Things I Learned On My Summer Vacation

1. Water parks are pretty fun.

I'll be 33 in less than a month, and thus wasn't really expecting much from an activity I haven't sought out in nearly two decades... and Jungle Jim's isn't the most impressive collection of water slides I've ever seen... but it was surprisingly enjoyable. I was probably the most dubious of the four of us about how much fun it would be, but finished second only to Anna in the "Just one more slide before we go" department.


2. I am not very good a miniature golf.

I was aware of this already, but apparently you don't get better by not doing it... who knew? Luckily, Anna is worse, so my ego was salved.


3. I still get sunburn in roughly a nanosecond.

They all laughed at me for the 70+ SPF sunscreen, but the only serious burns I got were when I went kayaking on the first day without any sunscreen at all. I also cowered under an umbrella the entire time we were on the beach, like an old person... but I'm not peeling too badly at the moment, so I'd say it was worth it. Score one for pale people.


4. Delaware doesn't allow you to get eye exams anywhere but a private practice.

You might be wondering how I found this out. Do I just have an academic interest in obscure laws regulating optometry? Well, no. In fact, I lost my glasses on the first full day of our vacation(same day as the sunburnt kayaking incidentally - so not a lot going right that day), when we were staying out on the eastern shore of Maryland. I went out sailing on a little one person sail boat... something I haven't done since I was 13 or so, and something I've never done well. A gust of wind came up and I sent the boat one way when I should have sent it the other and thus I ended up floating in the Choptank river. Unfortunately I didn't realize my glasses didn't come back out of the river with me until I was well away from area I tipped. While certainly not ideal, I had been wanting new glasses for a while and I'm fairly functional even without my glasses... so I wasn't completely incapacitated. We drove up to Dover from Lewes one morning, intending to walk in to a Lenscrafters, get me an eye exam, pick out a pair of glasses, and hopefully be back on the beach in the early afternoon. No dice... apparently Delaware, Rhode Island, and Oklahoma are the three states that don't let Lenscrafters and the like have their own in house eye exams, so it took all day to get me a walk in appointment at a local optometrist and get me glasses. On the bright side, we did get to spend some time in a mall and historic downtown Dover... which is about as exciting as it sounds. So in summary: If you lose your glasses in Delaware and don't have a current prescription, drive to a different state... luckily it's not very big.


5. Also in Delaware: Apparently steamed crabs don't come with Old Bay on them by default.

As seen above, I ordered a dozen crabs from Lazy Susan's and they came with absolutely no seasoning whatsoever. So, if you hate Old Bay, Delaware may be the place to go for your steamed crabs. For the rest of us, it might be a tad disappointing. I saw people in the restaurant eating seasoned crabs and they sold Old Bay and their own seasoning mix, but I wasn't asked whether I wanted them with or without... so part of me wonders whether it was some kind of mistake, but I never called to find out... and in places like North Carolina they do crazy things like boil them and serve them plain, so it wouldn't be so surprising to find that the people of Delaware also live like savages. Despite the closeness of Delaware to Maryland, I guess that's just another lesson that you can never assume people know what they're doing.

Here are some more pictures if you are interested. I'll try to put in some comments later in the week.