At Maui golf, you pay once and can golf as much as you want before 6pm.  It took us about a half hour to play our first round of golf.  I was all set to get two more balls and play again, but my son decided that he didn't want to play again. We went ahead and got wrist bands just in case he decided he wanted to play again later.  Unfortunately, he did not want to play any more that day, or at all the rest of the week.  It was kind of surprising and a bit disappointing as he talked all summer long about playing Maui Golf.  Such is life.

The weather all week was about as perfect as it could have been.  Temperatures were in the low 80's and sunny.  We got to go to two more Shorebirds games on Friday and Saturday nights, both of which featured fireworks.  My wife was not up for going to Saturday night's game but my son was set on going, so we had a nice father-son night at the game.  We also managed to get in a few meals while we were out there.  Another staple for us is to get pit beef sandwiches at Bull on the Beach.  It was a bad few days at the beach for me diet wise as I gained a few pounds back that I had lost.  Back on the wagon today.

Sunday night, my son started getting anxious.  While we had not talked at all about taking him back to school on Monday, he must have known.  He was starting to get awfully cranky.  Monday morning, we wanted to go out for breakfast to the Little House of Pancakes and Ribs so my son could have some bacon and pancakes.  We also wanted to hit the boardwalk one last time to get some more Fisher's Popcorn.  Unfortunately, he would have none of it.  It was over two hours of him hitting and kicking my wife and I along with dropping down to the floor.

Eventually, we were able to get him off of the floor and into the car.  By this time, any thoughts of going out to breakfast or the boardwalk were out of the question.  Instead, we headed out to our final destination.  Originally, we had considered stopping at the Golden Corral in Easton MD for lunch, but again we decided it was better to not take a chance on having one of his behavior meltdowns there.

Once we got him to school he was fine.  He got out of the car and headed to his classroom.  While we were saying our goodbyes, he started asking "Where are we going in October," which happens to be his next break.  He already knew his next break on the calendar.  In fact, he knew the exact date of October 11th.  One day back and he is already looking forward to his next break.  Typical teenager.