Ocean City

Ocean city was great.

• We ate Chic-fil-A on the road.
• Checked into the motel at 11:30 pm.
• I slept fitfully and popped awake at 8:30 am.

• Princess determined that the new black bathing suit that shows more cleavage is the one to keep. (Other black suit goes back on Wednesday.)
• She also said that the seven-year-old bikini top looks just fine.
• It was too windy to wear less than long sleeves and long pants for most of the day, so none of this really mattered.

• We ate fresh, hot donuts for breakfast. Mmmm…donuts.
• The guy running the donut shop was from Seattle. But, really he was from Skagit County.
• We walked a couple of miles on the boardwalk.
• We got hungry again and ate fish and chips (Princess) and a burger (me) at a lunch counter.
• Flirtatious encounter number one: I got a wink from a cute guy with a shaved head while sitting at the lunch counter.

I turn to Princess and said, "Did you see that?" "He winked at you!" "Is he just a winker, or was it special for me?" She said, "He may be a winker, but that was certainly for you."

• After lunch, we played arcade games for about an hour and a half.
• I only played one round of skee-ball.
• I played a lot more pinball. Adams Family--love that table. I won an extra game on my first try. I also played an ancient Star Trek table: 5 turns for a quarter! It's a much slower game than newer machines. Got a kick out of it. When I was 16 I was really into pinball and I would always play the oldest tables I could find. There was one called "Hellblazer" (?) in the basement of the HUB (Husky Union Building) that I played at least a couple times a week.
• Met up with Princess and we shot some hoops.
• I whopped her at air hockey (in fairness, the time ran out before we could finish the game--but it was 7-2 when we stopped).
• I made her try the dance explosion game. I loved it. We both had a hard time following the instructions, but Princess was confident that she wouldn't improve. I am confident I would.
• Princess and I love the new (at least new to us) video games where you have to move around to play. I particularly like the skateboard ones. We plan a trip to Dave and Busters soon.

• We gathered towels and books and sat on the beach. It was semi-warm, but extremely windy, so we only were out for an hour. I took off my shirt, displaying my bikini top, but kept my surfer-boy shorts on. Princess did likewise (but she just had regular girl shorts). I put my toes in the water. Freezing!
• We walked back down the boardwalk and got soft serve. Vanilla dipped in chocolate for me.
• We bought caramel corn to take home. Princess got a big bucket for her office. Isn't she sweet?

• Flirtatious encounter number two: after getting the caramel corn, we stopped at another arcade. I played an electric drum set (using real drum sticks). There were no instructions: I was just supposed to pick a song and drum along. It was ridiculously hard and I felt silly, but I hung in there. My time was almost up and a couple of guys came by and stood and watched me. Princess joked with them about not making me nervous. My time was up and I stood up. One of the guys stood shoulder-to-shoulder next to me and leaned into me. He said his friend was a drummer, so it would be easy for him. I said, "He should try it." I didn't move away. He made eye contact with me, but then Princess and I walked away. "Did you see that?" I asked Princess. She certainly had. Oh my.

Two flirtatious encounters in one day. I was pleased and surprised. Nothing like the flirtatious encounter to boost my confidence. Especially when you're wearing a baseball cap and a not too revealing fleece. Nice.

I've been sitting in this coffee shop for a couple of hours. The good news is that softball was rained out this morning, which left me time to run errands. The bad news is that I didn't find out until I was up and dressed and ready to go, thus I couldn't sleep in. I left the house at 8:45 am, went to the hardware store, then to the coffee shop. It took me forever to get started writing, but I'm almost done. Next on the list for today: grocery shopping, weeding, laundry and dinner with an out of town visitor.

It was a perfect little trip to the beach, even though it was too cold to swim. I have to go back at least one more time this summer when it's actually hot.

Grateful for: the beach and innocent flirtation.