A BEACH VACATION AND WE SAVED A STINGRAY!

On Sunday, Sept. 13th, we headed over to our friends Dawn and Don's farm in Manchester, MD. about 1 hour away. They had us over for a nice cookout along with a mutual friend of ours, Tanner. Don and Tanner are cowboy action shooters and we have known them for many years.

Soon we also started drinking peach and strawberry moonshine. I ate the strawberries and peaches that were at the bottom of the moonshine jar. Needless to say, I did not take pictures because my face was numb and I was a bit unsteady on my feet, but boy were they good!

It was a fun day with our friends and the food was yummy!

On Monday, Sept 14th, Ralph and I packed the truck and left our rolling home behind and headed to the Delaware shores of Bethany Beach about 3-1/2 hours away.

My sister got a free week at a nice beach house that normally rents for $3,500 a week during the season. Terry is the broker whom she works for and he gave her his beach house to use for the extra work she had done for him over the last several months.

The house has an "ocean view" and it is literally a two minute walk from the ocean.

When we arrived, my sister Florence and her husband Bill just pulled in from the grocery store. Here is their dog Bruno. Florence and Bill brought their kayaks along and Bruno looks like he is saying "We are going to the beach".

After lunch, Florence and I took a walk on the beach and enjoyed the wildlife.

Oh yum, sushi! A dead eel washed up on the shore.

On Tuesday, Sept. 15th, Florence and I packed our coffee mugs, chairs and blanket and headed off to the beach to watch the sunrise. While waiting we had fun "sisterly" chit chats. This was the first time that we have had sisterly alone time and we sure did enjoy it.

Florence waiting for the sunrise.

The seagulls waiting for the sunrise.

Yay, here comes the sun! There is nothing like a beautiful sunrise, listening to the ocean surf and watching wildlife.

 Wow, nothing like going to the beach and coming home to a wonderful breakfast that is being fixed for you.

A dogs life at the beach. (And everyday for that matter)

 Here is the beach house. Florence and Bill are up on the deck. Just across the street are the homes that are beach front, so you can see how close we are to the beach.

 After breakfast we all took a nice walk on the beach. It was so relaxing and we saw dolphins swimming off in the distance. They were a bit too far away for pictures.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16th, Florence and I watched the sunrise again and it was just the 2 of us. As the fellas go, well I guess sunrises are just not their thing and that is okay. It just allowed more quality time with my sister. And when we got home, the fellas were fixing us breakfast again!

In the afternoon, Florence and Bill went kayaking on the ocean. They were gone for several hours and saw dolphins, schools of fish and even a small 4 foot shark. Luckily they did not see the big ones that were way down underneath them.

The seagulls were entertaining.

That afternoon Ralph and I drove to Ocean Pines just west of Ocean City, MD. We have good friends that moved there from Frederick, MD.

Dottie and Donnie have a beautiful home nestled on a wooded lot that backs up to a golf course.  I fell in love with it and Dottie is just like Martha Stewart, she knows how to decorate and make a house a home.

They treated us out to dinner at a nice pub called Whiskers. I love a good hot dog and I was in my glory when I saw that they had all kinds of "foot long hot dogs". The dog I got is called a "Reuben Dog". Sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, thousand island dressing on flavored toasted bun. Oh my gosh, it was to die for! Ralph got a wonderful steak and cheese. The cole slaw was one of the best I have ever had. The secret the waitress said was adding pineapple juice!

Shame on me, I did not get pictures of Dottie and Donnie or their home. They were having their driveway black topped and there were workers and equipment along the front of their home.

When we got back from Whiskers, we visited until evening and had cheesecake and coffee to top off our great day! It was wonderful seeing them.

On Wednesday, Sept. 16th, Florence and I did another morning sunrise.

While we were waiting for the sun to come up, about 500 feet down the beach we saw something along the shoreline. We thought it was a piece of driftwood. We kept looking down every so often and all of a sudden we saw a few seagulls fly off of it and noticed the thing moved.

We ran down and saw that it was a stingray. It had fresh marks on its head from the seagulls that were pecking at it. Its barb was just a stub of maybe a few inches. We surmise that it was either bitten off by the stingrays main predator the shark.

Later on we were told if a fisherman catches a stingray, they will cut the stingray's barb off. Shame on them for doing that! Stingrays are not aggressive and would rather swim away when threatened, now this stingray is unable to defend itself.

Since then, I have read that their stinger will regrow at the rate of about a 1/2" a month.

Florence and I grabbed each fin and had to drag this fellow a foot at a time. I am a good judge of weight and the stingray weighed around 40 lbs. It was difficult to get a good grip on the fins, so we grabbed a handful of sand in each hand and this allowed us to get a better grip. It was too awkward to carry so we drug it a foot at a time for about a distance of 15 feet until we reached the water.

The stingray seemed patient with us and we got him back into the surf. Now he had to do his part and get over the first break of the waves. At first he couldn't and he kept getting washed back to shore. I thought we were going to have to grab him and swim out with him a ways, but finally he did it on his own.

