BROWNS DONUTS | OUR LIFE IN 3D

This past weekend there was a lot of excitement at our house as the time is drawing near for our summer vacation. We are opting to take the girls back to my favorite childhood resort, Ocean City, New Jersey.

Ocean City, New Jersey likes to call itself “America’s Greatest Family Resort“. And with good reason. This barrier island is designed to be conducive to families and kids. They do this to the extent that no alcohol is sold on the island; not in stores, in restaurants, gas stations, nowhere. Coming from a restaurant background I have a feeling for what kinds of revenues this city sacrifices in order to keep it ‘family friendly’.

If you must have a beer or a cocktail there are plenty of stores on the other side of the bridge before you enter Ocean City. Or, if you are feeling lucky, Atlantic City is on the other side of the north bridge leaving Ocean City. But in town, this nostalgic ocean community, there is no booze. And the tourists that frequent this resort town are the type that appreciate this!

The Urban Dictionary has an entry that describes OCNJ simply like this: Dry town with Liqour stores 10 seconds over the bridge. Every guy in town either plays basketball or surfs, usually both and every girl lives in bikinis and their only job is to work on their tan. ~ Does that remind you of any highfaluting’ resort town? Ocean City is simple. Its laid back and it caters to kids and families. And it has all the fun a kid can ask for!

While their are plenty of the typical coastal amenities to do, the main focus of Ocean City is its 2.5 mile long boardwalk. Among the many attractions of this famed and nostalgic boardwalk are two amusement piers, with rides (mostly) designed for the younger kids, a music pier, all sorts of gift shops and beach stores as well as ANY sort of junk food imaginable!

This includes, fresh, warm, made to order donuts, hot caramel corn, the best soft ice cream custard, fudge shops and much, much more! The sweet smells of the boardwalk alone are worth the trip! It may not be zip lines and bungee dives. Its good, old fashioned fun tried and true over the ages.

Riding the train through the park

I tried to introduce my family to Ocean City, New Jersey OCNJ) two years ago as I was eager for them to enjoy it like I had. The trouble was our girls were about 3.5 years old and 18 months. For the most part they were to small to get on the rides. Add to that our youngest got an ear infection the first few days we were there, that ended in a 102 fever. She was not a happy camper for most of the trip!

But that doesn’t dull the excitement of returning. We are looking forward to riding the rides, “hot, fresh, made to order Browns Donuts” on the boardwalk for breakfast and then riding bikes on the boards to wake up, the beach, did I mention the rides, the great junk food there along with all the smiles and laughter of kids that goes along with it.

This year, as the past time, we are renting a house where my whole family can stay (us, Mom, Dad, and the great Aunt Sue). That in itself was loads of fun last time. It was a block off the beach. We had our bikes. We had our beach gear rented in a wagon. Dylan even found a scooter that matched hers back home the owners of the house left for us. It was nice

Look how little she is in this!

And by the end of the week even lil ol’ Skylar could manage a smile…

Hey cutie!

Our kids (and Mom) got their first experience on the boardwalk. There were so many things to see and do, rides, eat, bike, eat, shop, eat. We caught a parade on the boardwalk as they seem to find a reason to have one most every week in the summer.

Its just a festive place. The local theater group even put on a kid sized play at the historic Music Pier on the boardwalk, ‘Schoolhouse Rock!’ and all ~~our~~ the favorite hits from that old Saturday morning series. Can you remember ‘Conjunction Junction‘?

And, of course, their was the Atlantic Ocean amenity their too, with waves big enough to satisfy any Beach Bum!

Future Beach Bums!

This ~~beach bum~~ body surfer found himself in heaven with the size of these waves!

Waiting to catch a big one…

Its all about picking the right wave!

He scores!

Of course I was having some fun in the waves with my girls too!

And while Skylar was a bit too small for the surf (when she was feeling well) she did enjoy playing sand castles with Aunt Sue. She had a big wet beach, a sand castle to protect, her own moat, even her own pond to play in. It was her first sand castle to build and swim in and protect. She loved it!

There were dozens of other “firsts” for our girls on this past trip to Ocean City as well. But since I see I am running on here, again, I thought I would leave you with my Top Ten of favorite other ‘firsts ‘we experienced on this first trip to Ocean City.

While we may be heading back up to OCNJ again this summer we’ll never have these same ‘firsts’ with our growing girls.

TOP TEN FIRSTS AT OCEAN CITY:

10) First time our 18 month’er had soft ice cream…. on a warm summer evening

She was a wet mess!

9) First time one of my girls went down a Giant Slide

8) First time Ms. Fearless went down a Giant Slide with out a mat, her daddy, waiting for instructions, anything!

7) First time she beat daddy in a race.

6) First time our girls played miniature golf, simply known as ‘Golf Balls’ from that day forth.

There was more than one shark on that putt-putt course….

I saved the kids from the shark….cause that’s what daddies do

5) First time one of our girls was spun out of control in a whirlie-whirl kinda ride.

4) First time I gave my girls my debit card.

Yea, right!

3) First time our girls got to experience all the sights and sounds and smells and excitement of exploring the boardwalk.

2) The first time our girls were too tired to walk all the way home after a night on the boardwalk.

#1) The first time our girls got to eat hot, fresh (made to order) donuts in front of the ocean before touring the length of the boardwalk on bicycles, just to start their day.

Bonus First: First time my 3 year old filmed me as I changed her pull-up!

PS: we’re hiring nannies right now. If you think you could kid-wrangle my crew get your resume in today!

