Some people may not think I’m crazy when I tell them I’ve had a summer vacation, but some people may think I’m crazy when I tell them I fit my whole summer vacation into eleven hours. It’s true. From about 4:30am to about 3:30pm, on Sunday, September 8, 2003, I had a wonderful summer vacation. It was one of the best I’ve ever had.
To understand my great day, you need to know the background. Turns out a major hurricane by the name of Fabian was churning out in the Atlantic Ocean abusing small islands and stray seagulls. Anyways, this hurricane produced some nice swells that manifested themselves on the east coast hundreds of miles away. I saw my window of opportunity closing, so I packed my bags (well no bags) and headed out to Ocean City, MD. Yeah, it wasn’t as interesting a back story as you hoped, oh well.
So I’ll take you on my eleven hour trip, hour by hour, even minute by minute in some cases. You will travel with me on my photo-fantastic expose as I take you across the Eastern Shore and back again (Bilbo Baggins anyone?). My adventure just disproves the notion that you can’t have a good, fulfilling, fun vacation in a short period of time. I not only had all those things, but I had a funnel cake too!
The morning’s itinerary consisted of me waking up. Although that may seem fairly succinct and easy, it’s not an easy task for yours truly. But I managed to accomplish it and got off on an early start.
The beginning of the trip had me stopping by a Mobil station to get a Mountain Dew and fill up the gas tank. It’s extremely fun driving around Northern Virginia at like 4:30 in the morning. There is absolutely nobody around, contrasting greatly to normal times of the day. It’s like I had the whole road to myself. So I took advantage of and flew down the road and on the capital Beltway. Well not really, but I did enjoy myself.
The Beltway is pretty boring so there’s not much to say about traversing halfway around it. It’s mostly a boring route and very un-scenic, but it’s efficient. So I get to Route 50 on the Maryland side and continue on my way, still totally dark out.
At about 6:30am, the sun started showing its ambient effects in the sky as the darkness started to fade away. I really wish I took some pictures of it, but the eastern horizon sunrise was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in a long time; just the right amount of clouds, crimson, and haze. The divine painter showed his stuff to me that morning some’em nice.
I crossed the Assawoman Bay into Ocean City, MD at about 7:25am. I always go to 45th St. to surf. I don’t know why, guess I have a good memory at that exact spot near the Econo Lodge………….sigh…………. Anyways, I jumped out of the car and raced to see the beach for the first time in like a year. It was beautiful as it always is and the feeling of running through sand in bare feet is one of the best ever. That is unless it’s like 95° out and the sun has been cooking the sand all day. Gosh I just sat on the beach for like fifteen minutes just watching the ocean and the surfers already out there. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that I just drove three hours to get there. It was like I just jumped out of bed on a beachfront property.
I parked Rikku, got my junx and hit the surf. The first thing I did when in the water was take a couple gulps, Listerine style, and got that awesome salt water taste in my mouth. As gross as this might sound to you, it’s a “pre-game” action I gotta do. Well not gotta but want to. Sort of like how Maximus took a handful of dirt from the area he was about to do battle in from the movie Gladiator. The water wasn’t that cold, around 68°. There were a lot of guys out in full suits so I felt tough with nothing but my trunks and a lycra.
I’ll admit that I didn’t tear it up this morning. The waves were about consistently chest high with a couple head high (6ft.) sets coming in. I do have some plausible excuses though. The first being that I’m not a local. I don’t get up every morning in Vienna, VA and go surfing before and after work. So I’ve been out of practice. I might get two or three days of surfing in a year at this point in my life. Try getting really good at something by only practicing it a couple times a year. It’s hella tough. But I’m good enough where I can go out there, know what I’m doing, and maybe catch a good wave or two each session. I’ve been too hard on myself in the past. I’d always go surfing and beat myself up because I wasn’t as good at the 5’9”, 150lbs guys shredding 4ft. waves with 6’ boards. But I’ve realized lately though that it’s much harder for a bigger, taller guy to ride small waves and that it’s much harder for any guy to get really good at surfing and stay good without living right by the beach for an extended period of time. I’ve wised up in my old age, in more ways than one. I’m not going to be as good as Kelly Slater, so I’ve got to stop comparing myself to him. I just need to go out there, do my best, and enjoy the days I’ve been given. So yeah, I got my kicks in, wiped out pretty good a couple of times to wake me up, and I even obtained a bloody injury which made me feel tough (see gruesome picture).
