A Month Left of Summer

I love Wednesday mornings in Ocean City. After I drop the boys off at camp, Charlotte and I head down town for a farmer's market. It seems like such a local thing to do--buying my fruits, veggies and other treats from area farmers. A lot of other people seem to enjoy the same routine, strolling down a section of the Tabernacle grounds, sturdy baskets and shopping bags in hand.

At this farmer's market, I always see one of the teachers from Carter's school. She helps out with afternoon carline, so I see her, during the school year, almost every day. In the beginning of the summer, I ran into her at the farmer's market--she has an Ocean City vacation home on the bay.

Since then, I run into her every week. We briefly chat about clams (her favorite weekly purchase) and hot pepper jelly (mine) at the farmer's market. Then, our eyes wide and our hearts heavy, we launch into our countdown until school starts. It's not something I really want to think about yet, but I realize that the clock is ticking. This week marks the end of July and once August is here, September is not far behind.

As I think about our summer coming to a close, I start to panic a little. Did we have enough fun? Did we do all we wanted? I keep finding myself reviewing a mental list of activities, making sure that we've really taken advantage of this great town and all that it has to offer.

So, this week, we really tried to cram it all in.

Monday, we met cousins Kate and Lindsay in Sea Isle for an afternoon at the beach. The evening was welcomed in with a torrential downpour, making us all run for cover. After we cleaned up and the rain stopped, Lindsay took us back down to the beach for the Sea Isle lifeguard races. Lindsay was a Sea Isle lifeguard in the past, and her brother Matt is now. At this event, lifeguards from Sea Isle, Upper Township and Wildwood competed in tests of strength and endurance, including swimming, rowing, paddle boarding and running. It was an exciting evening. Even not knowing anyone competing, it was a fun thing to watch. Will especially enjoyed watching it, especially the rowing. The ocean was rough that night, and the air was cold, making the competition that much more difficult, I'm sure. We'll definitely try to catch it again next year.

Tuesday, after camp, we headed to the Wetlands Institute. It was a nice, hot day. I had planned an afternoon at the beach, but Will was itching to get back to the Wetlands. In the aquarium, they have an empty tank, waiting for a local octopus to fill it. The boys are intrigued by this vacant exhibit. The first thing they always want to do is check to see if they found an octopus yet. (If you yourself are interested, I can save you a trip and tell you that there is no octopus yet, but they have the tank all ready for its capture.) We looked at our usual favorite exhibits and then took a stroll down the Salt Marsh Trail to the dock. The boys have gotten good at identifying the different creatures and plants along the way, remembering details that I have long forgotten. They could probably lead the Salt Marsh Safari themselves. When we reached the dock, we were lucky enough to spy a horseshoe crab running around the shallow waters of the bay.

By the time we got back to the main building, it was time for the aquarium feeding, something we've never seen before. What a treat. I'd expected an intern to throw a couple of fish into a tank and call it a day, but I should have known to expect more from this great place. One of our favorite interns, Heather, brought out a box with a turtle named Pretty Girl in it. She talked a lot about the turtle to the spectating children, explaining what turtles do, what they eat and how they know Pretty Girl is indeed a girl. Then, each child got to feed the turtle, which just involved throwing a pellet of turtle food into her container. Next, the children got to help feed a boxful of baby turtles. They feasted on brine shrimp. Finally, Heather opened up the touch tank and the kids got to learn a little about each of the animals in it, including horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, fiddler crabs and sea stars. Carter held the sea urchin, which wiggled its spines as it sat in his hands. He was thrilled. Will held the horseshoe crab, an animal that has really captured his attention this summer.

Tuesday night, we headed to the Bayside Center for a program on Arctic Ice Caps. Although a little dry for most of the children in the room, it held Will's attention. They talked a lot about polar bears and Will was full of facts and figures following the presentation.

After camp today, we went to the Ocean City Historical Museum for their drop in program. It was lead by Miss Elyse, who we met last week at the Bayside Center, and my boys were the only ones in the program today. She gave them a brief tour of the museum, with a special emphasis on the history of the boardwalk. Then, they sat down together to decorate shells with beads, buttons, glitter and pipe cleaners. They loved it. The Museum does a drop in program every Wednesday for $2 a child. We'll definitely try it again next Wednesday.

After leaving the library, we headed to the playground at 9th and Bay. We pass it during our excursions to the Bayside Center and Carter especially has been dying to try it. During the heat of the afternoon, most playgrounds are empty as area kids are soaking up the sun on the beach. The boys and Charlotte had a great time exploring every corner of this playground, which includes a digger that the boys can sit in and scoop up sand, and monkey bars that are low enough that Carter could easily swing across. Our favorite playgrounds on the island have each earned a special name from us, meaningful to only us. This playground, forever to be known as the "purple and green playground" joins the ranks of "the fish playground" at 52nd and Haven, and "the playground that used to be wooden" at 34th and West.

