Beach, BBQ And A Boatload Of Sand...

Lots to tell on the weekend. We set off from the CAC early Saturday morning and made our way down to Ocean City, which is a couple of hours away. We stopped off at Dunkin' Donuts where I really confused the staff, firstly because I ordered tea and then because I wanted milk in it. A few minutes later the confusion was resolved and once Eoin had picked up the least appetizing breakfast wrap in history, we were on the road once more.

We arrived at Fran's place by late morning and didn't hesitate too long to dump our things, change and then head towards the beach. One thing we hadn't counted on, was that we had timed our visit with a large motorcycle rally that brought in hundreds of Harley-Davidson's to create the perfect background melody for a peaceful setting. But, undeterred we made our way to a spot that we thought was out of the splash zone (which it wasn't later in the day) and set up camp. At midday we went for lunch and Dale picked up a seaside delicacy of deep fried Oreos. All in all, I feel that I did everything someone should at the beach; a sunbathed (briefly), built an excellent sandcastle with the engineering help of Dale and some added historical consultancy from Sam, and I went in the sea. 

Now, I can't remember the last time I ventured into the ocean, so I wasn't well-versed in how to handle a wave that suddenly rears up a good foot above your head. Later on I was told to dive through the wave. At the time, however, I figured I would simply turn towards the beach and take it full on - how powerful could a wave be anyway? Well, it turns out, stronger than me. The initial impact not only snapped my neck forwards, which was a painful shock, but I was then thrown off my feet and hurled onto the beach like driftwood. The sand in question was not the soft powdery paradise I had first thought, and after being thrown several feet across it, I did I fine job of some extreme exfoliating to my elbows and knees. Hoping that no one had noticed my blunder, I staggered to my feet and wiped the salt from my eyes in time to see the next breaker repeat the process. Desperate now not to be stuck in an eternal and painful cycle that the nearby children had managed to overcome, I crawled away with a considerable lack of dignity to a safe distance, ruing my attempt to be adventurous. Being British, however, I was not prepared to make a public spectical of myself, so, I got to my feet and in a true Daniel Craig fashion stepped from the water with my head held high with as much self-confidence that I could manage. 

After I emptied my shorts as best as possible of a decent proportion of the beach that was causing considerable discomfort, we went for some ice cream and then headed back to the house, stopping off for some (cough) refreshments (cough). I showered, emptying out some more sand and a surprisingly large pebble, and then we set about barbecuing some burgers and cooking some pasta. By this time Sam had joined us and Sean was on his way. Following dinner I took part in the very American tradition of making shmors with gram crackers, marshmallows and Reese's peanut butter cups over the fire, which were great. Sean arrived and we ended the day, relaxing with some chilled drinks, good music and anecdotes from the day. 


This morning we had a lazy start, going out to the shops to get supplies for eggs and pancakes, orange juice and donuts. At midday we set off back to Chestertown and aside from a bit of traffic that slowed our progress we made decent time. Back at campus I passed the time before an early dinner and then headed to KC with some ironing for family dinner. This week Oz Sam treated us to some spaghetti bolognese, which was very good, and we made more plans of what trips and travel we would be doing in the year ahead.

A great weekend and a huge thank you again to Fran

for driving us down, letting us stay and take the comforts from it!