It's that time of year where we pack up Vanatu and head south to Ocean City, Maryland! This year though Addison declined going with us, so we brought AJ along. He's been to Ocean City and the condo numerous times, however, he's only ever been in April, so he was excited to head down in the summer.
Saturday June 27th
We got the van packed up and were on the road by 2:15am! We literally made the same exact stops this year as we did the last two years. First the TA Travel Center on Ruby Rd in Willington, Connecticut wher we fueled up. Next was the Connie Chung travel plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike, once again I got a Chick-Fil A breakfast sandwich, chicken biscuit, instead of a breakfast burger from Burger King only because Burger King was closed still. Finally Royal Farms in Milford, Delaware to top of the tank and grab a drink and snack for the last stretch to the condo. It only took 10.5 hours this year and we did add a quick bathroom stop on the New Jersey turnpike.
We got supplies for the condo, Kate did a to go order from Food Lion, and we got some bagels at Surf Bagel as well. Ice cream of the day was Dumsers Dairyland, I got a delicious handmade cherry coke!
Dinner tonight was pizza from Lombardi's, all you need on their amazing pizza is cheese. It's the absolute best cheese pizza I've ever consistently had.
Kate tried to take the boys to the pool, however, we got on and off rain and thunderstorms and it didn't work out. The boys and I played uno though.
It was an early night for all of us but we have a plan for the next few days in place.
Sunday June 28th
A bit of a wonky sleeping night for me as I went to bed at 830pm and work up at 3am after my normal amount of sleep. Managed to sleep a bit more before getting up. Everyone else seemed to sleep well.
The weather was not great today at all. It was forecasted to be overcast all day, and not only was it, but it was muggy and it rained on and off a few times. We decided today was a good day to hit the antique malls an some other sights.
After breakfast we headed out with the first stop being in Greedwood, Delaware at what I thought was a Mason-Dixon line monument, but it was a resurvey monument. I mean it's still pretty cool, and it is 50 years old.
The other main reason for stopping here was that Wesley likes to get pictures with the "Welcome to.." State Line signs, and we had two!
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On the way over we saw a sign for Vanderwendes Dairy Farm, claiming to have the best ice cream on the Eastern shore, which is HUGE statement considering all the ice cream places. So they became today's ice cream stop.
I must say, it was quite delicious! Kate got strawberry, and it's the best hard serve strawberry we've ever had. Wesley got cookie dough, I got butter pecan, and AJ holy cow, which is vanilla, peanut butter cups, and fudge.
There are farm markets all over the place in this area, it makes sense there is numerous farms, we did stop at one to get fresh local tomatoes, corn on the cob, and I got a jar of F.R.O.G. jam.
Fig, raspberry, orange juice concentrate, and ginger. I'm not going to open it until I get home, but I am very curious about this combination!
In Bridgeville we hit up two Downtown Alley and a couple miles down the road Antique Alley of Bridgeville LLC. Downtown as nice, saw some cool things but nothing that we felt the urgent need to buy. Antique Alley is huge, with over 100 vendor booths and the place is set up like a maze, and again, saw a bunch of cool stuff but I didn't want away with anything.
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| My Dad his this exact set up when I was a kid |
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| They all chimed at once, the other size of this room was all grandfather clocks |
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| I love these 1950's kitchen table sets, if I had the room I would have one of these |
Kate did add another vintage Christmas ornament to her collection and bought an old table cloth that has a pretty design on it. She loves her some table clothes. After getting soda pops at McDonald's we headed to Laurel, Delaware to the Out of the Attic Antique Mall. I never actually made it into this antique store as in the same mall I saw a store front for USW: United States Wrestling, which I didn't know was there.
I spent the entire time in there chatting with owner/promoter/wrestler Brian Hardy. Cool guy had a great conversation with him and made a new pal to chat about wrestling with. You can read more about it on my wrestling blog: The Wrestling Insomniac
Continuing down the road we went to the Route 13 Outlet Market, which is a giant barn full of all kinds of different vendors from food, to a barber shop, to booths with new items, used items, crafts, just a mix of everything. We stopped here to check out the Dollar Book Shuffle, which sells books, hardcover $2 and soft $1.
We made the drive to Salisbury, Maryland to get Cook Out. Cook Out is a fast food chain based out of Greensboro, North Carolina that my buddy Brandon told me about that he loves and someone at work was talking about it as well.
You order a tray that comes with an entree, two sides and a drink. I got the cheddar style double burger, fries, hush puppies and a coke zero. The boys also got burgers and Kate got the spicy chicken sandwich.
While it did not knock my socks off, the hush puppies were great, and I loved the burger, the patties are small but they do make the burgers fresh. I'd get a burger again!
We headed back to Ocean City and stopped at Candy Kitchen to get some delicious chocolates for Kate and I, and the boys got gummies.