From the playground, we went to the Bayside Center. We've been there plenty of times in the evening for programs, as well as the Night in Venice, but never during the day. They accept donations, but entrance is free to the public. Again, we were the only people there. We've gotten to know the woman who works there and she cheerfully opened up the new touch tank for the boys. They very knowledgeably identified and handled most of the tank's inhabitants, including horseshoe crabs, sea urchins, a spider crab, a hermit crab and more. The Center also has a huge sand box full of ocean treasures--shells and egg cases of all shapes and sizes--and a huge magnifying glass. The boys loved looking at all of these familiar things under the microscope, paying close attention to the new details. In the back of the room, the kids could sit at the huge picture window with a pair of binoculars to spot birds flying over the bay. The Center also has a room of life guard memorabilia, as well as another room of ship models, but the touch tank and shell exhibits were the favorites of my crew. The beach was really windy today and this was a great alternative.

But we didn't stop here. Wednesday is $6 pizza night at Blitz's Market, a deal that can't be beat! I picked up two pies and met our friend Julie and her three boys at the 34th Street Playground (otherwise known as "the playground that used to be wooden." The old wooden climbing structure was recently replaced by several modern structures, and the old wood chips replaced by a nice, soft rubber ground cover.) We had a picnic dinner of pizza and juice boxes. The kids could hardly contain themselves long enough to sit down and eat a slice of pizza. They were soon up and running, having the time of their lives, even Charlotte. She discovered a small slide at the playground. I'd take her to the top of the slide and drop her down into Julie's waiting arms. Charlotte would wiggle herself free, and run over to me to start the process over again.

The sudden rain storm didn't dampen the fun. We moved our party indoors to Pino's, a nearby ice cream shop. The rain really started to fall as it was time to go home. We don't usually drive to this playground, but I am so glad we did today. We ran to our car, laughing at what we have started to call God's shower. The boys insist that it got them clean enough to avoid a bath.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. Beach, boardwalk, activity or craft? We're all going through our mental checklist, making sure we've done it all. Yes, I love Wednesdays in Ocean City and am so glad to have a few more before summer comes to an end.

Ahoy Mateys!

We had planned on going to the Family Movie Night in Ocean City tonight. They were playing Charlotte's Web, the original cartoon version. In honor of our own little Charlotte, it is one of our favorite movies.

However, when we heard about the topic for the speaker tonight at the Bayside Center, we made a quick change in plans. Tonight, two women from the Ocean City Historical Museum delighted us with stories and pictures about pirates, shipwrecks and whalers right here in Ocean City.

Will has a fascination with shipwrecks. It started with the Titanic and has continued throughout our time in Ocean City. This area, as you might imagine, is home to many shipwrecks, the most famous being the Sindia (built coincidentally, by the same company that constructed the Titanic), a sailing vessel that was beached in Ocean City in the early 1900s. Until very recently, you could see portions of the ship from the 17th street beach. There is a pavilion on the boardwalk at 17th street, commemorating the ship, named for an Indian Maharajah. Will loves to stop here on the boardwalk and gazes into the horizon, hoping for a glimpse of the Sindia, scheming a way to dig up the old ship.

We learned more about the ill-fated Sindia tonight, with lots of pictures and maps brought over from the museum. Will especially loved the photos of the Sindia throughout the years, where we could see the ship sinking deeper and deeper into the sand.

What little boy doesn't like the lore of pirates? The boys have been inspired to dig even more on the beach, as we now know that famous pirates Black Beard and Captain Kidd probably passed through Ocean City and may have buried treasure in these parts while trying to allude authorities.

We also learned that many Ocean City residents can trace their heritage back to the Mayflower, their ancestors having journeyed down to New Jersey for whaling. A fan of Whale Wars, Will was intrigued by these stories of when whaling was a livelihood.

The presentation culminated with a craft. The speakers had shown examples of antique scrimshaw, intricate carvings made into the bone and teeth of whales. Each person then got to make their own scrimshaw by using a pin to carve a picture into a piece of foam core poster board. Once the picture was carved, the children scribbled over the surface of their artwork with crayon, and then rubbed away the excess crayon with a napkin, leaving just the "engraved" pieces colored in. The kids loved it and worked away quietly on their masterpieces.

The Ocean City Historical Museum is another of Will's favorite places and worth a trip if you find yourself with a spare 30 minutes in Ocean City. Not very big, it is filled with O.C. artifacts, including findings from the Sindia. We found out that they offer drop-in children's programs on Wednesdays, every half hour from 10:30 to 2:30. Each week, they offer a new activity for $2 per child. We'll definitely give it a try.

I'm so glad we made it to the Bayside Center tonight. We ended our trip with a gorgeous view of the sunset on the bay, a really dramatic event from the back deck of the Center. It stopped Carter in his tracks, prompting him to ask what was pushing the sun down. I'm saving the answer to that question, and the viewing of Charlotte's Web, for another night.