I can't believe it's over. The surf, the sand and the sun are gone until next Memorial Day. This summer, we lost Crabman's, one of the best seafood joints, but we also gained On the Bay Seafood, a suitable replacement.

We took you to Ocean City's first ever air show, and a sequel is planned for next summer. We listed rainy beach day activities and got seasick on the Morning Star.

We tried to explain coastal upwellings and cold water, but that probably went over most people's heads. We downed some donuts and gained some weight.

And who can forget the irritating beach habits? Sand-throwing little kids, seagull-feeding fools, oversized people in undersized suits and more made the list of things never to do on the beach.

Readers spoke out loudly about pizza at the beach and shared memories about the top five things that are gone from OC.

When August hit, Ocean City was invaded by grasshoppers and the White Marlin Open brought tons of fish and millions of dollars to the docks.

As the summer season ends, autumn blossoms. Life slows down and the nights are quieter in Ocean City. But there are still plenty of things to do.

The loudest event in the fall is Bike Week from Sept. 11-14. Nearly 100,000 motorcycle enthusiasts will fill Delmarva and roar down Coastal Highway all week. It's loud, it's fun and it's a very different experience from normal summer activities.

The most obvious fall event is Sunfest, which starts Sept. 18 and ends Sept. 21. This year's lineup features country's Rodney Atkins and the 1960s group The Commodores. Tents fill the inlet parking lot and thousands of people wander the stands and musical shows.

For the fishermen, late September, October and November are the best times to catch some big fish in the ocean. Red drum, striped bass (rockfish), bluefish, seabass and tautog are available in good numbers right off the coast.

If you like seeing pumpkins flying through the air, check out Delaware's Punkin' Chunkin' contest on Oct. 31 in Millsboro.

Winterfest makes November and December interesting, as lighted displays fill Northside Park and the inlet parking lot from mid-November through the new year. Take a ride through, or risk missing out on the uniqueness that is the Eastern Shore winter.

Life is slower, traffic lighter and people are friendlier in the winter. The Beach LIfe isn't just lived in the summer, it extends through the whole year, just in different forms. Eastern Shore weather is unpredictable and usually exciting, so keep an eye out for Nor'easters and hurricanes.

I have enjoyed bringing you a look at life at the beach and I've had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you learned some new things to do that were better and bigger than Seacrets and Thrashers.

Come back next time; you're always welcome for another visit to The Beach Life

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

On the long shot that you make it through the Bay Bridge traffic and diversion, make the best of this weekend, as it is the official end of summer in Ocean City. If the kids aren't back in school, they will be on Tuesday. If you work, this is the last three-day break you get before the fall kicks in.

One lane of the eastbound bridge is currently closed, but one lane of the westbound span will turn around for the holiday weekend. It still screams of traffic and trouble for travelers, however. The MTA will run an extra six trips across the bridge in an effort to reduce congestion starting Tuesday. For your convenience, here's a Google map to get you from Baltimore to OC without taking the Bay Bridge.

Taking the roundabout way through northern Delaware is an option, and there are a number of cool places to stop along the way. Just one of them is Helen's Famous Sausages (4866 N Du Pont Highway for those with GPS devices) in Blackbird, Del. It's right along Route 13 as you come through northern Delaware.

Once you get across the bridge and into Ocean City, it's time to rock with Separate Ways, the Ultimate Journey Tribute Show. Don't stop believin' that this will be an awesome show, and welcome the imitation rockers with open arms. The concert will be held Sunday at North Division Street on the boardwalk. Saturday's concert is Dr. K's Motown Revue, but that doesn't sound nearly as fun as a Journey tribute. No, wait, the ULTIMATE Journey tribute. Definitely more fun than motown.

You should also check out Ocean Downs this weekend, and place some bets before it loses its charm when slot machines are installed. Just off Route 50 on Racetrack Road, Ocean Downs is one of the only places you can watch harness racing in the mid Atlantic area. It's thrilling, and a few $2 bets can make the night cheap and fun. With the uncertainty surrounding slots, racetracks and gambling, take advantage of the charming little track just west of Ocean City before it evolves into something new and unusual.

It wouldn't be a summer-ending weekend without a crab feast. The poorly named On the Bay Seafood (it's on the ocean side of Coastal Highway at 40th Street) has the best steamed crabs in all of Ocean City. There's really no contest here. Every other establishment has served me sub-par steamed crabs at some point this summer, except for On the Bay. They are heavy, full, and always cooked when you order them. They don't play those pre-steaming shenanigans that a lot of restaurants do, so the crustaceans are always hot and fresh.

