Ocean City Wrap

The last pictures from Ocean City really capture the excitement of the place.

One of the largest buildings in town is the Ocean City Tabernacle. You gotta dig the classy architecture of the part of the building that houses the child care center. I’m half serious here. Buildings that are shaped like other things delight me. On the other hand, there’s no half-way on these things. Either build the whole building as Noah’s freaking Ark, which would be so incredibly awesome that I would have risked my soul to go inside, or don’t bother. The Explorer pointed out that the lion and lamb sitting peacefully together are imagery from the Jesus stories in the Bible. Again, why mix stories? There's something to be said for purity, I think. Still, it is amusing.

Another charming feature of the Ocean City Tabernacle is the huge Ten Commandments sculpture, contemplated below by The Explorer. How archaic that a church would have such an object d’arte. I thought the sculptures of the Ten Commandments belonged in such public places as courthouses and schools. Duh!

Back to the stunning town architecture, this boardinghouse actually offered WiFi. There were many a night when I contemplated snuggling up to the carousel horse on the porch and blogging (can you imagine the inspiration?), but worried that the plastic geese on the eave might drop a plastic guano on my head, or worse, that the shark that burst through the house between the sets of windows might not have had its appetite sated by wood. Sadly, the picture does not clearly show the mailbox at the bottom of the stairs, which was a fish with a gaping mouth.

My sister did not want to leave without a picture as the Ocean City mascot, which appears to be a flip flop family. (All over town, signs with the smiling flip flops said things like, “Shore glad you’re here!”) Really, it makes no sense to stick your face into a flip flop, does it? Our faces seem to be the flip flops' noses. (Sister’s face is blurred upon her request. It seems that she would like to have a career and not have to defend herself against goofy pictures of herself as a flip flop, or worse, have to explain what it is like having me for a sister.)

On our way back from the flip flop pictures, we passed the one store in Ocean City with some “flava.” I like how the sign maker tried to make the H's on the sign look graffitied. This is not a joke. The whitest elderly woman in the world was sitting at the counter in the shop/studio. Unfortunately we did not have time to make good on the sign (“walk ins welcome”), but I am very curious to know what a “Summer hip hop” class would be like in lily white Ocean City. Actually, this could have been sort of sad. What if I could not keep up even there? I am not very good at dance classes or group fitness. Good thing I saved myself the potential embarrassment….

Last but not least, Sister and I encountered a walking Winnie the Pooh outside an ice cream shop (but no live bait, sorry) that appeared to have nothing to do with Milne or any of his characters. (Sister again asked that her face be obliterated.) I am wearing my t-shirt celebrating the 125th anniversary of Lucy the World’s Largest Elephant. (We had attended her party on the prior day.)

Good times.