15-17 April 2011: Ocean City, Maryland

Middle of April...what's it time for? Yep, spring break. Having a wife that is a teacher requires us to take our vacations around her schedule, so we decided to get out of town for a little while as a nice break. Last year we went to Las Vegas for spring break. This year we decided to do something a little more local and headed down to Ocean City / Ocean Pines, Maryland. If you are unfamiliar with the area, Ocean City is Maryland's biggest tourist destination and is an extremely crowded beach town in the summer. During the off-season, it is still a decently busy town with about 8,000 full-time residents. Ocean Pines is a smaller community off to the west that is in the woods and has a number of houses, ranging from very small trailer-like homes all the way up to multi-million dollar mansions. My parents have a beach house in Ocean Pines that we can use for free, so this is a very appealing destination, usually during the weekends in the spring and fall. We decided to spend a longer time, five days or so, for spring break down here, so we loaded up our new truck and headed out on Friday, after Cin got home from work.

We headed down US50 to Ocean City. We ran into a bit of traffic on the way down, but nothing horrible, especially compared to what you'd expect on a Friday afternoon more in-season. We got over the Bay Bridge and stopped at the Cracker Barrel for dinner, which is always a great meal. Some short hours later and we pulled into the house. My parents were already there (also spending some time down at the beach for spring break) and we relaxed a bit, ready to begin vacation after a long, hard, work week.

We woke up somewhat early on Saturday and then Cin went with my mom up to the Outlet Shopping Center up in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. While they did that, I got busy installing a new faucet in my parents' house, a project that should have taken about 30min but ended up taking me 2h30min, including two trips to Home Depot due to a (1) lack of plumber's putty, and (2) supply connections that were too short. Oh well. After done, I relaxed and watched some television with my dad until my mom and Cin got back. Dad and Mom went out to dinner with some other relatives of ours and Cin and I went up to Delaware and ate at one of our favorite bars, Smitty McGees (their website is here and their TripAdvisor page is here). This is a locals place and is always busy, regardless of what time of year you go. We love the confetti salads (this is a Caesar salad with tomato, onion, and cucumber in it) and the garlic parmesan wings...so delicious. They also have a great beer selection and always friendly service. If you're around the Ocean City area and looking for a good bar, this one is highly recommended. After dinner, we headed home and then hung around with my parents and our other relatives for a little while and then went to bed, quite tired.

On Sunday, we woke up late (again) and decided to head to The Dough Roller for some lunch. The Dough Roller is a local pizza (and pancakes) chain that we've been going to be many years. They have some of the best pizza around and we head here every time we are down in Ocean City. A few years ago they opened a location in West Ocean City, which is not really Ocean City as it is on the west side of the Assawoman Bay right on US50. This new location was very close to Ocean Pines, so we started going there. This time, I drove right by it without seeing it and, once we turned around, we saw why...it had closed (after just under a year and a half of being open). Now, this location is out of the way and not in OC-proper and it always seemed much less busy than the other locations, but we did not expect this. The Dough Roller also used to have a location in Crofton, Maryland, but that closed many years ago, and another in the northern part of Ocean City, which also recently closed. Both the wife and I are a little concerned about this development, as we really love this chain of restaurants and they are down to four locations instead of seven. We hope this does not continue as The Dough Roller is one of the best pizzas around. Check out my thoughts on this, and related matters, here on a special Topics post.

Anyway, we ended up driving into Ocean City and went to the 41st Street location of The Dough Roller, where we braved a very crowded place (this location is right next to the OC Convention Center, where almost all of the diners came from) to get our delicious pizza fix...and it was soooo delicious. They also have really good iced tea at this place. After eating, we headed back to the house and then took my parents' dog to the beach, where he rolled around and enjoyed playing in the sand with the large number of other dogs that were also out. Dogs are only allowed on the beach in the off-season, so we have to take advantage of this while we can. This is because the beach is largely desserted this time of year, as you can see.

Cin also got some really good pictures of this using her new camera (much better than my picture, above). I ended up walking for a bit in the ocean (just up to my calves) and that water was crazy cold...probably in the mid 40s. There is no way I would go swimming in that ocean without a full wetsuit, booties, and a hood. :) But that coldness/stinging that the cold water caused was strangely relaxing and I spent more time than I probably should have standing there.

After the beach, we headed back to the house and went to the Ruth's Chris Steak House for dinner. While a chain (again, more on that here), the consistently perfect experience and food at these places is worth it. A Caesar salad, some shoestring potatoes, some garlic green beans, and a huge 11oz filet later, I was filled up! Back to the beach house for some relaxing and then off to bed...stuffed and exhausted. Full day two of spring break ... complete!