Grab some corn, some brown paper, a roll of masking tape and half a bushel of crabs, and enjoy the farewell to summer. Sing along with a Journey knockoff, and put off the traffic-laced trip back home. Don't let go of summer, and she won't let go of you.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 1:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Red dots from laser pointers once danced across the boardwalk, while hermit crabs crawled up cages in hotel rooms. Today, anoles scurry around plastic cages and mopeds zip up the highway. In just the past few years, Ocean City has evolved into a very different town than it was in the early 1990s.

Laser pointers became immensely popular in the late '90s and were sold at every corner shop on the boardwalk. Kids bought them up and harassed people on the boards until July 1998 when Ordinance 1998-16 vaguely banned their use for bothering others.

In the beginning of this millennium, every visitor left at the end of their vacation with a hermit crab in a colorful shell. Maybe it was because they only lived a week, or because they sometimes lived for five years (like mine did), but sales dropped off in recent years. Today, many beach shops sell small lizards instead. The little brown and green anoles are popular, despite legal opposition to their sale.

The boardwalk itself has significantly changed, with the town doubling the width near the downtown areas with a cement addition. The expansion was necessary with the hundreds of thousands of extra visitors that came to Ocean City every summer, but it took away the slightest amount of satisfaction of feeling the wood creaking beneath your feet.

Where joggers used to exercise along Coastal Highway, there now run hundreds of mopeds. Jogging in the roadway was outlawed a few years ago as traffic increased and pedestrians were injured. Many places now rent small-engined mopeds which zip up and down the main drag. Be careful on them: even though the law does not require you to wear a helmet on mopeds, you can still get seriously injured, and definitely don't wear sandals on them.

What will Ocean City be like in a few years? I am willing to bet that mopeds will be regulated at a minimum, and likely outlawed. After someone's anole collection gets loose in a restaurant, they will go the way of laser pointers as well. Some day, the boardwalk will wash away in a big storm. Will it be rebuilt?

Bonus strange law: Above the third floor of new buildings, railings on porches have to be specially designed so that the rails are in a certain pattern. There are two arguments to this change, one involving keeping toddlers from falling off, and the other to help people who suffer from vertigo. Even stranger: Mayor Rick Meehan, a realtor in the area, is afflicted by vertigo, and approved the building code change.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 2:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

There are awkward, uncomfortable nights at bars. Latin Night at Fish Tales in May was one of them. Reggae Night at Castaways (64th Street) was another, and probably the most fun awkward night of the summer.

Unlike the Fish Tales experience, Castaways was fun and exciting, despite the complete lack of rhythm exhibited by me and my group. The Zion Reggae Band took the stage after about an hour of DJ-led Caribbean dance music. Every other week in August, Zion and S.T.O.R.M traded off Thursday night appearances.

The show was excellent and the venue is decent. Castaways has a number of bars surrounding an indoor dance floor and outdoor seating on their deck. Rainy nights are not good nights if there's a crowd.

The drink prices left a lot to be desired, as they were significantly higher than most special nights around town. It wasn't outrageous, but it certainly made me cringe every time I handed over another couple of bills to the bartender.

Tuesday night is another thrilling night at Castaways, as they have their deck party on the outdoor area. Prices are better on Tuesdays, as they extend their Happy Hour until closing.

During the day, Castaways is an awesome restaurant owned by the same people that run the Dough Roller franchises. The dinner menu is filled with quality food at decent prices.

Don't worry about your lack of rhythm. Less than 25 percent of the patrons at Castaways can actually dance to the music, so you'll fit right in.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

The impending end of summer is actually making me nervous. There is so much I wish I could have done, and so much that I didn't get to do.

• Surf lessons. I tried to book surf lessons advertised for $40 an hour, but that was a group rate and I was quoted $135 for an individual lesson. I'm sure they were quality lessons, but that's not quite in the budget. This was with an independent instructor, but I've heard many good things about the surf shops' lessons. K-Coast (35th Street) charges $100 for the first lesson and offers 40 percent off beyond that. Malibu's (8th Street) offers surf lessons, but they price it individually.

• Sling Shot. Despite my irrational fear of heights, I would have loved to shoot a hundred feet in the air at ridiculous speeds. The Sling Shot is part of the revolution of rides on the boardwalk and is a definite must-do attraction.

