Tuesday the 26th we hit the beach in the morning. I went for a swim enjoying some of the biggest waves that I can remember ever swimming in it was a blast! A crab pinched me on the heel and jumped the crap out of me!
Once Wesley was done with the beach he had himself a good nap and then we headed north to Rehoboth and their boardwalk.
Rehoboth's boardwalk is really nice and features a lot of the same type of places as Ocean City but it seems classier? It was at Rehoboth that I finally had Thrashers fries, and they were fantastic!!
One place they have is Funland which opened in 1962 and has been run by the same family ever since. Funland features rides, games, skeeball, and other ticket games. Most of the games are only $1 and ride tickets are 35 cents each, cheaper the more you buy. Ocean city is much more expensive as most of the same games are $3 - $5 by comparison.
Kate and I played a game called Flushing Meadows, it appears to be vagabonds running to the bathroom holding their backsides. You roll a ball into the play are and depending on the hole it drops into your character advances the corresponding number of positions until one reaches the other side. I won! Wesley loves his ram.
Another place on the boardwalk had Skeeball for 10 cents! I don't know why I love Skeeball so much but I just do!
We checked out a strip of the stores on Rehoboth Ave where Kate bought a stylish hat and showed me this amazing store called Gidgets Gadgets. They had Moxie in a glass bottle, I had to buy one and it was delicious.
Rehoboth is were Kate wanted to eat at Grotto's Pizza, even though there were locations all over she likes this one the best. I must say that didn't have a positive experience at Grotto's, maybe next time I will.
On the way home we stopped in Fenwick Island and right on the Delaware & Maryland state line set off from Route 1 in a urban neighborhood are two landmarks that Kate had never stopped at or seen before even though one of them is 75 feet high and she had driven by it several times.
The tallest being Fenwick Island Lighthouse and the second is the Transpeninsular Line, which you can read about in the photo.
Wednesday July 27th we awoke to a light rain fall, but we didn't let that deter us from traveling to the Salisbury Zoo. Founded in 1954 the Salisbury Zoological Park is absolutely free and houses a variety of animals from Alligators, Flamingos, Bison, Spider Monkeys and more. It was pretty muggy while we visited the zoo but Wesley had a great time and really liked the Flamingo's and Spider Monkeys.
Leaving the park I grabbed a flyer for the Delmarva Discovery Center, we quickly decided to make the 30 mile drive to Pocomoke City and check it out. We had lunch at an old Pizza Hut now called the Red Roof Family Restaurant, it was quite good.
The Delmarva Discovery Center was smaller than I thought it would be, but it was very nice inside. They have a brand new Sea Otter display that has just opened two days prior to our arrival. They have several displays of the history of the region and exhibits showing that lifestyle. They also have a large steamship display that you can climb through.
Wesley loved it because we just let him run around and do what he wanted. At the gift shop we got these really nice postcards of the region that we are going to frame up to hang in the new house.
That night we decided to return to the Ocean City Boardwalk to check out the Ripley's Odditorium. This is the fourth different one that I have been too and I love them. For those that don't know Robert Ripley's collection of oddities and curiosities that he collected in his world travels are amazing and they have done a great job of spreading them around to their 33 museums as well as adding newer displays that fit perfectly.
At the entrance area there is a mirror with a TV that shows people doing amazing tricks with their tongues and it challenges you to look in the mirror and try it for yourself. What I knew, that Kate didn't, was that it's a double sided mirror and at the end of the museum you can watch people trying. Also they have a monitor where you can look up and watch yourself. As you can see I found Kate's attempt and recorded it.
Thursday July 28th we went to breakfast at Bayside Skillet,a place that Kate loves and I had heard so much about. The prices made me shudder but the food was AMAZING! I had a sausage and cheddar omelette that came with a fresh crepe that had butter and a fresh strawberry preserve on it. It was so good!
Kate had the raspberry crepes with Chantilly creme, next time I'll be getting the strawberry version of this, the bite Kate gave me so rich and delicious! Wesley really enjoyed his crepe as well.
The weather was iffy today so we hung out at the room for most of the day. We went to dinner at the Abbey Burger Bistro that night. Kate had never been, but my research showed that it had been voted the best burger in Maryland for a few years running.
I was disappointed with the place as a whole. The messed up both our orders, they corrected it but I wasn't impressed with the burger at all. I didn't think the meat tasted like anything and even though the color looked a perfect mid-rare somehow it was really dry. Kate agreed that here burger was also dry even though it had the appearance of being cooked perfectly.
After dinner I took Kate and Wesley back to the condo and I headed out to the movies for a solo double feature. Theater, a Fox cinema, had the ticket window outside the front of the building like I've only seen on TV and movies before.
I watched Star Trek Beyond first followed by Jason Bourne, both flicks were great!
On Friday July 29th we ended up coming home early. The forecast was rain all day and I suggested to Kate that getting back a day early would allow us to finish the old house up and give us a day to relax before going back to work on Monday. She agreed.
We hit the road about 11am grabbing Chik-Fil-A one last time in Rehoboth and fueled up before continuing north. I don't know what they do to those sandwiches but it's just a toasted buttered roll, fried chicken breast, and pickles and yet it's amazing!
The route we took us back up the Garden State Parkway, Jersey Turnpike, and over the Tappan Zee Bridge into Connecticut via 684. Traffic slowed at times but it flowed, we didn't hit problems until I-84 when it took us 3 hours to what would normally be 90 minutes.
Kate had a hankering for Cracker Barrel so we altered our route adding 15 miles to the trip to stop at the Cracker Barrel in Windsor, Connecticut. We finally arrived home just before 1 am.
All in all it was fantastic trip! I was very happy to finally see and experience the places that Kate and her family and friends have gone to for years and have told me about. This trip was also tremendously different for Kate as she went to a lot of places she had never been to before either.
In total we drove 1,697.9 miles.
Later Readers!
