Random Bits of Maryland and Delaware 2020

Here's some random intriguing things I managed to take pictures of while on our recent beach trip.

Usually an above-the-ground pool is not all that impressive. Right near the seashore I spotted this pool which was a lot more than I was expecting. Usually this kind of pool is on top of (or inside of) a building like a nice hotel. There it was, just blocks from the actual ocean.

Convenient parking underneath!

One home had a sign out that reminded me of the pubs in England.

Bar or residence?

Some of the buildings along the Ocean City boardwalk looked cool to me.

Balconies galore!

A nicely old-fashioned building

One giant chair is called a "Selfie Spot" which I seems more like a way to get free ads posted to the internet for their business. But my son really wanted to get a picture in the chair, so here it is.

I did think about cropping out the top of the chair

Near our rental, we saw some interesting buildings. I liked the matching corner balconies and was intrigued by what the upside-down L-shaped windows were for.

Fun corner balconies

Near our rental was a Saturday morning farmers' market. We didn't buy anything because we were on our way to mini-golf.

Farmers' market in Phillips's parking lot

We brought a basketball with us and got to do a little bit of practice among all the other activities.

Playing on a local court

The trip was fun but exhausting.

Taking a nap

The Maryland and Delaware Border, Now With Lighthouse

Our Ocean City rental was a few blocks from the Fenwick Island Lighthouse, just across the border from Maryland. We wanted to cross the border on foot just to say we had. The lighthouse wasn't open for tours but it was easily visible and had plenty of information on the outside.

Fenwick Island Lighthouse

The lighthouse was built in 1859. Ships were wreaking on the Fenwick Shoals so the United States Lighthouse Board recommended the installation. Congress approved $25,000 in 1856. They bought the highest point of land on Fenwick Island and started construction on the 87 foot tower. The lighthouse is conical in shape with a Fresnel Lens at the top. Fresnel was a French designer whose lenses sent more light further out. His lenses became the gold standard for lighthouses.

The lens at the top

At the time, Fenwick Island was undeveloped, with no bridges to the mainland. The island has the Atlantic to the east and Assawoman Bay (and no, I didn't make up that name) to the west. The first bridge was built in 1880. The lighthouse keepers had a rough life, even having to harvest their own salt in a special bowl! The bowl was sold at one point and a farmer used it to water his livestock. The bowl eventually came back and is in the yard.

Salt bowl from back in the day

The lighthouse was automated in the 1940s and decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1978. The locals protested and wanted the light back on. By 1981, the Coast Guard sold the lighthouse to the State of Delaware and funds were raised to restart the light.

A view from the bottom

We were surprised to see a white stone right in front of the lighthouse. The stone marks the Transpeninsular Line.

A strange stone marker

The stone was erected in 1751 to mark the border between Pennsylvania (Delaware not being a separate colony at the time) and Maryland. The stone has two coats of arms. On the south side (the Maryland side) is the coat of arms of the Calverts. On the north side is the coat of arms of the Penns. The border was ratified by King George III in 1769.

Calvert coat of arms

Penn coat of arms

The deed to the "Lower Counties on the Delaware" was given to William Penn, who had a separate deed for Pennsylvania proper. The counties were governed as part of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1701. The counties then petitioned for a separate colonial legislature, though they remained under the Pennsylvania governor's authority until 1776. Then they severed ties with Pennsylvania as they joined the other colonies in severing ties with England.

Walking to a nearby intersection, we saw the welcome signs from both states.

Maryland welcome

Delaware welcome

Who knew we would get two history lessons in one?

Minigolf in Ocean City 2020

Ocean City has seemingly a minigolf course every few blocks along the main north-south road (you can't go very far on an east-west road). We felt obligated to try one out. Near our rental was Lost Treasure Golf, an adventure-themed minigolf course. Many other themes were available in our neighborhood, including pirates, dinosaurs, and Australia. We picked one with a crashed airplane because that looked like fun.

Local golf

The welcome sign definitely had an "Indiana Jones" vibe without violating any copyrights.

Come on in!

This particular golf course has two courses, the gold course and the diamond course. When we asked about the differences between the two, the lady behind the counter said they were very similar. We let the kids choose our path, which lead us to the diamond course.

A nice sign

The course winds its way through the features, which includes the airplane, a waterfall, and various water hazards.

An overview of the course

We climbed up some stairs to start. After a few holes, we found one that led us back down to earth. The different cups on the hole led to different outlets at the bottom. None of us were able to hit the right hole to get a hole-in-one.

Going downhill

The very bottom led us into a cave where we found an unfortunately golfer hung up on a wall. Cheaters never prosper was the lesson we took from that skeleton. That blue thing in his mouth is indeed a golf ball!

Don't break any of the rules on this course!

The course offers a free round of golf to anyone who hits a hole-in-one on a certain hole. That hole changes everyday. We managed to get two holes-in-one--hole number ten and hole number thirteen. When we got back to the shop, the lady showed us the winning number--seventeen. Oh well, maybe next time. Golfing was fun and quite successful. We had no tears shed and no angry shouting.

Front view of the course

Northside Park, Ocean City, Maryland

On our little beach vacation, we went to Northside Park so the kids could take advantage of the playgrounds and I could get some geocaching in. The park also has a lot of ball fields for all sort of balls (baseball, basketball, soccer ball, etc.). The fields were closed because of the pandemic shutdown. We had enough to keep us occupied.

The older kids were surprised to find an exercise area. I went in with them to check out the equipment.

Entrance to exercise

Leg work

More leg work (with a little arm work thrown in)

Rowing machine without boat or oars

They enjoyed it a lot though some of the machines were mystifying. Each one had a short description of how to use the machine written in Ikea-form. That is, the pictures had no words and you had to work out how to do the exercises. Even I found it confusing.

The proper playground was the destination of our youngest, who spent a good deal of time exploring and pretending to be a Ninja Warrior.

Playground

Having dropped off the older kids at the playground, I went in search of the geocache Bushy Bush Bush. Even with the hint I could not find the cache. A lot of people were walking around in the park, making me a little more cautious than usual.

I found bushes but not caches

Another cache, Bill's Beach Box is Back, was located on the other side of the park. I took a leisurely stroll in the right direction, enjoying the views from a small bridge.

View toward the ocean (with no ocean to see)

View toward the bay

This cache was near an open field with lacrosse players practicing. After some searching, I could not find this cache either! My phone buzzed with a text that the kids were ready to go back to our rental. I walked over to the bay where they were throwing in rocks.

Bay approach

On our way out, the kids decided to try out one more park feature.

Wobble board fun!