A kid with exuberance as big as the ocean! This week Josh and I went to Ocean City, NJ for a few days. Once we got there Tuesday we hit the ground running. We stopped at a playground and Josh met two kids and was directing the action within minutes. Since we had been in the car for so long I thought it was good for him to DO something even before we unloaded the stuff from the car. Plus there was a near-by cache that I was looking for so we had a chance to search after he played. Unfortunately we didn’t find the cache and since we got back I see a log entry that someone else looked too and marked it as un-found also. Too bad since it was supposed to have a beetle in it! Again another cool place we wouldn't have found if not for caching!
We got out to the beach as soon as we could after we ate a quick lunch in the room as I got our stuff situated. On the beach he had a shovel that he used to throw sand out into the ocean again and again and again. He also had forms to build things and make shapes with, but Mr. Destructo - and I should have guessed this would be his thing - kept hurling the sand back into the ocean … one teeny scoopful at a time. He also liked the boardwalk and the arcades.
In the evening I let him have a little pouch to carry his coins in and he had to budget them out, when they were gone that was it. It made him stop to think about how he was using the money to know it would end when he was done. Even when his money was spent he still had a good time sitting on each of the motorcycle rides and sitting in the car ones. There was one with three screens around the driver’s seat that just fascinated him.
There were rides across the street from our hotel that weren’t running most of our trip – just as well cause I can’t imaging him trying to go to sleep with that noise and all the activity and screaming going on over there. But then yesterday morning they started up the rides as the two of us looked at each other at the same time and ran to the window wide-eyed thinking it was thunder. Once we saw it was the rides Josh was fascinated and watched from out on the beach, boardwalk and again from our room like a big TV while we ate lunch. It was kind of cool that as I watched the noon news on Philly channel 3 they showed a web cam shot of the same park.
There must have been a school group there cause they were leaving and everything shut down again at around one o’clock when we were going to say good bye to the ocean and sand. He’d already said good bye and thank you to the pool, the front desk girl and the cleaning staff.
During waking hours Josh was literally bouncing off the walls and when he tried to sit still his leg would twitch! I had to hold his hand most of the time on the boardwalk because he wasn’t paying attention to where we were or which lanes we walked in and I was afraid that he’d get run over by a bike or cause a crash by making someone swerve around him– he liked the surreys – and stared at them each time one would go by – it was like a whole new world to him as we walked he was very busy just taking in all the details.
Yesterday we were both awake by 5am! though I tried to sleep more I could tell it wasn’t gonna happen so even though I got extended check out so we could have time to do beach and boardwalk I decided to get up and out to make the most of the day. It was chilly and rainy we but we still clicked off 15,000 + steps on the pedometer for the day. I should let Josh wear the pedometer some time since he probably gets in more steps than I do, while I walk straight lines he’s exploring in every direction.
He had a great time on the whole trip, from throwing sand to screaming and running away from waves, to asking high school or college aged kids to let him play with them. He played volleyball with three girls on Tuesday afternoon and football and Frisbee with a group of guys on Wednesday - just like anywhere else he goes in like he owns the place.
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