We shop at Candy Kitchen every time we are here, of course it's overpriced, but it's THE BEST English toffee I've ever had. They have 19 locations, 12 in Ocean City on a 7 mile stretch of road, which is CRAZY!
We got back to the condo and took the boys down to the pool, even though it was overcast and chilly.
Dinner was turkey sandwiches with those delicious tomatoes and the corn on the cob, which was also quite good. I was able to watch the AEW Forbidden Door PPV which was tremendous! Tomorrow is a BIG day!
Monday June 29th
Today was the boy's and my side trip to Buc-ee's, Waffle House, Cooter's Place and more. I wrote a whole separate blog post about it that you can read here: Ocean City 2026 Side Trip Adventure
Kate spent the day relaxing at the condo, spending time at the pool lounging, reading, and swimming. She door dashed coffee beanery in the morning and got some crab dip for lunch.
When we got back Kate took the boys down to the pool for over an hour so they could get some swimming in to finish their day.
Tuesday June 30th
Kate made us pancakes for breakfast, which were quite good, before we headed out for the morning adventure to the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk.
We stopped along the way in Dewey beach at the WWII Artillery Fire Observation Tower #3 as AJ had not been to it before.
Kate stayed on the ground but the boys and I made the hike up the stairs, and it made my legs feel all Jell-O once I got to the top.
We had never been to Rehoboth Beach this early in the day before, so we got parked close to the boardwalk on the first drive through, normally I drop everyone off an I make several laps to finds a spot. We could have parked closer!
After paying the meter, we headed down to Zelky's to play some games, and win tickets. I played the three pinball machines multiple times and won games on all of them.
I had never played or seen these before, Pokemon, The Mandalorian, and a new Jaws machine. The Jaws game was my favorite of the three. The boys cashed in their tickets for stuff and things, I bought a Zelky's pin for my pin board at work.
We walked down the Funland where I spent a couple bucks on Skeeball trying to win this little hot dog plush, I failed.
We got lunch at Grotto's splitting a pitcher of Birch Beer and a large pizza with the table. I don't know any places where you can still order a pitcher of soda for the table, in fact the only place I can think of that you could in Maine was Pizza Hit.
Of course the Pizza was amazing. We then hit the shops in Rehoboth, and got our ice cream of the day Kohr Bros! I got peanut butter and chocolate twist.
We headed back to the room for some time in the pool and rest before the boys and I headed to Perdue Stadium for the Delmarva Shorebirds baseball team.
This would be Wesley and I's 3rd Shorebirds game, and this was AJ's first ever baseball game. They both got shirts.
We got there early to check out the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, celebrating all things baseball on the Eastern Shore, which is made up of almost all of Delaware, and they portion of Maryland & Virginia that make up the Delmarva Peninsula.
It's the 30th Anniversary of the Shorebirds and it was throwback night, $5 upper seats, $2 hot dogs and popcorn, and $3 24oz Sodas! Our seats were fantastic, in the shade, and there was a breeze so it was a gorgeous night for a ball game.
Wesley and AJ spent about 2/3rds of the along the outfield wall watching from there, Wesley got a toss up from one of the Shorebirds make him 5 for 5 when going to ball games! In the end, the Shorebirds got shut out losing 5 - 0.
We had an absolute blast! We grabbed a beverage at the Royal Farms and headed back to the condo for the night.
Wednesday July 1st
Kate and I got left the boys at the condo and headed out before 7am to go to Assateague Island National Seashore and see some ponies!
We've never been there this early in the morning before, very few people were there which is nice. Once we entered the grounds we headed for the Life of the Marsh Nature Trail where we had seen ponies the last few years but there were none. We then drove further down the road to end of the point where the camp store is, we had never gone there before, and we hit pay dirt.
We saw 3 ponies and one was a foal, which made Kate very happy. We drove over to the Ferry Landing and then down to the end of the loop road and didn't see anymore. As we were approaching the gate to leave we saw six more ponies so we pulled into the parking lot to watch them.
As we were heading down the road to the bridge to leave we had to wait for this guy to pass.
It was a successful morning with 10 pony sightings! We headed back to the condo for breakfast and once the boys were ready we head to the beach! I did put my toes in the water, but mostly just sat and read my book and enjoyed the sea breeze.
They lasted about an hour and wanted to go to the pool, so we did! It was hotter up at the pool, but they can have more fun swimming there. It was refreshing and cooled us down quite a bit so we could sit and read and not get baked out by the sun.
We headed up to the room for lunch and although not planned or intentional we all took a nap as we've had a long few days! At 4pm we loaded up the van headed to the Ocean City Boardwalk for a couple hours. First thing AJ and I did was go to Trimper's Haunted House ride.
I love this ride and I look forward to it every year! I noticed some changes in the ride this year, some new displays on the ride and a couple areas where the cart goes faster! The actor in the house did jump me with a simple "rawr!"
