Ocean City MD

Ocean City was our choice for a family holiday this year, mainly because it seemed close and we could combine vacation and home comforts without breaking the bank. I really just needed to relax a bit and I knew the kids would be fine with sand and water all day for 6 days so it seemed perfect. The twist to the vacation was we rented a four bedroom condo right off the beach along with my brother ( whose younger and single) and my sister who has two kids a bit older than mine. I wasn't sure how the week would go with so many of us in one house, I sometimes get a bit antsy having to coordinate so many different personalities but this time actually not bad. We started out as as a group of nine then my brothers friend joined in and then we were ten. By the third day we had added 9 more people in form of my cousins, their kids, my mom and aunt. 

We spent most days buried and sleeping in sand, listening to music, eating sand sprinkled sandwiches and soaking up the sun. It was nice to really feel relaxed, the kids were mostly well behaved, no one got overwhelmingly cranky. The first night we attempted to go out to dinner but it was such a popular place and we went out a bit late, my kids started to melt down by the time we were seated, so I had to ride the bus back with the two of them by myself. That was a low point because I had a crying 2 year old and a crying 5 year old on a bus full of drunk people! I learnt my lesson from that, feed the kids before we go out or go out earlier.

At first, Arielle would not even go near the water, in fact when she saw the first wave she ran away crying and wanted to leave but eventually we coaxed her closer to the water and eventually by midweek she wouldn't get out of the water, so much so that she was making everyone nervous because she was so daring. Evalie, napped every single day we ware there, either on me or on the beach towels which allowed her to maintain enough energy to wake up every morning at 6:30 screaming and running down the halls waking everyone else up. I'm used to that but I think my brother was alarmed by her busting into his room and jumping on him!

I actually haven't ever spent that many days in a row on the beach (well maybe I have..but not in the US) and I realize that I really enjoyed it, the weather was perfect, not too hot and humid but warm enough to make the alternating between wet and dry pretty pleasant. We usually all packed coolers of food and drinks so we didn't have much need to walk back too the condo except for the occasional need to go to the bathroom or charge the phones. We would get to the beach at about 10 and stay until 6. The day we had more people than expected we just ordered pizza to the beach. They also had a beach bar fully stocked with food and drinks so there really was no shortage of supplies. 

Most of the time, Arielle was happy to have her best cousin there with her but they had some spats as well, when the other cousins joined in or other kids on the beach tried to play with them, things got a little complicated, "threes was a crowd" and of course they wouldn't let Evalie play witht them so she made her own friends or played with Shaina (my 11yr old niece) when she wasn't in the water which wasn't much of the time.

I was also especially happy with the opportunity for my kiddies to bond with my brother, he's been away for most of their lives although he does visit and attend their birthday parties, baptism etc, they really only got to see him for a day or two at a time on holidays. Its better now that he's moved to the city because he's closer to us but I was still excited for them to really get time with him. 

On our first night, we didn't go out to eat so we took the kids for ice cream and treats after dinner at the candy kitchen which is basically a store filled with tempting chocolates, candies and toys. Its basically a little girls paradise. Within minutes of us getting in there, Evalie got so excited she knocked over a box of jawbreakers! The staff was not happy. 

The tides were pretty high and got progressively higher each day so we (well I didn't)  built a fort to protect us from getting flooded. Everyone else on the beach just picked up and moved back but we were relentless, we wouldn't move back. We just kept building the wall higher and higher..each day we'd return and reclaim our spot and continue building up the wall. We had a dolphin sighting too! It was really about 30- 40 dolphins 

We did have some decent dinners out, like the night we went to Phllips, even though we waited on line for a while, we eventually got in and I think everyone had a good time, the kids stayed out of trouble and ate all kinds of things. For a buffet style dinner, it was pretty good food and drinks. 

We had a nice time sitting out and watching the sunset from our balcony and an ice bucket challenge or two were completed up there! I was too chicken to do it though. Although the condo was nice, we really didn't spend too much time indoors. Maybe one or two nights we ate at home but otherwise we showered and slept there. It was decent though, more than enough space for everyone, my only problem was I didn't like having to clean up after everyone on my vacation so next time I would definitely hire a cleaning service to clean the place everyday like a hotel would...or just stay at a hotel/ serviced flat on the beach.

On our last day, we had to be out of the place by 10am so we decided to spend the day at the boardwalk and drive home at night. There was a little amusement park, Ripleys, tons of food and vendors so we bought all our souvenirs and spent the day down there. The beach was nice over by the boardwalk but very crowded with a very different type of crowd than we had at our beach. We put the kids on some rides, had some lunch and then as people started getting tired we decided it was time to go. Its always sad to get the end of a vacation but I do think it ended just in time. We all got some food for the ride said our good byes and that was it. The drive home was quiet and seemed quicker than it took to get there and we were all happy to be home. 

