Ocean City, NJ

This trip is from last semester, but unfortunately I didn't get to post about it on time. So without further ado, here it is.

Ocean City is located in New Jersey, and is most exciting for its boardwalk which boasts a host of rides, snack shops, and little gift shops where you can get your own personalized pressed shirt Jersey Shore style! The city's motto is "America's Greatest Family Resort." Well, I'm not sure about that, but it certainly was nice to walk along the boardwalk and the shore on a nice hot day. Because of it's family oriented atmosphere, there is no alcohol sold anywhere. 

The length of the boardwalk itself is about 2 1/2 miles long and perfect for biking, jogging, walking, or anything else you might fancy. You quickly learn that the designated lanes should be paid attention to unless you want to get runover by one of those cart, peddled, surrey things.  Although many people neglect to follow the rules of the labeled lanes, it still helps.



FOOD

My favorite part. Here is what I decided to sample!

Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard
Luckily there are about 3 locations on the boardwalk, so you can always find a Kohr Bros somewhere. They claim that their custard is only like 150 calories so go for it! I tried the mint and chocolate swirl, but they also have an orange cream swirl that I heard was amazing. You can also get it inverted and dipped in sprinkles if you desire.  The custard was not as dense as I thought it would be. It was very light on the contrary, yet it didn't melt super fast!

One of the many locations near the main entrance.

Fried Pickles

I just had to try these after they were made popular by Snooki on the Jersey Shore.  I was pleasantly surprised and have to admit that I'm a follower now! They were greasy little slices, but they were great. You can't go wrong with fried anything right? They also give you an amazingly tasty sauce to dip your fried pickles in which I highly recommend. It's sort of like a spicy thousand island which is amazing with the seasoned crunchy batter and the sourness from the pickles.

My pickles complete with side sauce! Yummy :D



Banana Whip

Down one of the side alleys on the boardwalk sits the Bashful Banana Bakery and Cafe.  They are home to an amazing dessert like creation made of pure frozen bananas. Legit, nothing else is in there. They run the frozen bananas through this press sort of machine which turns them into an ice cream like consistency. I'm not entirely sure how they make it so decadent, but it's amazing. If you opt for toppings (which you should!) try the fruit fudge sauce, made of fruit! The kiddie size is like $4.25 which is plenty for someone like me! It's like 0.65 to add a topping, and you can also get them flavored with strawberry or pineapple etc.



Banana whip topped with all fruit fudge sauce. Soooo amazing!



Pizza
Of course I had to get a slice on the boardwalk. I went to 3 Brothers From Italy where they have an eating competition challenge thing. Although I didn't attempt to eat an entire pizza in 15 minutes, I would seriously admire someone who could. I opted for a slice of broccoli chicken to get my serving of veggies for the day (lol). It was a typical reheated slice of pizza, but it was perfect.

Fudge
Seriously go try some fudge while you're here.  They even hand you free samples outside to entice you. I went to the Original Fudge Kitchen where you can watch them handmake the fudge which is cool.

I bought the pumpkin pie and pistachio fudge. It was great. Their maple is also delicious too.

Taffy
There are several taffy places to shop at but I went to Shriver's where you can see the taffy machines in the back room. Pretty cool.

You can fill up your own bag with taffy and they charge you by weight. There are also many other commonly found candies there to indulge in.

Activities

Aside from the amazing beach located like 50 feet away from you, there are numerous other things to do on the boardwalk.  Here are some:

Mini-Golf
Go try out one of the several mini golf places.  They looked fun, but I didn't participate.

Rides
If rides are more of your thing, they have the typical boardwalk/carnival rides. Try out the ferris wheel for a nice relaxing, breezy ride. You do have to buy tickets for each ride or you can buy a wristband thing.

I would generally advise avoiding the "Glass House" on a hot day. But that's just me.

Try to have fun and follow the rules
Why are there so many rules?! Here are some. So you can pretty much walk around and not have any fun. If you can walk around between all of the people swarming on the beach. Also, how do you skateboard on a beach???

Apparently, you cannot throw balls or frisbees. Bummer. You also cannot picnic.

Clearly these brave souls have decided to break the rules. God bless them.

Good luck trying to find a spot to set up that umbrella.

For all of you Philly residents, it might interest you to know that both David Akers (former Eagles kicker) and Jay Wright (Villanova's awesome Basketball coach) own summer residences here.  Other famous people also are frequent summer vacationers here.

Seriously, go to the boardwalk for a nice day at the beach. I would advise going early if you don't want to be around the crowds, but in the summertime, that's kind of inevitable. A family fun destination, Ocean City didn't disappoint. Next time I'll have to try the fried Oreos!

Stephanie, WWT