2012 Vacation: Days 5 & 6

Monday, Monday. No case of the "Mundays" while on vacation! No sadness while on the beach!!!

I don't know who this dude is, but that tall building is our condo.

Lapiz of Luxury toes.

If memory serves, we had Five Guys for lunch. Yummmm. As you can see, more beaching took place. Monday night's dinner was in the Twilight Zone, I mean Ruby Tuesday. One of the more unforgettable meals, for all the wrong reasons. Not worth elaborating.

Tuesday we decided to go to Ocean City, Maryland. It's about 1/2 hour drive from Rehoboth Beach. On the recommendation of a college friend Lisa, John and I had gone to Macky's, a restaurant on the water, the last two times we visited. We knew we wanted to take the kids there. Too bad it rained and we had to sit inside. Bummer dude.

We then headed to the outlets/"regular" shopping to get some stuff for little John and his new apartment. (We actually went to the outlets in Rehoboth either Sunday or Monday, but alas, I've now forgotten which day and forgot to write about it.) We got our stuff and by then, the sun was out in full force. My wonderful husband asked if I wanted to go back to Macky's to get our picture taken, as he knew I was REALLY bummed that we couldn't sit outside and have our annual photo taken.

We went back and I so glad we did.

One far away & one close-up (because you just never know!) They're both keepers. I'm hoping to blow one up and hang over our fireplace.

I caught this one on the way out JUST as the battery died (good timing and thank goodness for iPhones!)

We then attempted to walk on the Ocean City boardwalk. I say "attempted" because parking was sketchy and we parked pretty far down from all of the good stuff. We ended up walking a short way and then turning around and going back to the car.

 

 

We headed back to the condo, relaxed, freshened up, and headed out for dinner.

 

Here's a cloudy view from the condo's porch:

 

 



We walked to the "main drag" (Rehoboth Ave) and ate at go fish!, a British fish and chip shop. (Grace said a few times that she wanted fries instead of chips.)

This is a pretty bad photo, but I'll include it anyway. There's a few of the guys, but I've made the executive decision to NOT include. They'll both thank me.

British fried fish restaurant and what do I order? Indian chicken. I got Tandoori Chicken Skewers and they were DELISH!!!!

NEXT UP: The pool and Dogfish!!!

2012 Vacation: Days 3 & 4

Saturday morning and after a quickie breakfast at McDonald's (::shudder::), we're on our way to the Delaware shore. It was a fairly uneventful drive, although once we were approaching the Bay Bridge, the tension mounted considerably. (There are two ways to get across...a multi-lane one way section and then a one-lane two way section. We took the latter the first year we went and John was a tad traumatized. We now know better and stay on the multi-lane one way section and vertigo is avoided.)

Once we finally arrived in Rehoboth (after driving through Hooterville, DE), it was fairly overcast and threatened rain. No problem.

We checked into our condo, One Virginia Avenue, which we were excited to be staying at, because it's right on the beach! We were on the 8th floor (top) and checking in/bringing our stuff up to our condo was just like college move-in day. Everybody checking in within a few hour window and waiting for luggage/grocery carts. It was all good, though, and we got our stuff in and were ready to eat!

We headed a hop, skip, and a jump down the boardwalk to Grotto Pizza.

Grotto is to Delaware as Dunkin Donuts is to Massachusetts. On.every.corner. Decent pizza, though and you can sit and look out at the boardwalk/ocean.

After filling up, we toured the Boardwalk briefly so Grace and little John could see the "sights," as they'd never been and John and I'd been twice before.

Little John and I went grocery (and booze) shopping for the condo and we pretty much hung in.

Sunday morning bright and early were were on the beach! (That's what we were there for!) Who knows if these were taken on Sunday...all of the days have melted together. (I'm just making that statement, as someone in my party may try to call me out for incorrectly labeling photos.)

The water is very rough and so we made sure that Grace used the boogie board and either John or I had the wrist cord attached to one of us at all times.

I did go in the water "all the way" a few times, but usually everyone was in the water already, so no photos of moi (awww...shucks!)

This truly warms my heart.

After chilling at the beach for the better part of the day, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner.

