Overnight Trip to Ocean City, Maryland During the Pandemic

Alan pleasantly surprised me a couple of weeks ago when he announced that he had cashed in our hotel points and made reservations for us to spend July 5th in Ocean City.

Say what?? Granted, Alan can be very spontaneous, but this was even better than a last minute trip. This was a PLANNED vacation surprise! Wahoo! I had not even suspected that he was planning something like this. We have been basically stuck here. You see, not only is there a pandemic which we respect and take precautions for, but Alan is in the military. He is not even allowed by the government to travel beyond some specified radius for now. Don’t ask me what the radius is exactly. I haven’t bothered to look it up, but all I know is we are required to basically stay in place.

Alan and I went to Ocean City seven years ago, for a marriage retreat, but it was in winter. We have never been to their famous boardwalk. The children have never been down there at all. So this was something to get excited about!

John David actually said, “Well, I am excited because of staying in a hotel, so yeah!”

I was a little nervous about pulling off social distancing in such a crowded location. Catching coronavirus is certainly not on my summer bucket list.

In fact, I have only two items on 2020’s summer bucket list:

1. Do not catch coronavirus, and do my best to ensure the family does not catch it either.
2. Go to Alabama to visit our family.

So is it possible to pull off social distancing while taking a beach vacation?

Yes, I mean, not perfectly, but just as well as we do at home anyway. We ate out once and got take-out twice in twenty-four hours. Normally, we would not need to venture out for food or eat out as frequently as that.

I think anytime you go out and especially eat from a restaurant, it is a risk. Right? But I mean obviously, some risks are going to have to be made. Even going to the store carries some risks, but people do have to eat.

Before we left, I looked up Ocean City’s current COVID numbers.

Their numbers were even lower than our own county, so that was a plus. There just comes a point where you need to get out of your own house for your mental health, and we were definitely at that point.

Bathroom stops

I am happy to report that bathroom stops are possible. Royal Farms abound at every turn in eastern Maryland and Delaware, and their restrooms were open, so this was not a problem. I cannot say what level of cleanliness they were because the kids and I did not take any bathroom breaks. The trip from our house to Ocean City was only around three hours. Did you know that I have a bladder of steel? It’s an attribute I’m quite proud of. Once, in high school, I held it for thirteen hours, from Alabama to Texas. You see, public restrooms give me the eebidy-jeebies.

Our entire family is pretty crazy about Sweet Frog. This is a frozen yogurt place that lets you add all kinds of toppings of your choosing. It is also a Christian company. We were delighted to discover it was right next door to our hotel!

Hotel Stays with a Family of Six

Hotel stays have to be planned out very carefully when you are trying to room six people together. This requires that you book a suite that has two queens and a pull out sofa, or two rooms of almost any description joined together. This time we had two joined rooms, and it was so spacious and wonderful. Both rooms had queen beds, pull-out sofas, and full kitchens. Plus, one room was handicap accessible, so it had about two feet of extra width everywhere. Home 2 suites is also pet friendly, or at least this one is, so we highly recommend this hotel!

We originally booked a pet-friendly hotel, thinking we would bring Rosie with us, but in the end we decided to send Rosie to her boarding place. She stays at a doggie daycare that is run out of the owner’s house, so I can assure you, she probably has more fun there than she does at home. Rosie loves getting to go play with the other dogs.

The Golden Age of Parenthood

We are smack dab in the middle of the golden age of parenting. It is glorious. No one is in diapers, needs bottles, or needs help using the potty. Everyone can bathe themselves and wash their own hair. Meanwhile, no one can drive yet, so we always know where everyone is and what they are doing. This is our golden age.

I should also mention that we also left ALL video game devices at home so we did not have to settle any fights over turns.

Our Biggest Obstacle: Feather pillows!!!!

There are only a few things that could allergically ruin our vacation: cashews, peanuts, fire ants, peas, or feather pillows. Thankfully, our boys know how to avoid their food allergies with excellent accuracy and very little anxiety. Fire ants do not live this far north, so that only leaves the nemesis of at least FOUR of us….feather pillows.

