Going "down the shore" post #2

Sunday we got up early, like before 8, and went to breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House. I had strawberry crepes and Matty had pecan pancakes. They were really good. I am normally not a big pancake girl, but these get 2 thumbs up. Then we checked out and headed a bit north to Ocean City. This is significantly more moneyed and family oriented. Maybe it is because it is a dry town. I dont know. But it was much cleaner, the houses were much bigger, lots of stuff was much newer. I am not saying I like it better, but it is much nicer. We parked the car and headed to the boardwalk. Now a word about mornings on boardwalks. I am not a huge fan at Wildwood because until 11 bikes are allowed on the boardwalk. And I am usually about to get hit by a bike at all times. In Ocean City the bikes are allowed until noon and the bikes far outnumber the people. And not just bikes, also surreys. 2-8 person surreys. So the boardwalk actually has lanes (that no one pays any attention to except scared pedestrians like me) for northbound walkers, northbound surreys, northbound bikes, runners, southbound bikes, southbound surreys, southbound walkers. And trying to cross this 7 lane highway of bikes and surreys and runners, none of whom are watching where they are going or willing to give up the right of way, is like crossing a 4 lane highway. So I am not a huge fan of this bike thing. So first we walked all, and I mean all, the way north to Brown's. They are known for their donuts. So Matty waited in line for about 30 minutes. I guess there is a donut machine that makes donuts and as they come off the machine, a guy dresses them. One order at a time. Matty couldnt decide what kind to get. So we had a plain, a honey dipped, a vanilla iced, a chocolate iced, a cinnamon sugar and a powdered sugar. They were amazing. Obviously still hot since Matty watched them be made. And so yummy. They were light and fluffy but still cakey. Mmmmmm . . . Then we walked back south and started checking out the boardwalk. Another problem with Ocean City, besides the bike issue is that you need beach tags to go on the beach. And they are $5 per person. So we would have had to spend $10 just to go down and walk in the water a bit. Which sucks because it got really hot but we didnt want to spend the whole day (or $10 of the day) on the beach. Especially since I did not have any money anymore. So no beach for us. But we wandered around for awhile and checked out all the fudge and taffy places and the amusement parks (no rides for us though). We played mini golf at the Pirates of the Golden Galleon. Matty won. But I did pretty well near the end. Even got a hole in one! It was a cute course but really hot! For lunch we split a piece of pepperoni pizza at Mack and Manco's. It really does live up the the hype. I was really pleasantly surprised. It was super tasty. After while we got kind of bored wandering around and since the beach was off limits we decided to leave. Since we were not quite ready to come back to Philly and end out mini vacation we headed a little further north and finally got to Atlantic City. Matty has been wanting to go since we got to Philly. I was hesitant. I was totally right. Neither of us were impressed. The only thing I remember about AC from when I was a kid was the restaurant in Bally's where I had my first chocolate mousse. The casinos are ridiculous, but from what we saw all pretty much look the same. So why be in AC at all? And they are trying to make it like Vegas. Which it aint. The older part of the boardwalk is trashy, but not in the kitschy Wildwood way, in the dirty gross old way. And the pawn shops were just a reminder of the amount of money being lost in the monstrosities surrounding you. We couldnt see the beach from the boardwalk because of dunes and we couldnt get a drink at the beach bars because Matty was driving and I didnt have my ID. I felt bad because Matty really really didnt like it and he had such high hopes. Maybe if we were there with someone who knew it? I dont know. We didnt stay long and then decided to leave. We drove to White House Sub Shop for dinner. We got to go and sat in the park across the street. It made the trip to AC worth it. We got a half meatball with provolone and a half White House Special (extra salami, ham, capicola, provolone, oil, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers). We ate half of each and took the other halves home. I cant even describe these sandwiches. Just thinking about them makes me so happy that we are having the rest for dinner tonight! Mmmmmmmm! Then it was back to Philly. We had the normal unpleasantness of trying to find gas before dropping the car off at the airport. There are no stations down there! We did fill up in Jersey at the Frank S Farley rest stop ($4.01/gallon) but we had to top it off in Philly (or Darby as it were, $4.11/gallon). Then a cab ride home and time to finally rest.

A new credit card is being mailed, a new ATM card is being mailed, a new health insurance card is being mailed (and I have a temporary member identification form which will hopefully work for my MRI tomorrow morning), I have to go to the PennDOT place to apply for a new license and get a temporary one. Tonight I am going to get a new phone hopefully. Sigh. I wish they hadnt taken THAT purse. Sigh.