Surprise birthday OC trip
I did not have high expectations for my birthday.
I took a day off on a whim, more because I hadn't used enough vacation the year prior than because I knew what to do with it. The weather looked unseasonably obliging, with highs in the 50s, so I vaguely planned on maybe going for a hike in the morning and maybe inviting NoLabels to drop by the back yard in the afternoon, and of course I had a rehearsal (with a zoom after-party) in the evening...
And then on Wednesday morning BossPerson asked if I wanted to pop off to his beach property for the long weekend.
The desperation for a change of scene was strong within us both, so despite no idea what the heck we could do on a beach in 40 degrees and with the whole town shut down for the winter (not that we'd be willing to go indoors anywhere anyway), we accepted.
Spouse spent the entire Wednesday night cooking, and we spent my birthday morning packing, and were ready to roll out by around noon.
Which, I thought, would stick us on the road for the best of the weather, and we decided to make a detour first.
There's a collection of hiking trails we've been exploring in Ellicott City; one of them has a parking lot for about ten cars surrounded by an impressive collection of no-parking signs, and it was always busy. One spot was available on a warmish winter Thursday afternoon. There was a trail head somewhere off to the side, but one could cross a shallow creek near the parking lot by means of traversing half-submerged rocks and/or a fallen tree, which added to the sense of adventure (and neither of us fell in, go us!) It was a nice enough walk, a picturesque well-maintained riverside trail; a few spots along the path hid little stone gnome statues. We returned to the car quite hungry, and popped by my favorite Vietnamese bakery and grabbed several filled buns to munch on in the car.
We got into Ocean City around 4pm, parked at the end of the Boardwalk and went for a stroll. There were a handful of open beach gear shops and perhaps a single restaurant. We returned to our car just in time to see the gorgeous sunset.
This gave us just enough time to unpack and have dinner before rehearsal. The afterparty had a few people turn up, including my father managing to figure out the technology, and including a blast from the past - Heptadecagram surfaced to text me a Happy Birthday, and joined the festivities. I am looking forward to catching up with him.
That first night we got a clear night sky. There is incredibly little light pollution walking onto the beach once the tourist season has passed, and while the air was a little hazy, the visible stars collection was impressive.
On Friday I worked. I did sneak away for a short beach stroll: the warmest part of the weekend, with the sun, the waves, and far more seagulls than humans. As soon as work ended we took another walk, and got introduced to the local sandpipers: tiny birds scurrying cartoonishly in and out of the surf.
By Saturday it got cold, and Spouse's bad knee limited the amount we could walk on sand, which called for alternate strategies. We drove back to the Boardwalk area (now much more populous), and traversed it from the far end to the middle through the sand and then back on the more regular wooden surface. Too few people masked.
Looking for non-beachy places to explore, we found a little park (mostly intended for athletic recreation) with a pier extending ridiculously far into the bay. We drove into Delaware, to find the town of Fenwick Island picturesque but no more so than what we could get just by walking out of our building. Bethany Beach offered a narrow wooden boardwalk with a handful of quaint (open) shops at one end; it was a bit too well-populated, but mask-mandatory, and I only saw one person do it wrong. Also in Bethany Beach we found a little nature center with a marsh with informational signs and a cute little pond inhabited by a heron, whom we spent quite a bit of time observing.
We took one last late-night walk along the boardwalk Sunday evening. It was well-lit, and we had it all to ourselves for nearly the entire stroll.
Unlike my usual vacation mode, where I am driven to experience all the things, I've been quite low energy, and was mostly content to putter about on my computer much as I would at home, punctuated by only rare nature outings. We did not get takeout, and drank quite little. I managed one night's nearly uninterrupted sleep of ten hours - a rare feat and not repeated.
I am not sure I'm rested as a result. But it was good to have had a change of scene. Originally posted at https://leiacat.dreamwidth.org/346185.html. Please comment either there using OpenID or right here. I read both with the same distracted semi-frequency.
