Ocean City, Maryland- the boardwalk and sunsets

Ocean City is known as being a coastal city as well as having a famed boardwalk. Fun fact: before this trip, I'd never been to a boardwalk before. I've stayed in plenty of cities on the water- namely in Florida and the Caribbean, but before going to Ocean City, I'd never been to a coastal city with a boardwalk.

Our hotel was bayside and it was about a mile away from the start of the boardwalk. The two times that we went as a group (Abby, Heidi, Natalie and I) we drove. I work up early three mornings and ran; two of the mornings that I ran, I did so on the boardwalk.

On one side of the boardwalk is sand and further out the ocean and on the other are shops and restaurants. At the far end of the boardwalk is a small amusement type park. When we were at the boardwalk in the evening, the boardwalk was quite crowded. The boardwalk provided much sensory stimuli: lots for the eyes to see, many sounds for the ear to hear, many scents for the nose to smell and if need/ want be, plenty of things were there for the touching. It was either sensory overload or a delight to the senses depending on your particular view. For me, it was more sensory overload and combined with the crowd of people, I was Ok when our visits to the boardwalk were complete :).

My favorite time at the boardwalk were the two mornings when I ran on the boardwalk- there were minimal people there and I could hear the ocean because sounds from the boardwalk weren't overwhelming.

Besides never having seen a boardwalk before, I'd never seen such beautiful sunsets as I saw in Ocean City. Maybe I've never stayed in rooms with balconies facing the west? Or maybe the sun does just set more beautifully in Ocean City :). We had fantastic views of gorgeous sunsets several evenings. Sunday and Monday, there were no beautiful sunsets because the sun had not shone all day; there was no sun to set!! The other days that we were in Ocean City were sunny and the evening sunsets were spectacular.

The juxtaposition between the commercialization of the man made boardwalk area near the ocean and the natural beauty of the setting sun over the ocean is something I'll always remember about Ocean City.

Here are some photos of both:

Sunday evening at the boardwalk with Natalie and Heidi:

"The Boardwalk"

Abby and Natalie

Abby and mommy

Frozen custard...

The girls sit on chairs outside of a Candy Kitchen store

Candy Kitchen stores were everywhere. There were at least three on the boardwalk and at least three within a mile of our condo.

Abby took this picture and I'm glad she did. You can kind of tell how wide the boardwalk is.

Heidi and I let the girls design their own shirts at one of the shops.

On Thursday evening, all of the girls that Abby dances with met at the boardwalk. We met towards the amusement park end and wound up at the amusement park.

There were numerous sketchy looking rides that Abby didn't want to go on. This is a girl who loves roller coasters at Kings Island but had no desire to go on the twirly round and round rides here. I couldn't blame her. They all looked stomach churning to me. She did go on the Ferris Wheel with some of her friends.

Waiting in line...

Abby took the following two pictures with her phone while she was on the Ferris Wheel.

Abby and Nat

No filters, no editing- I took this on my phone while standing on our balcony

Also taken from the balcony

This was taken from the parking lot of our condo complex

I took this with my Nikon while standing on our balcony. I think I must have had my flash turned off since I'd had it off to take pictures of the girls dancing onstage. The sun was literally bright orange not this yellowy color that this picture portrays.

Zoomed in...

Ok the sun isn't exactly setting in these next two pictures but it's on its descent :). Abby took these pictures. She was on the dock area of our condo complex.