It never even occurred to me to be worried about this, but it brought great distress and a little bit of asthma to our evening. Thankfully, I never travel without adult and children’s Benadryl. Several of us had to make make-shift pillows and switch beds, but I am happy to report that we did not end up at the ER. I cannot BELIEVE I was careless enough to forget to bring an inhaler. It has been a year since anyone needed one, so it never crossed my mind.

Yes, the beach was still somewhat crowded. It was Sunday, July 5th.

That did not mean we came into contact with anyone at all though. We set up our blanket about twelve feet from the nearest group, just as we normally would anyway. I did have to try harder than usual to stay away from other people in the water.

John David and Daniel were ALL about the ocean. I loved watching them enjoy it so much. That was another golden age of parenting moment. No one was so small that I had to worry about their every step. I stayed close to them, constantly scanning of course, but it was nothing like those years where Caleb would take off running in the opposite direction or J.D. thought he could just plow right into the deep waves with no fear whatsoever. I was made to be a big kid mom!

You may be thinking, “It’s not as pretty as Florida.”

Well, no, it is not as gorgeous as the Gulf of Mexico. It was fun though. Really it was exactly what we needed.

Daniel told me early on, “I got pinched on the toes by a crab!” Isn’t it sad how we naturally think kids are wrong sometimes? That is exactly why I FULLY deserved that very real, quite startling, pinch I got on my big toe an hour later from a crab that I could not see in that dark water.

We saw many crabs, of all different sizes that day. Maryland is not known for its crabs for nothing. In fact, their prevalence makes me wonder why it costs so much to eat them. Ha!

Alan buried the boys up to their knees, per their request, and then headed back out for some swimming. Why do kids love to be buried in the sand so much? Ick. It is not for me.

Pool Time!

According to the CDC, you are not at risk of catching coronavirus from swimming in a well maintained pool or hot tub. I think it is the chlorine that we have to thank here.

Home 2 Suite’s pool policy was that you sign up for an hour at a time for the pool. No more than ten people in the pool at any given time. The great thing about this was that we had the entire pool to ourselves for most of the time. We thoroughly enjoyed our pool time. It was badly needed. The only swimming we had done this summer was the day the boys swam in the stream at Rocks State Park.

Longboard Cafe

This restaurant was next door to our hotel, so it was an obvious choice. We lucked up and got seats right away, and the food was delicious. I am quite pleased to say that everyone was on their best behavior. It went much better than last week, when the boys had not been out in forever.

Childhood Problems

We noticed at dinner that Daniel looked all pouty, so Alan asked him what was wrong. Caleb said, “He’s just mad because he didn’t get to push the buttons on the elevator.”

I laughed. Kids do not like it when you laugh at their problems, but it is so hard not to laugh!! We worked extra hard to make sure Dan got to push elevator buttons on the way back to the room.

Home 2 Suites Breakfast

They did still have the free breakfast. You just had to pick it up and carry it to your room. I had one of those microwavable sausage biscuits, and we made coffee in our room. The kids, as usual, all ate cereal, and everyone was happy.

The Boardwalk!

Ocean City’s boardwalk is famous. I have heard people talk about it ever since we first moved to the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia area) nine years ago. The boys did not care one way or the other. They are funny like that, but I could NOT wait to check it out.

However, locals advised us to steer clear of the boardwalk at night this trip. There has been violence in recent weeks. Not ones to ignore sound advice, we decided to do the boardwalk on Monday morning rather than Sunday night. We enjoyed Sweet Frog by our hotel instead, and no one was disappointed really.

It looks so fun, doesn’t it? But the amusement park was not open when we went. Arcades did not seem like a good idea during the ‘rona either, and we weren’t hungry because we had eaten the free breakfast at the hotel. Plus, the sun was beating down on us with very little shade available. I can see where normally it is actually more fun at night.

We stayed at the boardwalk all of thirty minutes and then headed back home.

I would have been perfectly happy to remain in Ocean City all week.

But then you know how much I LOVE the beach. Like everyone else, I am tired of staying in my house all the time. I officially miss regular life. Yesterday, I was so sad to be back at my isolation island full of people fussing about their video game controllers, I just sat down and watched reruns on Netflix all day. That left me feeling even worse, so today I am aiming to be more productive.

I am already starting to daydream about our next getaway. Alan has resubmitted paperwork to take leave to visit family in August, so now we wait to see if it will be approved. Here’s hoping!