Until next summer!

Rediscovering THE CITY.

Being a foreigner and a citizen of the United States at the same time has always caused a rift of sorts for me in the way I relate to the city. If you came to Jos, the city I grew up in, there would be no doubt that I'd feel like I knew the authentic citizen, I was from there..but that changed when I visited last year with my family and was forced to experience my home as if I was a visitor for whatever reason. I had been gone for a long time, my family had changed, extended relatives were occupying the homes, we had to be on high security at all times because of the hostile situation that was developing..etc.

Anyway, in New York, like most other city's there aren't many qualification that allow you to claim to be authentic to that place. In New York, I believe you have to be born and raised in the city to be called a native New Yorker so I'm no where close to that but at the same time, people visiting me think I am because I live close enough. The truth is, "the city" is a place to be reckoned with, its a great place but it is tough, in many ways, its built to be a transient place, it isn't very forgiving to many, it inherently defines the kinds of people who can call it home.  It's made up of a lot of cultures, architectures, social classes and styles which makes it very exciting and allows one to continually be surprised as you turn the corner. Its a city which is alive, its continually changing and regenerating itself.

I'm totally an expat who has grazed the city, either commuting in for work, living close to but not actually in THE city or living in a suburb of the city as we do now. So its always fun to have visitors from the motherland (which is quite often in the summer) who are eager for the city experience. This weekend, we did the Financial District, Chinatown and the WTC sites all walking, on a wonderful early summer day with perfect temperatures and bright sun. 

We drove in and met my brother who actually lives on Wall Steet in a nice building, with a decent number of young professionals with no kids so it was a bit overwhelming when we turned up in their lounge with 8 eight kids ranging from ages almost 2 to 11 who all somehow are equally destructive and loud! Luckily we didn't get thrown out but my brother did usher us out after a quick tour of the amenities. He then took us on a nice shortcut walk from Wall street, past city hall (his commute every morning!) and the Brooklyn bridge, through a park and then to Chinatown for lunch. There was a fair going on which was pretty cool, but it seems theres always something going on in the city.  The funny thing about this trip, was my 11 year old niece carried my 5 year old the whole way there and back. Arie barely let her feet touch the ground and we were walking for hours!.I don't know what more surprising, how much of a pre-madonna Arielle is or how fit my niece is...she didn't break a sweat or put her down once.
My husband can't walk the supermarket carrying my 2 years old for more than 10 minutes! I was truly amazed..she's got to be some sort of famous athlete in the future because she's just naturally so strong and fit...I digress.

        

Also, along the way, there were some selfies taken and since my husband takes a lot of pride in his "Brookly-ness" he took a few shots of the icon Brooklyn Bridge and a sign he thinks was named for him I guess.

 The funny think about carrying a big camera around in the city is that you end up looking like a tourist and people react not to nicely to being photographed ( like the girls in the picture above..they probably assumed Austin was taking a picture of them not me..of course not..why would he take a picture of me?) Girls are funny..

We walked through one of the few open spaces in Chinatown and briefly watched a basket ball tournament and let the kids play but I realized immediately how your environment shapes you so distinctly, while my kids were fine playing in the overly populated playground, we, the parents were uncomfortable and watching them so closely. My sister was really not feeling the park at all while I looked around and all the "city" parents were just sitting at benches around the park chatting or on their phones not concerned at all. This was normal. It was concrete with a water feature in the middle and metal slides..so kids were wet and barefoot in the middle of this urban park sliding down metal slides..it felt unsafe but to them it was normal. Thats something I wonder about with my kids, how am I really shaping them by keeping in this somewhat sheltered bubble of safety where everything is clean, soft, organized and perfect. No grunge, no creativity?

What are the pros and cons of these exposures, I grew up really as a traveler, never really lived in on spot long enough to be be sole and permanently shaped by a single environment, rather I had to adapt to frequent change while not becoming frustrated  and /or attached. I do believe thats why I have ended up only valuing a couple of friends from my past, and a keen ability to shut people out when things get to complicated or too close. Its a trait that I value and struggle with at the same time, never get to committed or invested because then you compromise the flexibility to change. After a very interesting lunch ( and by interesting, I mean unorthodox, authentic) in Chinatown, we headed back out for some cheap wares and to the WTC. The site was unexpectedly open not overcrowded, and there it was, the two reflecting pools, the new path station, the tower the museum, all these buildings I have personal history with and it was nice to see them come to fruition. We discussed where we were when we heard, some were there in the city, some of us watched remotely from various locations. I'll do another post about the WTC site next. 

We walked back past the New York Stock Exchange and ended up back with large Starbucks drinks and some lounging back at my brothers place for a bit and then headed back to the safety...or whatever...of the suburbs.