A Weekend At Ocean City, MD

This past weekend was Soccer Duels in Ocean City, MD. Kids from all over the place come and play 24 minute soccer games on the sand right next to the ocean. It was something I’ve never experienced before. I’m so thankful I was able to go!! I’d never been to Ocean City before!

Fred got us hotel rooms in Delmar, MD. At least I think we were in Maryland. Turns out where the hotel is borders on Delaware and Maryland…hence Del-Mar. =) It’s considerably cheaper to be about 1/2 an hour away than to stay right on the ocean.

The traffic getting there was horrendous! Crossing the Bay Bridge took about an hour because the tropical storm had closed it down to two lanes. Our drive altogether took about 5 hours and we had anticipated it taking about 3ish! That was after I drove 2 hrs to GET to Fred’s! It was a long drive to say the least!

We woke up in the morning and headed straight to the beach. It actually reminded me of Navy Pier in Chicago. They have all kinds of rides next to the ocean and carnival games along the Boardwalk at one end. Towards the other end there were some amazing kites being flown in the air! At any given time you could find someone playing an instrument, blowing up balloons, miming, henna tattoos, etc. It was an extremely eclectic bunch of people to put it mildly!

The day we were there, a tropical storm had just rolled through. The Soccer Duel games had started early in the morning and right as Fred’s daughter was getting ready to play her first game, the heavens opened and it poured for over an hour! We had nothing with us for covering! I ended up watching her game from a hotel overhang while he went out and watched the game on the beach. Yes, they played in the pouring rain!

I haven’t watched soccer in years and I wasn’t sure I’d be very interested, but it turned out to be just as exciting as the boys basketball or baseball games! There were 15 “fields” and games were constantly in motion. We would watch a game, take a break and go grab something to eat at one of the many vendors! Trust me, if you need anything, I think you could pretty much find it along the Boardwalk!

The sand was absolutely wonderful and soft. The water, which I never entered because it was too cold, was about 53 degrees! lol Maybe towards the fall we’ll get back and actually venture into the ocean. I also forgot my brand new beach chair that I bought specifically for this trip. Again, they have everything you need including beach chairs and umbrellas you can rent along the beach!

The boys won 2 games, lost 1. The girls lost 2 games, won 1. It’s tough, but for it was such a fun experience for everyone. The boys took it pretty hard because they really fought the loss. It just didn’t come together for them.

Fred and I went to dinner at the Marina and had a really good dinner. He had soft shell crab. I’ve never had that before and it was pretty good. It was hard to eat it knowing what it looked like! lol He also bought caramel popcorn at Fisher’s for his dad for Father’s Day! Apparently it’s some pretty good stuff. He also bought us each an ice cream at Dumser’s. Hand spun ice cream! Wow, just can’t beat that!

At dinner Fred told me the kids and his ex were going to go parasailing together the next day! With Groupon, they were able to go for $99! That’s so awesome! I actually used a Restaurant.com discount at the Marina for our dinner! As we were leaving the Marina, I wanted to grab a couple pictures and realized they had jet ski’s for rent! You can even go kite surfing on the beach. I didn’t see any of that while we were there, but we also didn’t make it down the entire beach.

It seems as though there’s something constantly going on in Ocean City. Throughout the entire weekend, they were having an air show. And the cool part, it didn’t cost anything! Yes, it costs everywhere down there to park, but nothing to sit on the beach and watch planes doing incredible acrobatics. And the air show was for the entire weekend. Oh, and we parked right by the beach and for the whole day it was $27!

The one thing we didn’t do in the area was go see the wild horses that migrate there every spring. Fred knows my love for horses, so I hope next year we’ll be able to see them. Besides, sand soccer will be for the whole weekend next year!