Our Winter Vacation part 3

Friday was our romantic day out.  Where do we go?  Pawn shops and used book stores, of course!  Ocean City has one pawn shop and I don't recommend going there.  It was dirty and disorganized.  What was extremely surprising was, I found a Charlie and Lola DVD for Madeleine there.  That is her very favorite show.  By this time of the week, the cheerleaders were swarming into OC for their convention.  This affected where we were going to eat that night.  Val had recommended Reflections at the Holiday Inn.  It was voted the most romantic restaurant in Ocean City.  I was afraid of how pricey it could be, but I could be guaranteed it was cheerleader free. 

It was a very romantic restaurant.  We sat by the fire and we're one of the only couples there.  I prejudged the place, thinking they would never offer specials.  It said in the back of their menu they have $20 3 course meals from 5-6 p.m.  Of course we got there at 7:00.  The food was good, but overpriced for my taste.  Afterwards, we walked to the beach.  This was the first time this vacation we had done so.  It was almost surreal.  Clouds hung very low above us, and it was so quiet.  It's so humbling to stand there and look out at the ocean.  It got very cold after awhile, and thus ended our date. 

In OC, they have an indoor skating rink at the Carousel Hotel that is open year round.  I used to go ice skating often back "in the day."  Now it's every three years or so.  If I lived near a rink, it would be a hobby I would love to develop.  So all of us went over to the Carousel on Saturday.  Andrea and I were going skating, but I convinced the kids to give it a try.  Normally, they have the adult sized walkers there so we wouldn't be falling everywhere, but no longer had them.  It took a few minutes, but I was skating without a walker and feeling pretty confident.  Once I got my balance, I helped Madeleine onto the ice and we went very slow.  She did good considering she'd never done it before.  Julian, however, took to it like a fish in water.  With his walker, he was fearlessly zooming around.  He's normally very reluctant to do new things like this, so he made me very proud that day.

I will now tell you the one place to avoid at all costs in Ocean City.  The Breakfast Cafe in West Ocean City right on Rt. 50 will make you nauseous in more ways than one.  It advertises it's the locals favorite place to eat.  We thought this true, because at the next table the marketing director for the OC convention center introduced himself to us and began to chat.  Don't the locals have standards?  When we first come in, Mark starts putting together the largest tables so we can all sit together.  These tables were not wiped off, but we figure the waitress would do that when she comes.  When we have to ask her to wipe them, she makes excuses not to.  She says another waitress was there eating, so it's not dirty.  Yeah...clue number one to high tail it outta there.  There's no kid menus, so we order a regular cheeseburger for Julian.  There are no indications of what comes on the side with the meal.  Assuming from the price, I think it comes with fries.  I feel assured when the waitress asks if he wants fries with his meal.  So we all order and wait...and wait....and wait some more.  There are only two other people in this tiny hole in the wall (it hurts to refer to this place as a cafe, let alone a restaurant) so what's the big deal?  She brings our meals out one by one with five minute increments in between.  When we ask what was the hold up, she had no clue what we meant.  The food was bland and overall pretty gross.

We get our bill--$40!  The fries were not included in any meal, and were $3.00 as a side.  I bring to her attention that she asked if we wanted fries, so I assumed it came with the meal.  She said chips come with the meal.  I say no where on the menu is that mentioned.  She said it was just understood.  All we could do was walk out of there with our stomachs in tact, and pray not have food poisoning. 

The food didn't sit that well on the three hour ride back home, but we held it down.  It snowed signifigantly while we were away and was a nice treat for the kids to see.  Oh, and that diet I was supposed to be faithful to while on vacation...let's say I have some work to do now that I'm home.