• Shorebirds game. I really wish I could get to Nick Markakis bobblehead giveaway night, but it's not in the cards for me. I love Shorebirds games. It is great to watch the young Orioles talent develop and rise through the minor league system. The tickets are cheap and the entertainment between innings is always hilarious. Just wait for the mascot to ride by and get hit by a bucket of water from the bullpen. One of my most memorable moments at a Shorebirds game was when I realized for the first time that I was older than professional baseball player, which, along with a billion other young kids, was what I always dreamed about becoming.

• Offshore big-game fishing. My seasickness aside, deep-sea fishing is what makes Ocean City unique on the Maryland coast. I like to try to get out once a year for some tuna and dolphin, but fuel prices crushed that idea. The charter captains suffered from slow business this year, despite the spectacular catches of bluefin tuna.

• Water taxi ride. I really wish I had been able to do this one. I saw one of the water taxis pull up to the docks almost every night I spent at a waterfront bar. They offer bar-hopping trips, which would probably be a lot more fun for those who don't get queasy on the sea.

There are other things I regret missing out on, like going to the biker bar across from White Marlin Marina on Dorchester Street, but that one was because I wouldn't have fit in ... at all. I managed to spend the entire summer with only one visit to Seacrets, and that was just to see what went on at Jamaica U.S.A.

As I scan the summer checklist, I see so much completed, and so much left empty. With only a few more days left with this blog, it struck me that slightly more than three months of summer is never enough to accomplish all of one's goals. I'm not unhappy with what I missed doing, but I wish I could add another day, week, month or year to the summer. I think the feeling extends to everyone who lives The Beach Life.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

I'm not going to pretend I like golf. In fact, I wholly subscribe to Mark Twain's "Golf is a good walk, ruined." However, I've gotten some e-mails asking me about golf courses in Ocean City, and the town spends many marketing dollars on attracting golfers to OC.

According to OceanCityGolf.com, the "greater" OC area has 17 golf courses. That includes most of the greens and fairways on all of Delmarva. Many of the courses on Delmarva have phenomenal views of the back bays, which is a unique bonus.

Eagle's Landing, Golf Digest's seventh-best course in Maryland, is one of the most popular public golf courses in the area. It's about two miles south of Route 50 on Stephen Decatur Road (Route 611) and offers a spectacular view of the Sinepuxent Bay and the Assateague Island National Seashore.

The Links at Lighthouse Sound is another famous course in OC. Golf Digest named it a top 10 public course in the country, and put it on its top five list for Maryland. It is on the west side of Ocean City and has a great view of the skyline and the Assawoman Bay. Here's an interesting fact: Lighthouse Sound has the longest cart bridge in the country, taking golfers from the mainland to the marsh-side holes. Thomas Ruark Inc. developed Lighthouse Sound as well as the courses at the Glen Riddle Golf Club, Rum Pointe and Beach Club Golf Links golf clubs, and the Nutters Crossing Golf Club in Salisbury.

The Ocean City Golf Club is one of the older clubs in town, and is about four miles more down Route 611 from Eagle's Landing. There are two courses at the club and both have gotten great reviews.

Since I'm not the most qualified golf reviewer in town, someone else drop a comment about what the best OC golf courses are. What did I miss?

On the other hand, ask me about mini-golf, and I can tell you anything you want.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 1:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
                    

Who would have thought that there was only one more summer weekend left after this one? Labor Day is just over a week away, and we still have things to accomplish this summer!

It's the time of year when shop owners and food servers start to get a little short tempered and less willing to put up with guff from customers. Have some patience, and understand that it is a very difficult job to deal with a clientele that will rarely have more than one pass at the store, especially when those people think the world owes them a vacation at the expense of the locals.

Before Labor Day puts the summer to bed and wakes up autumn, spend the weekend tying up loose ends and topping off that summertime list of goals.

• Ride more rides. Hit up Trimper's, Jolly Roger (both the one on the amusement pier and the 30th Street one), and maybe even venture north to Rehoboth Beach, where the rides are dirt cheap. With an uncertain tax situation, Trimper's and Jolly Roger may be drastically different next year. Get on 'em while they're still around.

• Spend an hour in Ocean Gallery. On Second Street, there is a lovely shop that is very famous for its beautiful artwork and ridiculous television commercials. Ocean Gallery is full of awesome and amazing paintings, photographs and more, but they also have a huge assortment of crazy posters and framed drawings as well. Spend an hour or four digging through the stacks of art and find something that you'll either love or laugh at for the next few years.