Every night starting at 5, the Rehoboth Toy & Kite Company (which is right on the beach/boardwalk) breaks out its coolest kites and puts them on display. (FYI: No kites are allowed on the beach prior to 5PM. I saw a lifeguard break a little kid's heart at around 2PM.)

Here's Grace posing on the boardwalk for a photo. (Actually, I believe "posing" is probably inaccurate. "Forced" might be more appropriate.)

We chose to go to Dos Locos, a GREAT Mexican restaurant that John and I have been to on each of our visits.

Not only is the food great, the frozen sangria is to.die.for.

Happy we're all on vacation!

Later in the evening, we hit the arcades. Grace and I had been joking for a while that we were going "kick each others butts" in Skeeball. We all played a few games, but Grace did most of the playing and might I say she's PRETTY good!!!

Apparently the hand on the hip is part of the technique!

NEXT UP: More of the same! :)

2012 Vacation: Day 2

Where were we? Oh, right -- hoping to get a good night's sleep in Baltimore after driving all day. Ehhh....not so much. We definitely live in the country, because it seemed SO loud in Baltimore at night. Plus the sleep number beds that were not sleep number beds (and were full-sized when we're used to sleeping on queen-sized at home).

Needless to say, the guys were up fairly early to take care of errands far and wide, while Grace and I slept in and then headed out. We weren't feeling too adventurous, so we had Subway for lunch. Then, on a whim, I decided that she and I would walk to the Inner Harbor. In case I haven't mentioned, she's not a big walker. However, based on some motivational tools we've been implementing with her and the desire to not sit in our hotel room, we set off. (Well, not before we detoured back to the hotel to get walking directions -- I didn't want to rely on my sketchy sense of direction.)

This water fountain/statue-thingy is basically the gateway to the Inner Harbor (at least it is when you walk in from the city). I tried my darndest to figure out what it's called, but no can do. Maybe some astute reader will know....

We made a pit stop at Urban Outfitters, during which I had to steer Grace away from SEVERAL items, one of those being this:

photo credit

Let's just say that we hightailed it out of there.

Next up was Ripley's Believe It or Not!. (Or more accurately, the part you don't have to pay to see. Based on the free stuff, I don't think we were missing much.)

I couldn't get back far enough to take a photo of the entire "picture," but do you see anyone in this photo?

It's the King of Pop -- Michael Jackson made entirely out of soda cans! His hair is the top left dark triangle and then you can see one of his eyes smack dab in the middle. Stare at it a while -- you'll see it. I promise.

We decided to take a little break after that (too much excitement for us!) Here was our view from the bench looking out at the Inner Harbor.

(World Trade Center is on the left, National Aquarium is the pointy building...but don't quote me on that.)

We trekked back to the hotel, freshened up, and then while waiting for one of the guys, we took a "real" photo of Grace and I.

Then we were off to Bethesda, MD to meet up with our friend Andrea -- yay!!! We met at Rock Bottom brew pub and had a great dinner! Those who drink beer enjoyed some great beer and we all enjoyed some great food --- especially the appetizer and the dessert.

Ball Park Pretzel appetizer:

photo credit

 

 

For dessert? Warm donut holes!!! Wish I'd taken a photo (or that they had one on their site.) (In case you couldn't tell -- Weight Watchers is so far out the window now!!!)

 

Good food, good company! (Although, with Grace sitting between Andrea and I, I'm pretty sure we both have whiplash. :)

 

Glad we got to see Andrea (for our once-every-three year visit!) Now she MUST come to Boston!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

With full stomachs and full smiles we headed back to our hotel to sleep our last night in Baltimore.

 

Tomorrow? DELAWARE!!!



2012 Vacation: Day 1

In the wee hours of Thursday, August 9th (OK, not "that" wee), we packed up our 'mobile and headed out for the long drive to the mid-Atlantic.

Here's our clown / luggage car. We packed as much stuff into the Honda CR-V as we possibly could. I'm surprised the rear wasn't dragging.