We went to Marty's Playland for some gaming action! I played some pinball, these were older machines and I had played them all before. We all had a great time!
We got some Thrashers fries to snack on while we walked the boardwalk, we all love them, especially soaked in vinegar!
AJ asked if I would ride the Ferris wheel with him, he had never gone on it before and wanted to, so of course I said yes!
That wrapped up the night for us on the boardwalk, Kate grabbed a crab cake sandwich to go, and the ice cream of the day was Kohr Bros. We got back to the room and Kate took the boys back down to the pool for over an hour.
Thursday July 2nd
Kate made us big breakfast of bacon and eggs, which was marvelous. The boys asked to go to NASA's Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center down in Virginia as AJ had never been, so that is what we did.
It's a scorcher of a day, with heat index over 100 degrees, just like back home in Maine today!?! I enjoy the back road drive to Wallops as there is some pretty country side.
The boys had fun exploring the center and reading the different displays and history of the Flight Facility. Wesley got himself a freeze dried ice cream sandwich.
We left there and headed for lunch at Sonic Drive-In short distance away in New Church, Virginia, neither of the boys had been to Sonic before, and Kate and I haven't been in a very long time. We all got the same thing, double sonic smash burger with tater tots. It hit the spot for all of us, the smash sauce is excellent!
We went back into Maryland stopping at Flea Market 13 Antiques in Pocomoke City. It was very cool, so many items we both thought about getting, the prices were great as well! I loved all the old signs they had through the building. We ended up getting this nutmeg grinder to add to the wall in the kitchen.
We headed back to Ocean City, dropping the boys at the condo and Kate and I went to Fenwick Island to get Addison her favorite fudge at the Seaside Country Store. We then stopped at Candy Kitchen as I wanted more English toffee.
Once we got back to the room, Kate took the boys down the pool for a couple hours. We decided to get another round of Lombardi's pizza for dinner tonight!
Friday July 3rd
The last day in Ocean City and it's an oppressively hot day! A couples miles down the road from the condo is this little store with a sign boasting the "best donuts in Ocean City". We've driven by it numerous times and I always so, oh I'm sure that's where the best donuts are.
So this morning I went to the store and buy some. There isn't much inside the store, but they do make the donuts fresh right there. They are all raised plain donuts and toppings, and two that I've never hard of including peanuts and sand dollar. Sand dollar is just a glazed donut with cinnamon.
They were all delicious! Especially the glazed donuts with peanuts, sweet and salty with a crunch. We will get them again.
Kate took the boys down to the pool for a couple hours, so hot outside you can't really sit around the pool as it's too hot. We decided to leave early to get ahead of the holiday traffic, so we cleaned up the condo and packed up the van pulling out of the lot at 4:25pm.
Our first stop was on other side of Rehoboth at Chick-Fil-A for dinner, and then in Milford, Delaware to top off the tank at Royal Farms. Next stop was at the Whitney Houston service plaza on the Garden State Parkway where Shake Shack was still open, and I got a shack burger! Kate's not as big as fan as I am, but she got the chicken shack and enjoyed it. Wesley got a cookies & cream shake, and love it.
We stopped at the TA Travel Center in Ruby Rd to fill up the tanks, grabs drinks and snacks. The final stop before home was at the Irving Circle K in Kittery so I could use the restroom. At Linda's request, we dropped off AJ at roughly on the way home and pulled in the driveway at 3:10am.
The only traffic of note that we hit was the beach traffic coming out of Ocean City and through Delaware, but we anticipated that. We did hit a slow up in New Jersey because of severe thunderstorms. We had been watching the lightning ahead and beside us for quite sometime and we could see it raining in the distance but we were fine.
Then the wind started picking up and was pelting the vehicle with sand and debris from the Interstate. The external temperature on the van read 100 degrees and it very quickly dropped to 73 degrees, then the rain hit, and it poured! The downpour didn't seem to last very long though, but it rained about 30 minutes, and for a time we drove through the rain while watching the sunset to our left. It was a bit wild at times.
We saw fireworks a few times on the way home, but saw a bid display in New York as we crossed the Tappan zee Bridge. Interstate 84 was closed Eastbound near Hartford so we had to divert off for a short distance over to Interstate 91 to meet back up with 84.
We drove a total of 2,214.9 miles on this journey. I do not have a complete total on the tolls as of yet, we are currently at $95.75, but I think another $16+ needs to be posted still.
The gas chart below is not 100% accurate as we left the house will a full tank of gas and returned home with about less than half. Essentially the same amount we put in the tank at the first stop at Ruby Rd on the drive down.
We had a fantastic time on the trip, really glad we brought AJ along, he and Wesley are more like brothers than cousins and they had a great time together.
Until Next Time!
