Another Port of Call

Maybe it's because I'm a strong proponent of the Jimmy Buffett lifestyle or maybe it's because I grew up on trips down to the Jersey shore (not that Jersey shore), but I've always found the best way to deal with stress or whatever is to hit the beach. So when RPGSSS9 hits too early for inspiration to slap you in the face, a man's got to do something!

Granted, this particular trip had been planned well in advance of the announcement and I was totally going to go anyway, but it's always nice to have a good excuse for slacking off.

This trip, though, wasn't just to the land of popped collars, fake tans, and gallons of hair gel. This trip was to Ocean City, Maryland. A place I've been once, nearly two decades ago, and have absolutely no recollection of. Pfft, I said to myself, how could it ever beat out Jersey's boardwalks and beaches--even with the annoying idiots who give them a bad name?

We arrived late and figured we were screwed. Except that a ton of places were still open, including an awesome pizza place open until 4(!) with pizza not only acceptable by NJ standards, but excelling. The boardwalk was a few blocks from where we were staying, and even at 2 in the morning people were still pleasantly walking and enjoying the sights and smells of the ocean. 

 

Needless to say, it was even better in the daylight. Beaches with tons of activity and none (okay, maybe just less) of the annoying Jersey-shore type. Oceanfront soccer games. Young women of unknowable age playing in a beach volleyball tournament. A kite shop with some of the most bitchin' kites I've seen in a long time flying on display. Arcades with games that worked. Every Time Crisis ever, Ghost Squad, House of the Dead, sucker cranes that pick things up!

 

And Dance Dance Revolution.

Do you know how hard it is to find a working DDR machine at the Jersey shore? Hint: I went up and down the shore this year in search of one. I found one. A Frankenstein abomination cobbled together from a DDR pad and an In the Groove cabinet with several wires that were certainly not an original element of either game. I found three in Ocean City, none of which had been chopped to pieces.

Then add in go-karts and mini-golf and sushi buffets and old knickknacky stores that aren't just full of tchotchke garbage...

All in all, a pretty awesome adventure. Message received, Ocean City. The Jersey shore might be able to call a mulligan over that hurricane a few years ago, but it's time to step our game up.

In fact, the only problem with the trip was that I didn't actually get a chance to mull over design ideas. And the deadline looms...

Must be time for the beach.