You're probably wondering why we're bringing a CASIO keyboard with us on vacation. We're not the Partridge Family and we don't rock out on vacation. We were stopping in Baltimore on our way to Rehoboth Beach, DE to visit "little" John in his new digs and pick him up to take him with us. So, we had some stuff to drop off with him...thankfully. We still were worried that even after getting rid of some stuff, one of us might have to ride on the roof.

After a quick stop at Dunkin' Donuts (already let go of Weight Watchers for the week...), we were on our way!

Bay State to Nutmeg State: I didn't catch the "Welcome to Connecticut" sign, so this will have to do:

Nutmeg State to Empire State:

Empire State to Garden State:

Grace is smiling because we're getting close now....and nothing has fallen into her lap for an hour or so...

Garden State to First State:

First State to Old Line State....last stop for today!

All in all, our drive was pretty smooth and we didn't encounter any major traffic jams/accidents.

We arrived in Baltimore at our hotel, the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore. I'd read not so good things about it, so was slightly worried. Overall, it was fine, although I did text my Dad and say, "I think someone was murdered in this room." (There was a stain on the rug and one of the windows was cracked.) We concurred that back in its day it was probably a grand hotel (the lobby shows this), but it's experienced wear and tear over time.  John parked the car...oh, and there's another interesting tidbit about staying in downtown Baltimore --- the hotels don't have their own garages. There are several underground public parking garages that charge by the hour which hotels refer their customers to. It was slightly inconvenient for us based on the amount of "stuff" that we needed to bring up to the hotel room, to little John's apartment, etc... Luckily, his apartment was a hop, skip, and jump from the hotel/garage.

After we reunited in the hotel room, we then headed to the inner harbor to eat dinner. (It was approximately a 5-10 minute walk.)

If you haven't been, the Inner Harbor is just what it says. It has a touristy shopping plaza that surrounds parts of the harbor/seaport. There are stores, restaurants, National Aquarium, paddle boats in the shape of dragons (which are apparently named "Chessie" -- I'm guessing after "Chesapeake"), and the Maryland 9/11 Memorial. Oh, and did I mention that there are actually ships there? (Harbor -- ships -- makes sense.)

We had lots of restaurants to choose from, but once Grace heard "Hard Rock Cafe," it was decided. It was almost the furthest to walk to...and guess what? There was a private function going on and it was CLOSED! We walked a little further and we ended up at Houlihan's, which was somewhat nostalgic for me, as I used to go there where I lived in D.C. We had some good food (& good drinks) and made our way back to see John's new digs.

Great place! Beautiful building and great apartment. He had gotten new bedroom/office furniture from IKEA  and there were a few loose screws (pun intended?)/things out of whack after everything had gotten put together. While the men were being men and "fixing stuff" Grace was in America's Next Top Model mode.

 (I wish I knew how to use Photoshop -- I'd put a caption over the heads of the guys in the second one. "What do you think THIS does???") Actually, they were watching a YouTube video on putting together/adjusting this specific chair from IKEA. Really. What did we do before the Internet?

After this confab, we headed back to our hotel to try to get some rest.

NEXT: Day 2 in Baltimore!

If the Shoe Fits...You're Lucky

In a previous post I referred to these shoes as "misfit shoes" and mentioned they'd have a post all of their own.

Here they are:

They look normal (if they're your style).

They feel normal.

They're not.

If you've ever purchased anything at Marshalls' or TJ Maxx, you know that more than likely you're getting last year's style, overstock, or something slightly irregular.

These take "slightly" irregular to a new level.

One day I happened to be sitting outside at work, talking on my cellphone, and I took my shoe off and looked at the inside of the strap.

First misfit shoe clue: last I checked, "storm cloud" is not spelled "stormchloud."

OK...so these were at Marshalls' because of the typo, non-compound word. That's pretty much inline with the stuff you find there.

Well, I just happen to take off the other shoe.

Um, wait a minute.

I wear a size 8 shoe. These shoes fit fine...not too big, not too small.

One shoe is labeled as a size 8 and the other?

8 1/2

I immediately put them back to back and they're exactly.the.same.size.

I hit a double whammy!

Now, if only this was like the baseball cards that had misprints that were worth millions.

Not so much.

I just have a pair of weird shoes.