Ocean City Pictures

As promised, here are pictures from our trip to Salisbury/Ocean City, MD two weeks ago.  (Last year we made the same trip July 4th weekend; you can read all about it here.)

The reason we headed to the Eastern shore in the first place was to visit the parents and grandmother of Chet's good friend James (an Academy roommate who was also in our wedding).  James' parents have a lovely, kid-friendly house right on a lake, and James' grandmother (who used to live in the Annapolis area) has a new house in Salisbury that we hadn't seen yet.

Instead of battling heavy traffic Friday evening/night, we decided to leave at 6 a.m. Saturday morning.  We made it more than halfway (it's only a little over two hours to the shore), and stopped for breakfast (Dunkin' Donuts).  We arrived in Salisbury before 10 a.m. (who hoo!).

The kids were content playing in the house for the first several hours we were there, and then it was nap time for Lorelei and Ford.  After nap time we played outside at the next-door-neighbor's house,  who have an amazing swing set (sorry, no pictures!).  But we managed to capture Bubby pre- and post-nap:

Pre-Nap

Post-Nap

After the swing set, Chet took all of the kids out in the paddle boat (sorry, no pictures!).

We grilled out for dinner, and also ate delicious tomatoes.  We lit the fire pit and roasted marshmallows (sorry, no pictures!).

Then the kids went fishing with the men (the fish were biting!):

Obviously the above picture is hilarious, but I might like this one better.  I can hear him saying, in a warbled grandpa voice, "Yeesh, make sure ya' hold that fish tight, Sonny, so it don't getcha...and warsh your hands once ya' throw 'im back!"

Ahh, good times.

The next morning the plan was to go to church, but we went to the ocean instead.  It's not often we're so spontaneous.  The weather was perfect.  The beach was uncrowded when we arrived at 9 a.m.  And the kids had a ball.

We stayed less than two hours, and then visited Rita's Italian Ice for some pre-lunch.

We made our way back to Salisbury after Rita's, stopped by to see Grams' gorgeous new house, and were welcomed "home" with a delicious taco buffet for lunch.  Then we packed up and headed home.

The drive home was longer than the previous morning's drive, but it wasn't too terrible (not as bad as the commute home last year, July 4th weekend).  We stopped at a McDonald's in Annapolis for dinner, and were home with enough time to unpack a little, bathe, and not have to rush bedtime.

It really was the best weekend.