Ocean City occupies a barrier island on the Jersey Shore just south of Atlantic City (and its neighboring towns). It's got seven or eight miles of beaches, a 2.5 mile boardwalk, and lots of houses and businesses. It bills itself as something like "America's Greatest Family Resort" and the "family" part is because this is a dry town and always has been.

 

What fascinates me about this town is that it's a beach vacation place, but in the summer it has the population density of a major city. The permanent population is around 15,000 but the population increases by 100,000 or more in the peak season. There is mile upon mile of residential blocks, most typically consisting of two-unit houses which are rented on a weekly basis. During the day, the boardwalk swarms with bicycles and surrey carriages and crossing from one side to the other is a dangerous sport. At night, the boardwalk remains swamped with pedestrians. It's the kind of vacation place that can be hard to appreciate if you didn't grow up with it. My family has been coming here in the summer for several generations, so I've grown up with that appreciation.

 

Unfortunately the weather generally sucked while I was there this year, so I didn't manage to get around town and take a lot of photos, but here are some shots that I did get.

 

First, a view from the boardwalk in the evening.

 

At the northern end of the boardwalk businesses is Gillian's Wonderland Pier, one of two little amusement parks on the boardwalk. Wonderland has been around for something like 80 years.

 

It has a decent-sized Ferris Wheel, among other things.

 

Rides

 

The other amusement park is Playland (I don't remember "Castaway Cove" always being part of the name), which as you can see has "over 30 exciting rides"!

 

It also has a Ferris Wheel which is smaller but more colorful.

 

 

 

Indoors, Skee-Ball!

 

And now just some boardwalk scenes.

 

Former theater, now a sort of indoor mall

 

 

Not a tradition for me, but apparently it is for one of my cousins, so we ate here one night.

 

 

French fries are a common boardwalk food, along with the pizza, ice cream, fudge, and taffy that you may have seen in the previous photos.

 

There are lots of miniature golf options. This place has been a favorite of my cousin, my sister, and me.

 

Blur

 

This is the southern end of the boardwalk businesses.

 

A week later, and a couple of miles to the south, I took a few photos on an ugly day at the beach.

 

It was cold and windy, and the water was rough. Hence, the beach was pretty desolate.

 

The Atlantic Ocean

 

My uncle and I are reflected in all those bubbles.

 

The previous night and day it rained something like 4 inches. The town basically consists of marsh and beach, so it doesn't handle large amounts of rain too well and some streets are flooded somewhat often.

 

Not the best day to use the bike lane.

 

Around here the water was about thigh-deep.

 

Naturally, a boat is the way to go.

 

The guy on the left is dressed for it, though.

 

This poor sucker didn't move his car in time. And the doors didn't keep the water out.

 

Epilogue: The flooding was apparently worse than usual, but even so by the next morning it was reduced to puddles.

Yep, that's what a touristy Atlantic beach town is like. Lots of bad food, rides, arcades and the beach. Those flood pics are great too, especially the one with the kids in the boat. Good timing!

At least there's a Palm restaurant nearby.

Great stuff! I love the "ugly day" photos.

My grandparents lived in Ocean City while I was growing up and we used to vacation there every summer.  Lots of fond memories of that boardwalk... and I dropped many a quarters in those arcade machines.  IIRC, Wildwood was the boardwalk where people went to drink and party, and Sea Isle (Senile) City was the really quiet classier boardwalk.

down the shore everything's alright! charming thread.

 

what a weird summer we had with the weather around these parts. it was cold or clammy and rainy like that most of the time. the year without a summer.