Posted in Ocean City America's Best Family Resort and tagged Amy and Colleen, beach, BROWNS DONUTS, conjunction junction, ocean, Ocean City, ocean city NJ, schoolhouse rocks

27 Apr 2012

6 Comments

WHAT WILL I DO FOR MY SUMMER VACATION?

You know….sometimes you go through those days when you are just attending to one fire, one responsibility, one obligation after another. Where you feel like you hardly have time to look up. The world is grey. No fun. The Blues! Mom’s been calling the bathroom her ‘happy place’ right now! Heck, the other day she called out four names until she got to the right one. And one of them was mine!

Then, some days, your mind gets to travel in those fun things to day dream about. The playgrounds of the adult mind so to speak, when you can escape the monthly Blues and plan some happy, fun things. Planning vacations may fall into this category. Or shopping for new houses. Planning birthday parties. Or fun things going on over the weekend?

This week has been in that happy ‘upswing’ for me because we are trying to plan our summer vacation right now. (sigh) And I need some suggestions. Wanna help? Care to take a trip down the pleasant memories of ‘vacations past’ with me?

You see, we have researched several fun resorts that are awesome for kids only to find our girls can’t go in the same ‘kids club’ with each other as one club is for ages 0 – 3 years old and the next if is for ages 3 – 6 years old. Naturally we want our kids to be happy and feel safe in a foreign land. We prefer that each is able to go to the same kids nursery if Mom & Dad want to sneak out and explore the island. Have any of you ever experienced this problem?

So far we have considered a Disney Cruise to explore the Caribbean, that looks great for the kids, but they are the source of various aged kids clubs. There are lots of fun things for the kids to do. Princess make overs! Disney characters throughout the ship. Great dining it appears, with your own personal servers for the trip. Evening movies on a large screen on the deck in front of the swimming pool and so on. But if we want to go for a swim with the fishes the kids might have to get separated. I picture having the off ship excursion all set up and we drop the kids off at the kids club and one throws herself on the floor crying and wailing. Can’t go then!

Get to play with the toys in Toy Story

We have found this wonderful resort, the St. James Club, on the island of Antigua. This all-inclusive sits in its own peninsula at the southern tip of the island, with water on two sides. It looks very nice. It has a great kids club and small water park. But the airlines make it difficult to get there, mainly leaving our air port at 6:15am and no quick layover anywhere. There’s nothing like passing 6+ hours in an airport with two hungry, tired toddlers! We’ve had that happen when we were ‘rained in’ last August in Philadelphia. It’s no vacation!

Very Tropical…once you get there

We found another resort on Jamaica where they give you a full-time nanny. Well, not really “give you”. We swore we would never go back to Jamaica again after our last trip and being badgered by the locals (Jamaica Mistaika!) This resort boasts itself as the best all-inclusive in the world on its web site. But you can’t even find what part of Jamaica its in unless you click on the ‘Brochure’ tab. ~ its not one of the best all-inclusive web sites in world!

Daddy, what’s the funny smell?

By far our favorite resort to pursue has been Beaches on Turks & Caicos. We’ve stayed with this chain before at a Sandals. The trip was exquisite! The resort and dining were extraordinary! This Beaches resort has the kids clubs, Sesame Street characters, a water park and all the great dining.

Elmo and the crew in the Caribbean

In fact, we had reservations to vacation at this very Beaches resort 2 years ago! We made the reservations. Booked the flights. Then, 3 days later we got word we were going to be visited by the child bearing stork in a few months with a new born baby girl. We had to cancel.

Bye-bye paradise

That was one airline seat ago. Now, we actually have to pay for 4 chairs on the Caribbean flight, which makes this total package a bit pricey. For what that vacation would cost, flight and rooms, I could pay someone to rebuild our patio-deck-in-progress instead of me laboring over it myself. …..plus the patio furniture….a good sound system for out there…a wet bar fully stocked…well you get the picture. Sadly, this extravaganza is not in the budget this year.

We have considered going to Disney World, Universal Studios and all those other cool parks in Orlando but the idea of paying for a daily tickets yet being some place by 2:00pm so that one or more of our girls can bed down for a nap doesn’t make much sense either.

Last year we rented a house in Ocean City, New Jersey. This was a great kids resort, in a town designed for families. We had a great time. There is a boardwalk built for kids with rides, mini-golf, arcades, bikes and crapfully–unhealthy food to eat. What could be better to a kid? Or the kid inside all of us? Moms and Dads, even got to revisit a childhood memory with a boardwalk players production of Schoolhouse Rock. Are any of you old enough to remember Schoolhouse Rock?

We even frequented Browns Donuts, which was to be my business model for my get rich quick scheme during my unemployed days. Fresh, warm donuts. Mmmmm! The vacation could have been better if our youngest hadn’t picked up an ear infection two days into the escape. The one problem was that our kids were not big enough to get on the majority of the rides on the boardwalk; another problem I see with all the amusement parks in and around Orlando, FLA.

So help us out. Where have you been to? What great ideas or adventures have you gone on, been to, relaxed at with two small children? (a contradiction in terms?) I would love to hear your ideas! I could really use your good ideas here! Or maybe just come along with us if you want to be a nanny to two sweet kids for a week! Please hurry as yesterday Mom was actually sitting down watching Sponge Bob with the kids! And she was smiling!

“What are your kid vacation tips?”

“Which do you think we should choose?”

“Where have you gone to on vacations?”