I took a day off on a whim, more because I hadn't used enough vacation the year prior than because I knew what to do with it. The weather looked unseasonably obliging, with highs in the 50s, so I vaguely planned on maybe going for a hike in the morning and maybe inviting NoLabels to drop by the back yard in the afternoon, and of course I had a rehearsal (with a zoom after-party) in the evening...
And then on Wednesday morning BossPerson asked if I wanted to pop off to his beach property for the long weekend.
The desperation for a change of scene was strong within us both, so despite no idea what the heck we could do on a beach in 40 degrees and with the whole town shut down for the winter (not that we'd be willing to go indoors anywhere anyway), we accepted.
Spouse spent the entire Wednesday night cooking, and we spent my birthday morning packing, and were ready to roll out by around noon.
Which, I thought, would stick us on the road for the best of the weather, and we decided to make a detour first.
There's a collection of hiking trails we've been exploring in Ellicott City; one of them has a parking lot for about ten cars surrounded by an impressive collection of no-parking signs, and it was always busy. One spot was available on a warmish winter Thursday afternoon. There was a trail head somewhere off to the side, but one could cross a shallow creek near the parking lot by means of traversing half-submerged rocks and/or a fallen tree, which added to the sense of adventure (and neither of us fell in, go us!) It was a nice enough walk, a picturesque well-maintained riverside trail; a few spots along the path hid little stone gnome statues. We returned to the car quite hungry, and popped by my favorite Vietnamese bakery and grabbed several filled buns to munch on in the car.
We got into Ocean City around 4pm, parked at the end of the Boardwalk and went for a stroll. There were a handful of open beach gear shops and perhaps a single restaurant. We returned to our car just in time to see the gorgeous sunset.
This gave us just enough time to unpack and have dinner before rehearsal. The afterparty had a few people turn up, including my father managing to figure out the technology, and including a blast from the past - Heptadecagram surfaced to text me a Happy Birthday, and joined the festivities. I am looking forward to catching up with him.
That first night we got a clear night sky. There is incredibly little light pollution walking onto the beach once the tourist season has passed, and while the air was a little hazy, the visible stars collection was impressive.
On Friday I worked. I did sneak away for a short beach stroll: the warmest part of the weekend, with the sun, the waves, and far more seagulls than humans. As soon as work ended we took another walk, and got introduced to the local sandpipers: tiny birds scurrying cartoonishly in and out of the surf.
By Saturday it got cold, and Spouse's bad knee limited the amount we could walk on sand, which called for alternate strategies. We drove back to the Boardwalk area (now much more populous), and traversed it from the far end to the middle through the sand and then back on the more regular wooden surface. Too few people masked.
Looking for non-beachy places to explore, we found a little park (mostly intended for athletic recreation) with a pier extending ridiculously far into the bay. We drove into Delaware, to find the town of Fenwick Island picturesque but no more so than what we could get just by walking out of our building. Bethany Beach offered a narrow wooden boardwalk with a handful of quaint (open) shops at one end; it was a bit too well-populated, but mask-mandatory, and I only saw one person do it wrong. Also in Bethany Beach we found a little nature center with a marsh with informational signs and a cute little pond inhabited by a heron, whom we spent quite a bit of time observing.
We took one last late-night walk along the boardwalk Sunday evening. It was well-lit, and we had it all to ourselves for nearly the entire stroll.
Unlike my usual vacation mode, where I am driven to experience all the things, I've been quite low energy, and was mostly content to putter about on my computer much as I would at home, punctuated by only rare nature outings. We did not get takeout, and drank quite little. I managed one night's nearly uninterrupted sleep of ten hours - a rare feat and not repeated.
I am not sure I'm rested as a result. But it was good to have had a change of scene. Originally posted at https://leiacat.dreamwidth.org/346185.html. Please comment either there using OpenID or right here. I read both with the same distracted semi-frequency.