Saturday, September 3, 2011

Day 1: Ocean City, Maryland

I want to start off by saying that this is my first time in Ocean City. Thus, this week's blog will be filled with a lot of first impressions, and hopefully a lot of good reviews and ideas on what to do if you choose to vacation here.

Today was a long day of driving. Granted, it was only supposed to be a 4 hour drive, but it turned into an extra hour because I tried to avoid Baltimore and the NASCAR traffic. I drove through Delaware instead. The good news though is that I did successfully avoid the traffic and I had absolutely no problem coming in to town.

So, what was my first impression upon getting here? Clearly, it is a party destination. There appears to be a lot of activities, shopping, and night life. Also, where's the beach? Typically I can smell or get some clue of where the beach is, but I find this town peculiar in that it doesn't have the typical environmental beach indicators. I am very impressed with the amount of young people here. I am also very impressed as to how many bicyclists there are. Hopefully I can find a good place to rent one.

I kicked off my vacation by going to Phillip's Seafood Buffet and Restaurant. I was quite impressed. The selection is vast from crab cakes to Maryland blue crabs (I tried one of these but felt extremely guilty after realizing that I had to literally dissect the poor thing) to fried chicken and soup. The food was also quite good. The crab cakes weren't too overdone and it was clear that the crab legs, blue crabs, and the crab imperial were all customer favorites. They also had an array of desserts from ice cream to cookies to fruit. I was quite impressed.

The downside was that it was a little pricey (although I felt it was worth it) and I didn't feel as though the service was all that great. I felt the staff was kind of rude. Also, I was disappointed in the salad bar. It was really small and there was hardly any variety. Finally, although minor, my drink was very watered down. I just ordered a Pepsi, but it tasted like a bunch of ice had melted in it before it was brought out.

Over all I would definitely recommend Phillip's.

I hope that I will be able to get in a lot of activities this week. I already am planning to do a kayak Eco- tour and visiting the boardwalk is a clear must. I will definitely keep everyone updated as the week goes on.

In the meantime, signing off...stay classy!

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