This was the best part! He stayed around a few minutes and kept lifting his fin out of the water. I really do think he was waving thanks!

Due to our good deed, we missed the actual sunrise but we enjoyed seeing the birds frolicking in the surf. Several onlookers who were watching Florence and I, came up to thank us for saving the stingray.

That afternoon Florence and Bill took me to the bay side to go Kayaking. Ralph is afraid of water so he stayed at home and relaxed. We went to rent an extra kayak and soon we were paddling around the bay. It was a lot of fun. I would have loved to take pictures, but since I have never kayaked I did not want to take a chance just in case I fell overboard!

On Thursday, Sept. 17th, we all headed to the beach for the sunrise. Florence and Bill wanted to be on the ocean in the kayaks as the sun was rising. Unfortunately it was an overcast morning with the sun peaking through for a few minutes before it went behind the clouds for good. But still it was beautiful.

Ralph is thinking, "I'd rather be in bed sleeping".

That afternoon we headed down to Ocean City, MD. just about 15 miles away from Bethany Beach to the famous Ocean City Boardwalk.

On the boardwalk is the Ocean City Firefighters 9/11 Memorial dedicated to the 343 New York City Firefighters who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

I only wish my photo could show the awesome detail on the fireman. 

The plaque in the photo below reads, "Once part of the World Trade Center this twisted piece of steel rest here as an enduring memorial to  the 343 New York City Firefighters who perished in their desperate attempt to save lives on September 11, 2001. We Will Never Forget".

Carriage rides on the boardwalk.

Boardwalk food is like "Fair Food". I could eat my way from one end of the boardwalk to the other end. I think we did too!

All the walking made us hungry.

And again, all the walking made us hungry! We bought lots of chocolate from Wockenfuss. Wockenfuss Candies is one of the oldest candy makers and they started in Baltimore, MD. in 1915 and are celebrating 100 years. The 5th generation is now running Wockenfuss.

It all started with Herman Wockenfuss who was born in 1875 in Germany. He came to America in 1887 where he eventually learned how to make candy. In 1915 he proudly opened Wockenfuss. 

There are now 8 retail stores in Maryland with 3 being in Ocean City. They are one of the best homemade candy companies and all the candies look like a work of art. 

So many flavors of fudge.

Caramel apples and chocolate dipped strawberries.

I would work here for free!

Here we all are, tuckered out from walking and eating on the boardwalk. We all just finished eating ice cream from Dumser's Dairyland. They are famous here and have been serving ice cream treats on the Ocean City Boardwalk since 1939. Their other location in Ocean City dates back to 1940. It is an ice cream parlor and it features the old fashioned tin ceiling, high back booths and ice cream counter service. 

Even Bruno was tuckered out and he stayed home all day.

After having fun on the boardwalk, we headed back to Bethany Beach but not before visiting friends of my parents. My folks use to live in North Ocean City and the folks we are visiting use to live in the old neighborhood where Florence and I grew up.

When they all retired they moved down to Ocean City where they could all be together. There were several couples and they enjoyed many years of retirement as beach bums, but now there is just Mr. Mulholland and Mrs. Powanda left.

We have always kept in touch with my parent's friends. They were all part of our childhood as Florence and I grew up and we have nothing but love and fond memories of them. Only thing is we had so much fun talking, it slipped my mind to take pictures.

Oops, I almost forgot these wonderful pictures taken today on the boardwalk. I have always loved Carousels. As we travel across the country, I have stopped and seen beautiful carousels and even rode on a few. I also went to watch folks at a shop that did carousel  restoration. That was so interesting and I am so happy that there are people that do this kind of work and are saving these majestic carousel figures.

This Trimper's Carousel is one of the oldest fixtures on the boardwalk. It has been in continuous operation since its 1912 installation. It is the country's oldest continuously operating carousel. It was built by Herschell-Spellman and stays inside this protective building.

This Herschell-Spellman Company is one of the best known elaborate carousel carvers. Surviving carousels can be found in Maryland, California and Michigan. The Herschell Carousel Factory Museum is in Buffalo, N.Y. and I hope to get there one day.

While we were there visiting this carousel, there was a large group of seniors. They were all from a carousel club and unfortunately I cannot remember the clubs name. I would have loved to looked up their website on the computer.

This club visits carousels across the country. They were fun to talk to and you could see the smiles on their faces as they rode this carousel. They were galloping their trusty steeds and probably felt like they were 8 years old again as their grins reached ear to ear.

 Friday, Sept. 18th was a sad day, because we all had to pack up! We watched the sunrise for one last time but time we were sitting out on the deck as the sun rose between the 2 houses across the street.

While we were heading out of Bethany Beach, we saw this little Yorkie that was nestled in his little pouch enjoying the ride.

Crossing the famous Bay Bridge. The Bay Bridge is 4.3 miles and the lanes are about 186 ft. above the Chesapeake Bay. It was opened in 1952. Daily traffic is about 61,000 vehicles. It has only been closed 4 times due to hurricanes.

Until next time..............Happy Trails!