June 22–28, 2008
We left on Sunday for our long vacation in Ocean City, MD. The dogs woke us up early on Sunday morning (about 2:00) with vomiting and diarrhea. The odd thing is that it was both dogs. We weren’t sure what to do at first, we ended up spending about 2 hours cleaning up and keeping them outside so that they couldn’t continue to ruin everything in the house… the smell was horrible. We got everything cleaned up and packed for the trip, we figured that we might as well head down not knowing what the situation was with the dogs.
The ride down was uneventful (but long). When we got here and got all hooked up, we took the dogs for a walk and both of them still had some diarrhea, although, Daisy seemed to be getting a little better. There were no other symptoms shown except for the fact that they weren’t eating as much as they normally would.
Monday
We slept in a little on Monday morning, we had to let the dogs out early, but we all ended up getting a little extra rest after that. We headed over to the water park at about 10:00… the kids were excited to go on the lazy river. When we got to the water park, they informed us that the main kids play area was closed due to a pump problem. We still went in (figured it was already paid for) and went on the lazy river for a while. The weather wasn’t too nice, so we decided to head out after some reasonably ominous clouds were overhead. Came back to the camper, had lunch and then went to the pool.
All this time the dogs were fine, Geddy was still having some diarrhea issues, but we didn’t notice anything else odd. We proceeded to get reasonably well sunburned at the pool in the afternoon, but the kids were fine and happy.
In the late afternoon, we took the kids and dogs to the pier for some crabbing. Emily and Kathy caught a few, but they were too small to keep.
We had dinner at the Assateague Crab House (Kathy’s favorite in the area) with the Raups. After dinner we enjoyed a nice relaxing fire and a few beers with the Raups.
Tuesday
The dogs woke me up early (about 5:30) to go out. Nothing major, although Geddy was still having a little bit of diarrhea. Everything seemed fine when we were leaving for the Frontier Town park area.
We all had a great time at Frontier Town park, the shows were funny and entertaining. We all went on a stagecoach ride where we were robbed by some bandits looking for the local payroll. Emily was a little freaked out with the whole incident, but we were unharmed.
From there, we went to watch some authentic Indian dance demonstration. It was entertaining, Matt enjoyed the hoop dance and Emily got up at the end to show her fabulous dance moves… I was quite impressed.
We then walked through a slanted mine shaft, it gave us all vertigo. From there we panned for some gold — Emily did quite a good job prospecting.
We went on some paddle boats and then enjoyed an authentic can-can show.
Matt and Emily were laughing quite a bit. After the can-can show, there was a robbery at the bank. Luckily, the local marshal was expecting it, so they caught the culprit. After a quick public trial, they went off and dunked the bank robber numerous times in the pond area.
By this time, we were out of gas, so we decided not to stick around for the afternoon rodeo… we also figured that the dogs had been in the camper for quite some time. When we got back to the camper, boy were we in for a surprise. Apparently, Geddy (and maybe Daisy) had a diarrhea and projectile vomiting party in the camper… we initially thought everything was ruined. It took a trip to Walmart, the purchase of an upholstery shampooer, and 2 or 3 hours of hard and dirty labor to clean everything. We feel bad for the dogs that they are so sick, but wow, what a mess! We now know that we cannot leave the dogs alone this week (at least until they are regular).
Wednesday
Since we were unable to leave the dogs alone, we decided it was a good day to go to Assateague Island. You can take the dogs out onto the South Beach there. We got there right after lunch and there was no parking available. I had to drop the kids off and then park about a mile or so away in another parking area — and boy was it hot!
After hanging out there for about 4 hours or so, we decided it was time to head back. On my way back to the car (over a mile away) I was swarmed with mosquitoes — not a pleasant walk when it was already over 90 degrees out.
The dogs seemed to be rebounding quite well from their illness though, so Thursday should be a better day.
Thursday
We decided it would be another day on Assateague for us and the dogs… just to be sure they are over their collective illness. We got there a bit earlier and got good parking, no additional journeys through the mosquito ridden island. There was a very hot breeze blowing for the most part of the day; however, from time to time, the wind would shift and come from the water and it was about 10 or 15 degrees cooler, it was really weird.
Friday
Our last full day at Frontier Town, and man was it a scorcher. By 10:00 in the morning, it was already 91 degrees. We thought that it would be best to go to the boardwalk in Ocean City in the morning — hopefully, there would be a bit of a breeze. Well, there was no breeze. We did a little shopping and walking around and decided to go to the Ripley’s Believe it Or Not that is right on the boardwalk. It was air conditioned and we thought that Matt would really enjoy it.
That’s Matt and I standing next to the tallest man ever… We were right, Matt really enjoyed it — even the pretty disgusting parts. From there we had breakfast on the boardwalk (brunch actually).
We decided upon one more trip to the water park before leaving. I took the dogs for a quick walk, in the heat, they got tired pretty quick. After the water park, we had some ice cream before heading to bed for our last night. I went and made reservations for next year… the best I could do was July 1 through 10 of 2009. It’s a Wednesday through a Friday, but it’s over the holiday, so it should be a good time. We are just a few sites down from where we were this year.
By the way, that is indeed Geddy the cowboy in the picture!