Been in Ocean City, Maryland most of the summer after winding up my spring tour and doing a couple of festivals with a friend. Haven't really had much internet access or time to update the blog so I am taking the opportunity now that I am home for a few days. I'm home for about a week. (and have a long "honey doo" list to take care of! LOL!) I have been working at De Lazy Lizard (1st street, bay side) The Caribbean Pool Bar/Plim Plaza (2nd street, near the Boardwalk), Shenanigan's Irish Pub (4th Street, Boardwalk), Pickle's Pub (7th street on Philladelphia), Hammerheads (10th, Boardwalk), Brass Balls Salloon (11th, Boardwalk), Fishtales (22nd Street, Bay side), Macky's (53rd street, Bay side) If you get a chance please stop down. Check out the FT website. It's a pretty cool place- http://www.ocfishtales.com/
Here are some photos I've taken with my phone. (dang camera broke!) I did some really good drawings and tried to take some photos of them but the phone camera is not so good in the dark... = ( (Note to self: Get new camera...)
This is the boardwalk. It's 3 miles long. Supposedly 125,000 people visit this stretch of boards every week in the summer. I think the numbers are a bit inflated (at least from what I've seen this year relative to 2005 when I was last there...) but it is a cool place to visit for sure.
I don't do much drawing on the boardwalk. In fact I try to stay away from it as much as possible. I prefer the safety and relative reliability of the bars and restaurants I go to. I would not get nearly what I'd like for a drawing while hanging out on the boardwalk either. I do intend to try it but in 2005 I often had a hard time GIVING AWAY caricatures on the BW. People are weird. Not to mention I can pick and choose who I'd like to draw (or avoid). If somebody is rude or obviously drunk or weird looking I can avoid them - or walk away. Can't do that on the boardwalk and there's no security either of course.
This is a view of the bay from Fishtales, one of the places I draw at.
FT is also Bahia Marina, where charter fishing boats come in and they butcher the fish right there on the dock while people eat the fish nearby in the restaurant. YUM! These are Dolphin (Mahi Mahi). One of the really cool things about being in a fishing town is getting fresh fish from somebody who caught it that day. My friend Patrick scored about 40lbs of fresh off the boat tuna one day and we made steaks and had sushi with it. Here are the photos of the sushi I made. (One of my more distracting hobbies is my love of cooking!)
This is a photo of the bike I ride around from place to place on. Parking and traffic are ridiculous so it's essential to have a bike to make my rounds. I ride about 6-12 miles a day on it sometimes. Beach cruisers are pretty popular in the beach town. Mine has a beefy 52/13 crank ratio so I blow them all away! It doesn't look like much but in beach cruiser terms it's a hot rod, lol! (Also, it's fun to honk the horn at drunks staggering around the back streets when I blow through silently behind them.)
Even though I am at the beach it is work. I don't take a lot of time off. I've been working about 12 hours a day when weather (and morale) permits. There have been some rainy days and some 110 degree days that I just can't work... Stacie came to visit for a few days and we took a real vacation with the friend I am staying with and his wife. They have a special permit that allows them to drive onto a remote part of Assateague Island beach to fish. It was killer. I took the kayak out and surfed the waves until I wiped out pretty hard. Didn't catch a thing but had a ton of fun.
Here's some photos from another time I took the kayak out.
I've never seen so many CRABS! Go ahead and TRY to count the crabs in the photo below. You can't do it. There has to be 100 in just this photo! These are little green marsh crabs. In OC they are known as "bait".