• Catch an Atlantic sunrise and an Assawoman sunset. Be up early in the morning and catch a glimpse of the first few rays of the sun appearing over the eastern horizon. Sit in the sand and enjoy the peacefulness of dawn as the surfers and fishermen start their days. When the sun is ready to go away for the evening, head west and find some place on the bay to watch the orb disappear behind the distant trees.

• Watch the Assateague ponies. Mystery surrounds the origin of the ponies on Assateague, but there's no questioning how cool it is to have wild horses roaming a small barrier island. Take a trip to Assateauge Island and bike, walk or drive through the National Park. If you value your fingertips, don't feed the ponies -- they bite -- and don't get too close to their powerful kicks. Take a photo (since I don't have one) and come back and share with us.

• No more excuses, just do it. Whether you wanted to ride all the rides, or hop to all the bars, don't have any regrets after this weekend. It's been a long, beautiful summer, and it's time to wind it down in style. Hit up Fish Tales and Pepper's, visit the marina bars, have a drink with the locals at Buxy's, or take that surfing lesson you've been meaning to. In eight days, you are going to feel terrible for missing out on all the fun you could have had.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Have you ever been eating and realized in the middle of a bite that you simply can no longer fit any more food in your stomach? That's how I felt halfway through my rack of ribs at Bethany Blues in Bethany Beach, Del.

It was that I'm-so-full-but-the-food-is-too-good-not-to-finish kind of a feeling. It was that point in the meal where swallowing would mean a ruptured stomach and a hospital visit. As I've said before, I'm not a big fat slob (actually, I'm underweight for my height), but I just got carried away with the ridiculously good food that night.

Just north of the main drag in Bethany, this big rib house is one of the noisiest spots in the Quiet Resorts. The wait times are often long (call ahead, dummy!), but the anticipation is worth every second.

What precisely was it that filled me to the bursting point? We started with eight Jack Daniels chicken wings. The Pigs on the Wing caught my attention on the menu, but I was planning on ribs for dinner, and two portions of pigs would make me awfully swine-filled. The wings were excellent, but I like mine swimming in sauce, which these definitely were not.

Not quite the rib aficionado as the guys in the booth next to me, I didn't know the difference between St. Louis and baby back ribs. It turns out that St. Louis ribs have more meat on them and are cooked a little different. I went with the Missouri-inspired recipe and felt bold enough to order a full rack. Bad decision. It came with two sides, and I got the garlic mashed potatoes and the macaroni and cheese. (Note: I don't like pasta, but was prodded into the mac 'n cheese. Thanks, Caroline. Good decision.)

Good lord was it delicious. I was so caught up in the food that I didn't realize how full I was. I must have looked like I was dying because my server's eyes grew wide as she walked by and she asked if I was OK. I felt so sick that I actually felt good. I sat there motionless for about five minutes before I realized that my parking meter was about to expire, so I ran out and added a few quarters to the machine. The walk failed to resettle the contents of my stomach, so I ended up taking half a rack of ribs home for lunch the next day. The server didn't even need to ask if I wanted to see the dessert menu.

At the end of each table is a trio of barbecue sauces. I only tried the smoky BBQ and the spicy varieties, and they were very good when mixed together.

Bethany Blues prides itself on the manner of cooking their ribs. They smoke them using only wood fire, never with gas or electric heat. They claim that this gives the meat a full flavor and a beautiful pink color inside.

If you're lucky enough to find a parking spot nearby, drop a few quarters in the meter and stop by Bethany Blues. Make sure you park in a legal spot though, and definitely don't leave a car with a bike rack on the back in a compact-sized spot. Learned that one the tough way, thanks to a $20 ticket from the Town of Bethany Beach.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Say what you will about annoying beach habits and declining visitor numbers, but Ocean City has at least five big things that make it better than other beach towns.

• Relative cleanliness. Beachcombers sweep the beach every night (or at least they are supposed to) and pick up the trash left by lazy and self-absorbed visitors. It's a relief not to find bottles and bags in the sand every morning, but instead to walk down to a nice, smooth, clean beach. Additionally, the National Resource Defense Council gave the water off the coast of Ocean City a five-star rating in 2007. The rating, which was the highest possible, meant that none of the samples taken last year ever exceeded the acceptable level for bacteria in the water.

• The entire beach is public. Go a mile north of Ocean City and you find private beaches. From the Delaware line to the Ocean City Inlet, there is not a foot of private sand. It's an anomaly in beach towns, and many out-of-towners will ask the locals how to get to the beach. It's easy: "Head east." If you can't find the beach, you might want to just head home.

