Tuesday, July 30, 2013

My Day in Delaware (On A Budget)!

I am so excited to write this blog post about my day in Delaware yesterday! If you didn't read yesterdays blog post, Cody and I decided to go to Ocean City, MD because we finally had a day off together! Also, it was like an early anniversary date. I had so much fun and I've been looking forward to sharing what I did and how much we spent in total with you! So, lets get started!

We woke up around 9 am to catch the Cape May Ferry (located in Cape May, NJ) which was going to Lewes, DE. It took the jaws of life to get me out of bed because I was so tired but eventually I got out and got dressed! We stopped at WaWa to grab some morning coffee, or in my case a French Vanilla Cappuccino, and headed toward the ferry!


We intended on getting on the 10:30 am ferry so that we would make it to Ocean City, MD, with plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. However, when we got to the ticket booth to buy tickets for the ferry, the woman told us that the 10:30 ferry was full; which meant we had to take the 12:00 one! We were so upset but she told us that sometimes if there's room we may be able to fit on the 10:30 one! Annnnnnnnnnnd.. luckily, there was room! We were the last car in our lane able to fit onto the ferry!


If you haven't been on a ferry before, it's a HUGE boat that you drive your car onto! It drives through the water (obviously) from one location to another, cutting the travel time in half. It makes it really easy for commuters because it's a shorter distance and if they commute back and forth from work everyday, they don't have to worry about being exhausted and falling asleep behind the wheel! The round trip price for the ferry was $80; that included the car, Cody and me. The $80 is definitely worth it when you think of how much you would've spent in gas driving there. Each ferry is different but they're HUGE usually 2-3 floors and very spacious. There's a great view, mini food court, arcade, TVs and everything else you could possibly ask for during your mini travel period.

Here are some pictures of the view:


 Birds always seem to follow the boat and sometimes you can even see dolphins!


Cody was having a lot of fun! We were loving the breeze coming off the water and we were still a little tired so it was keeping us awake! The morning was over-cast which was making us worried about the possibility of rain during our mini vacation. After about an hour and fifteen-ish minutes, we finally got to Delaware! And there was absolutely no traffic getting off of the ferry; it was very well ran. We had a 45 minute drive to OC, MD but we were excited to see cool stuff along the way!

Like this bridge for example:




Such a beautiful bridge! We also saw many many restaurants as well as malls and outlets! Outlets are stores that sell their merchandise at a lower price than in their normal retail stores. There's a bunch of outlets in Delaware and the best part is there's no sales tax there! Yup, you heard me right.. no sales tax! A shopoholic's dream!

When we first got to Ocean City we stopped at this adorable mini nature park on the bay and the sun finally started to come out!


We were definitely enjoying the park and there were butterflys everywhere!


It was a short walk to the boardwalk from the park and we were AMAZED by how beautiful it was!

Here's a picture.. this photo doesn't do it ANY justice. You need to see it in person!


The first thing we did when we got onto the boardwalk was grab something to eat! We saw this little stand selling cheese dogs and chili cheese dogs and we lunged toward it!


The place we got them was called Sandy Bottoms. In total we paid $10 for one cheese dog, one chili cheese dog and a very large can of Mountain Dew.


We sat at a bench on the beach for a little bit and ate our food before we adventured on the boardwalk! We passed by a bunch of stuff that looked interesting but nothing caught our attention until we saw the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum!

  

We each got tickets which came to $30.00 and were so excited to begin our tour! It was $15.00 per adult but it was definitely worth it considering all of the cool stuff we got to see! And the walk through is pretty long, so you get your money worth.


My grandmom is a HUGE fan of Elvis Presley, so I couldn't help but take this picture! It's made completely out of pennies!!


I was also intrigued by this 24 karat gold 1973 Mini Cooper! I drive a white Mini and I would love to trade mine in for a modern day version of this one!

Here's a picture of Cody and I in a two-way mirror!


The next part we went through was by far my favorite!!


They had such cool stuff in the Oddities section of the tour. It was unbelievable! When you walked in there was an old man bending down as if he were about to take a picture and his flash would go off and scare the crap out of you!


Some other fun things in the museum were the spinning tunnel and the "gate that opens." The spinning tunnel is a tunnel that you walk through and it feels like you're about to fall! It's crazy and definitely kind of scary. The "gate that opens" is a random gate placed in the middle of the floor with a sign that says "This gate does open!" and you have to try and figure out how it opens. Needless to say, Cody and I figured it out :)


After our tour we were in the mood for some ice cream; but we felt like we needed to try something new! So we got "Shave Ice." It's like an upgraded version of a Sno Kone. The price was $2.00, you get to pick any flavor(s) you wanted and it's HUGE!


We knew we wanted to end the day with rides and food.. so we just walked down the boardwalk and went into a bunch of shoppes and funky stores. We went into a gigantic surf mall and as soon as I walked in I fell in LOVE with this mini skateboard. I'm a sucker for a good floral pattern.


I was so going to buy it but then I remembered that I don't know how to skateboard. So, Cody and I decided that we're going to dedicate next weekend to teaching me how to skate so I can buy this amazing board!

I also saw some other really cool stuff on the boardwalk too!

Like these calf socks:

This Mason Jar Wine Glass


And this Instagram "Hot Spot" which I thought was extremely creative! They were all over the boardwalk!


To finish up our day on the boardwalk we decided to do some rides! It was $19.99 for 40 tickets which is definitely worth it compared to the prices of other theme parks! And the rides were great!


The entire theme park is decorated like an old-fashioned carnival!


It was great but the spinny rides in the scorching sun were giving us headaches! We're getting old haha. We started getting tired so we gave our remaining tickets to a little girl and called it a day! We worked up a such a big appetite and agreed that we wanted to drive through Ocean City to see what kind of restaurants they had before leaving.

We settled on Higging's Crab Shack!


We ordered 10 clams, clam chowder soup and 12 crabs; and surprisingly we ate EVERYTHING. I guess we really worked up an appetite! I loved the crab house and thought it was very laid back and definitely a change of pace from what I normally eat. The entire dinner came to $51.00 which wasn't bad at all because normally seafood is super expensive!

After we paid the check we were ready to hop on the ferry and head home! The best part of my night had to be watching the sunset with Cody on the ferry on the way home! You could spend $5,000 in one day but it still wouldn't add up to a great sunset like that; there are just some things money can't buy you!



In total we spent around $190.00 which isn't bad for an ENTIRE mini vacation for two. It was worth every cent and I would do it all over again if I had the opportunity! I hope you enjoyed reading about my Monday and everyone should definitely try to get out to Ocean City, MD, to enjoy their next day off!


Links to the places I've mentioned above:
Higgin's Crab House: http://www.higginscrabhouse.com/
Ocean City Maryland: http://www.oceancitymd.gov/
Cape May Ferry: http://www.capemaylewesferry.com/
Ripley's Believe It or Not: http://www.ripleys.com/
Sandy Bottoms: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sandy-Bottoms-Bar-and-Grill/154687184692026

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