Ryan & Katelyn's World: Vacation post #1

Finally..it's the vacation post. I figured I'd divide the posts up since it would be extra long if I tried to do one post and I could post some pics in both. Things have been hectic at work & home since we got back from vacation but I now have the time to post what we did & where we went on vacation. While we would have loved to go out to San Diego to visit friends or Florida to visit family, it just wasn't feasible this year so we had to look for something to do closer to home. As you may know, Ryan loves the water. There is an indoor water park (Great Wolf Lodge) not far from where we live but to stay there for even one night you need to take out a loan! Okay, well maybe not everyone needs to, but for us it's just ridiculously expensive. So, my friend went on a google search for a cheaper indoor water park and came up with a place in Ocean City, Maryland. It was a "family resort" less than a mile from the boardwalk and had 3 pools. An outdoor pool, an indoor pool with a slide and an outdoor splash pool. As soon as she told me about it, I researched it some more and was sold on it. So, Francis Scott Key Family Resort is where we stayed. I cannot say enough good things about this place. It was clean, the staff was friendly, they offered free shuttle service to and from the boardwalk, great prices and package deals but most of all, the pools were fantastic! The indoor and outdoor pools stayed open late (10pm) and the splash pool even stayed open until 8. Ryan had such a great time and the only reason he was willing to leave to go back to the room at night was because he was pooped out! We will defintely be going back because 2 1/2 days was not enough time to do all the things there is to do in Ocean City. We wanted to stay longer but since we booked late, they didn't have any rooms available.

The first night of our vacation we stayed about 30 minutes away from Ocean City. We were anxious to get our vacation started but since we couldn't book the FSK for Sunday and all the other hotels in OC were way to expensive for one night, we booked what we thought was a decent hotel about 30 minutes away in a small town. Well, when we got to this particular hotel, even the outside looked dirty & old.

I read the reviews of this hotel online and they were decent and I've stayed at a Quality Inn before, hence why I booked the place. But, they must have been made up because this hotel was the pits. We decided to just check it out so we went in and got our room. When we opened the door to the room, my friend saw a wadded up piece of toilet paper with cookie crumbs all around it on the floor. I was getting Ryan out of the car and all I heard was "ewwwwwwww". Of course I immediately thought it was some kind of bug! Once she said it was TP, I said oh but then came her next finding which then made me freak...Yes, it was a bug!!! In the window there was a cricket!!! EWWWWWW. One of those big jumping crickets!!!! That did it for me of course. The lady from the front desk was approaching at this point to bring us the rollaway bed for Ryan. I told her we didn't need it and when I told her why, she just said "oh I can kill the cricket"...ummm NO lady, I'm terrified of bugs and would never stay somewhere that had one!! Even if you killed it! Meanwhile, Dean walked in the room with Ryan in tow and proceeded to the bathroom where he turned on the light and noticed mold all around the whole bathroom. My friend and I were ~~yelling~~ telling him to come on and get out before they both got some kind of disease..haha! Once back in the car, we all took a purell bath! Luckily, we were able to go down the street to the only other hotel in town (actually there was one other one but it was just as scary looking as the one we left) and it was new and very nice. And to top it off, it was right next to the Wal-Mart & Ruby Tuesday! The pool was indoors too so we got to eat, go shopping and swim!

This was the first time Ryan had ever slept in a hotel and he had a blast. He loved having his own big bed (twin rollaway bed).

We got up the next day and drove the rest of the way up to Ocean City. We were able to get prechecked in to the FSK (Francis Scott Key) and have an early lunch in the restaurant.

We walked around the property and about the time we were going to change to go in the pool, our room was ready. Then we went in the pool!

this was the Pirate splash pool with 6 slides

in the indoor pool

After some time in the the pools, we were ready to clean up and go down to the boardwalk. We were so excited as soon as we walked onto it.

Being from a beach town you'd think we would be used to having a beach and wonder why would we vacation at another beach town. Well, while Virginia Beach does have a boardwalk, it's nothing like Ocean City. Virginia Beach's boardwalk is lined mostly with hotels, not shops. Most all the shops are on the street side. Ocean City's boardwalk is lined with shops, arcades, places to eat, rides & attractions! Fun stuff!!!

This was thrilling to us! We could walk the boardwalk, shop, eat, & look at the beautiful beach!!! (yes, lots of exclamation points because I am still excited about it..hehe). So next couple days, that's what we did. Walked, shopped a little, ate, swam & just enjoyed our time in Ocean City.

play area on the beach..they had different ones

all along the beach