• The only vendors on the beach are the Scopes guys. I don't want my hair braided. I don't want any T-shirts. I don't want to buy your seashell necklaces, and I certainly don't want to deal with vendors hawking their wares in Ocean City. Luckily, I don't have to. No one except the Scopes guys and gals can go around and sell anything on the beach. Even the two telescope picture companies have to bid and fight over territory. It makes for a much more relaxing day at the beach with no one hassling you over your hard-earned wages.

• The OCBP. Stay in the sand 'til the lifeguard is in the stand and this one works out well for you. The Ocean City Beach Patrol are some of the finest, best-trained lifeguards in the country. There are stands every few blocks and, as a result, there are very few drownings and serious injuries in the water. They aren't just lifeguards, they are surf rescue technicians (SRTs), and they do more than sit in the stands all day: they break up fights, deal with lost children, handle minor and major injuries, and keep a close eye over every swimmer.

• Lazy? Cheap? Just rent a chair and umbrella. If you're the type of person who buys $20 umbrellas and watches them blow away when a seagull flaps its wings nearby, this one is for you. Beach stands will rent you a high quality canvas umbrella with a heavy wooden handle that isn't blowing away unless the wind blows a gale. These umbrellas usually retail for over $150, but the workers will set your rental up with no questions asked (except for asking where you want it put) for roughly $50-75 a week. They also rent chairs, boogie boards and more.

Other suggestions that didn't make the cut included: the ice cream man, no dogs on the beach, and no alcohol on the beach. They're good, but the ice cream man isn't always there, too many people like dogs, and I'm not going to get on the bad side of a beach drunk.

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

With the economy in the tank and gas prices through the roof, everyone is arguing over whether Ocean City is seeing more or fewer visitors this year. Statistics on the matter are confusing and conflicting.

Last week, the Tourism Commission released numbers that said that while people were staying for a shorter time, more reservations were booked than last year. They were using online bookings as a measure, however. The Dispatch, one of Ocean City's local papers, reported a 600-room increase in bookings, but a 2 percent decline in nights rented.

Just to prove that a little number-fudging can spin a story however you want, the commission said that they had an increase from "roughly" $3.6 million to "approximately" $4 million in the room tax revenues this year. The key to the increase? A 0.5 percent jump in the room tax rate. Another local paper, Ocean City Today calculated that under the old tax rate, room revenues were actually down 2.1 percent. The room tax figures don't include under-the-counter condominium rentals, where owners don't buy rental licenses.

Many will be waiting with baited breath to see how the demoflush numbers are spun. While they are known to inflate the actual population figure, the standard is the same every year, so it's easy to compare changes in population while ignoring the actual amount of people in town.

The next confusing number: bus ridership. Some will say that a 13 percent increase in May bus riders was due to more people being in town. Others will say it was an early Memorial Day, or a response to high gas prices. Ocean City officials reported a 3 percent increase in June and a 1 percent increase in July. Nothing solid, of course, but it does show that more people are riding the buses, and little more.

Restaurants have felt the pinch, as vacationers conserve funds by eating in or grabbing a quick bite. Unfortunately, most of the fast food chains do not offer their Dollar or Value menus, and Subway only started carrying their $5 footlongs after extremely vocal patrons forced their hands. A completely random and totally unscientific poll of servers in restaurants suggested that some old standards, like the Greene Turtle, had an increase in customers, while some of the smaller and more expensive joints like Harrison's Harborwatch saw their figures slide.

I can see both sides of the argument. Traffic has definitely been lighter, as u-turns and crossing the highway have been easier than ever. On the other hand, I've seen 3-hour-long waits at the Greene Turtle North and long lines at Trimper's. (I've never understood why someone would wait three hours to eat at a bar, but I'd definitely wait for hours to ride the Tidal Wave roller coaster.) Most of the crowds have been on weekends, and some bars have been deserted on weekdays. I went to Fish Tales on a Wednesday and found myself and two friends to be the only ones at the bar at 1 a.m., which almost never occurs. It felt like May, but it was mid-August.

While some establishments are posting record numbers every week, others are struggling to make their tax and rent payments. It will be interesting to see how the landscape changes next year. With an abundance of empty, unsold condominiums, developers will be less likely to bail out a failing business and build something new on top.

What have you experienced? Are there any beach workers who can say that their shops have been packed or deserted?

Posted by Peter Arrabal at 2:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)