Ocean City

Paradise Awaits in This Maryland Family Fun Spot

By Sue Marquette Poremba

When our friends asked us to go with them on vacation to Ocean City, Md., we jumped at the chance. What could be more fun than a week at the shore (as we here on the East Coast call it) with my two favorite guys – my husband, Jack, and son, Dylan – and our good friends and their two kids?

Ocean City is actually a peninsula to the south of Delaware, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and Assawoman Bay. The Costal Highway, the main road that takes you from the Delaware/Maryland border to the tip of the peninsula, is a little more than 10 miles long.

We took our vacation in mid-July, which is the height of the season in Ocean City. Hotel and rental condo prices are at their highest between July 4 and Labor Day holidays, when the ocean water is warm. Most of the condos and hotels are between the ocean's beaches and the Costal Highway, so you don't have to walk more than a block to get to the beach.

Being close to the beach was vital to us because the beach was the focal point of our vacation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the beach is free – as is parking near the beach entrances, but you need to get there early to get a spot. We had our own chairs, umbrellas and boogie boards, but they were available for rental if we needed them.

While on the beach, be sure to keep your eye out for schools of porpoises swimming by. It figures, the day I didn't have a camera with me was the day I saw a school of five porpoises diving in perfect synchronicity. In all my years of going to the shore, I'd never seen anything like that before.

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