Ocean City Travelogue, part one

Note - this is a large post with pictures, as much of the travelogue will be. To make it up to you, I'm breaking this into a few different posts, and each picture will have semi-clever things in the captions if you pause your mouse over it. Onward!

Being known as Ocean City means having a certain percentage of nautical stuff lying about the place.

This fellow, for example, has been hauled ashore to guard the front nine of Seaport Village Golf, at Pier Nine on the Boardwalk. As if it wasn't fun enough to have a golf course with a big shark, the layout takes you over a go-kart track and onto a replica of the wreck of the Sindia.

The Sindia (warning - annoying wave noises) was a British ship that foundered and ran aground back in December 1901. Even back then, there was such a thing as spin - people tried to play it as a ship run aground in a storm, but an official inquiry cashiered the mate for Sailing Whilst Skunked, and suspended the captain for negligence. For many a year, the wreck was still partially visible above the waters, until it was finally consumed by the encroaching sand and water.

Oh, and just to ratchet up the cool, there's also rumors of buried treasure.

A few blocks away, the Sindia's miniature is faced by a pirate's galleon.

The two craft ever sail in place, squaring off in a showdown of mini-golfing monuments. If these were functional cannon, it would be mind-shatteringly cool. All that's left is for the Flying Dutchman to surmount an attraction at the Boardwalk, and we'd have to have a lie-down in order not to faint from all the awesome.





Thanks to the angle of the shots, it looks rather like the burger joint and the go-karts are about to launch their navies to settle their differences permanently. But it gets greater: these are not the only land-moored boats on the boardwalk. Better still, the third boat also oversees a golf course - nay, a golf empire.

That's the rear view of the place, which features three courses and is so cool that they can keep their giant fake boat behind the building, and hire Paul Bunyan to stand at the stern and welcome people aboard. A side view gives one an appreciation for the acreage of mini-golf goodness in store:


This place is so large that it requires several stories to contain it all, and so engrossing that none of the patrons notice the yellow biplane strafing all the tourists in the area.

Tomorrow night - food and kitsch!