After I played in the water for a couple hours I gathered what stuff I had and took a nap on the beach. There really isn’t anything more peaceful than a nap on the beach. All you hear is the constant nudges of the ocean, a bunch of seagulls in the distance (hopefully in the distance), and a steady breeze to keep you comfortable. Just make sure you don’t fall asleep without suntan lotion on. I never put on lotion though (I have burn-proof skin for some reason).
After about a half hour nap I went back out in the water and got about another hour in of surfing. My skills didn’t fare too much better and I had a nasty wipeout the broke my leash and ended my day, but again it was just worth it to be out in the lineup.
So I packed up all my stuff around 12:30pm and headed down the strip to the boardwalk area. I love driving around a beach town for some reason. Maybe it’s because there are so many quirky and cool stores to look at. Or maybe it’s all the fun looking miniature golf courses. Or maybe it’s because of the hot chiquitas that drive around in their Volkswagen Cabriolets with the top down (no not their tops down, but the car’s top down). Or maybe not... Anyways, I parked down on 5th Street and took to the wonderful boardwalk.
My first stop was Malibus Surf Shop. This is the coolest shop in Ocean City. I just love being in an authentic surf shop (no Pacific Sunware isn’t a surf shop suburbianites). Just the smell of Sex Wax and the surf videos playing in the background makes me feel at home, well the home that should’ve been home...well maybe not, but I like it. Even if I don’t buy anything, although I did for a certain someone, I just like being there perusing the offerings and chatting with the shop owners.
My next necessity was to get my hands on some authentic boardwalk fries, which I did. One half of my boardwalk culinary delights was acquired and digested, life was good. After that, I just walked up and down the boardwalk, just enjoying the environment I was in. I like just sitting there and looking at all the random and different people pass by. So yeah, I just visited various shops and took lots of pictures of random things. I had my chica friend Marit on the phone giving her an audio tour of what was going on. I’m sure my descriptions of everything weren’t very good and she had no idea what I was talking about (hopefully some of the pictures will make sense), but it was fun trying to express to someone what I was seeing. And even though I was surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people, it was nice talking to someone I knew. The rest of my boardwalkin consisted of going to various arcades and trying my hand at the things I love best, video games. There’s just something magical about putting 25¢ into a coin-operated mechanism and controlling the blips and bleeps that go across the screen. It’s 25¢ (what? you didn’t get my play on words? get it, “25¢” compared to saying “priceless”? get it? ok, so my lame-o subtle humor isn’t funny, I get it).
Ok, ok, you’re prolly getting bored of my text descriptions by now. Hopefully my multimedia display has kept you interested. So after my boardwalk fun, and after a funnel cake, completing my boardwalk culinary delights tour, I set off home. As you can see, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. To be honest, I think one of the best aspects of my trip was the fact that nothing really went wrong. No flat tires, no non-starting cars, no forgotten valuables, no seagull craps on my head, no annoying annoyances, and no police officers behind me with lights flashing. There’s something to be said about smooth sailing and that’s what I got this day. And even though nothing super duper spectacular happened, everything went as tentatively planned and I like that.
Personally I needed this little trip. And although it was short, it was everything I needed and a little more. I needed to get away from northern Virginia. And I didn’t need to just go anywhere, I needed to go to a beach I was familiar with and OC was the perfect fit. God blessed me with a beautiful day and wonderful conditions. It had almost been a year since I had last seen the beauties of the Atlantic, far too long for this white-collar, metroplisfied boy. Sometimes I get so involved in the frivolous activities of my life like working, my car, my finances, my video game status, and my sleeping that I forget there’s so much more to life than schedules, goals, and appointments. Sometimes you just gotta take a day off, go off somewhere you’re fond of, and just enjoy nature and things that you love. My eleven hour vacation was really a vacation. I didn’t have to worry about anyone else but myself; no family to drag along, and despite my obvious wants to have a girl with me, it was hella (I think I’m beginnning to like that word) nice just to be alone with myself and my thoughts.
So thank you for coming along with me on my summer vacation. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. And if you take anything from this, let it be the idea that you, yes you, probably need to do what I did. Take a day off of work, or take a day off of your busy weekend and just go somewhere you love for the day, or half day. Get up early to catch a sunrise and just drive. Take your favorite cd’s, maybe a book too, and just go enjoy the joy that solitude can bring in this world. Chances are you really need it. Lord knows I did. And we had a good time together. I’m looking forward to my next trip already. Peace from me and enjoy life to the fullest! And remember, have you HA-DO-KEN’d!!!! today? |
