Through Their Eyes

I spent the day watching my kids ride waves in the very ocean I got my sea legs. I know, I know, it’s all the same ocean on this side of the USA but cut me a little creative slack. There is no ocean like Ocean City’s Ocean. The waves break fast and furious, but the depth is kid-friendly so you can venture farther out than you can in Jersey. There is an undertow, but not one so fierce that it scares grown adults, like in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. There is no ocean like the one I grew up in.

Watching my kids brave it today was perfect. My sister’s provided the place for us to stay and it has been fantastic. Yes, we live at the beach so my kids have plenty of experience. Yes, this place might be at the top of the list of  most people-dense,  full of crazy beach towns in the USA but it’s no matter. I love it here, not in spite of, but because of all it’s kitsch and crowd. I love the wall to wall building. I love the tattooed patrons. I love the drunk bus and the donut shops.  I love that there are no less than four firework displays within site of our balcony on the 4th of July. It’s cheesy, but it’s my cheesy.

My kids don’t get away much and they certainly don’t ever hang out in the place where my roots began to grow.

So a week in Ocean City, Maryland, where I’ve been allowed to watch them play in my sand, swim in my ocean, covet the very same t-shirts I coveted when I was nine? It’s been like getting to bring my kids home. That, has been just what the doctor ordered, for all of us.