2010 Summer Employment

The annual Ocean City Job Fair is Saturday, March 6, 2010. For a full report on the job fair and employment opportunities, go to Maryland On My Mind.

July 4 Weekend

For a Fourth of July update, see Maryland On My Mind. Thanks.

The Season in OC: More Work, Less Blogging

Ocean City is off to a fast start this spring. April weekends were busy, thanks to nice weather and crowd-pleasing events. The final weekend of April, offering a glimpse of summery weather to come, was especially busy. City Hall reports more people visited Ocean City in April 2009 than in any previous April, since they started keeping records.

Springfest, this past weekend, was a great success. The weather forecast had been a little dicey, but the actual weather far outperformed the forecast. Sunny most of the day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. What rain we had came at night.

Coming up is Cruisin' Ocean City, beginning Thursday and running through Sunday. It's a weekend for people who love beautiful cars. Thousands of cars will be on display throughout town: custom classics, hot rods, street machines, muscle cars.

The warming weather and the quickening pace means "The Season" is here. For folks who live in Ocean City, it's a busy time. The busier the better. Bottom line: I will have little, if any, time to write posts for the Ocean City, Maryland, Blog. I haven't disappeared, I'm just working. Check out Maryland On My Mind for notes and pictures from the beach.

Enjoy your summer! Don't forget sunscreen for your skin, a hat for your head, and flip-flops for your feet.

It's Springfest in Ocean City

Friday Afternoon, 2:45 p.m. The sun is shining brightly in Ocean City. We expect a high of 75 degrees this afternoon. I doubt it will go below 65 tonight. Temperatures in the low- to mid- 70s on Saturday.

Springfest is here, and Ocean City is ready to rock and roll.

Springfest began yesterday (Thursday), and runs through Sunday at the Inlet Parking Lot. Arts and crafts for sale, food, and big-name entertainment. Admission to Springfest is free; there is an admission charge for the headline acts in the Springfest Entertainment Tent. All this and the Beach and Boardwalk, too. Admission to the Ocean City beach and boardwalk is priceless (in other words, free). Always has been, always will be.

You can park for free at the Park-and-Ride lot in West Ocean City, and ride the shuttle to Springfest for $1.

Highway workers beat their Memorial Day weekend deadline for completing work on the Route 50 bridge into Ocean City, with time to spare. The repaved bridge was fully reopened to traffic on Thursday afternoon (about the same time the sun broke through the clouds), just in time for Springfest. During construction this past winter, traffic was limited to one lane in each direction. What a luxury it is to breeze across the smooth new concrete, two wide lanes in each direction, lane markers freshly painted.

The Boardwalk trams are running for Springfest. The cost is $3 one way to the Inlet Lot. Of course, the famous Ocean City bus system is running, 24-7. Ride all day for $2. Park your car and take a vacation from driving!

Melvin's Steak House is open at Philadelphia Avenue and First Street!

The new, improved official Ocean City Web site is set to debut on Monday, May 11. Check it out at http://ococean.com.

Don't forget, Sunday is Mother's day. Ocean City restaurants are ready to celebrate Mother's Day, from brunch to dinner.

Explore the Web at AlphaInventions.

Signs of Spring in Ocean City: The Month of May

The last weekend of April, with unusual high temps in the low 80s, felt like the beginning of the season, to me. The Ocean City, Maryland, Boardwalk was bustling with people, and sunbathers enjoyed the beach.

Now May is here. In the 1970s, I worked seven days a week, from May 1 through Sept. 30. That's 150 straight days. This year, I return to the Ocean City workforce, but hopefully no more than five or six days a week.

This first weekend of May features a couple of interesting activities on Saturday.

• The Beach Clean Up, sponsored by the Ocean City Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, with assists from other community organizations, begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 2, on the beach at 37th Street. Trash bags will be provided. Students can earn community service credits!
• The White Marline Festival is Saturday afternoon, 12 noon to 3 p.m., on the Somerset Street Plaza. (That's in the historic downtown part of Ocean City.) A highlight will be the Crab Soup Cook-Off. Admission to the festival is free, but tickets are $12 to sample the soups. It's all sponsored by the Ocean City Downtown Association.

Looking ahead, May will be a busy month in Ocean City.

• May 7 to 10 is Springfest! Activities all weekend at the Inlet Parking Lot, south end of the island. Big-name entertainment at night! The Hubcaps on Thursday, Randy Travis on Friday, The Association and Gary Puckett on Saturday, all at 8 p.m. in the Springfest Entertainment Tent. Admission to Springfest is free, but tickets are required for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday night shows. On Sunday afternoon, there will be a free concert by the Zim Zemarel Orchestra at 3 p.m.
• May 14 to 17 is Crusin' Ocean City, also called Cruisers Weekend. Wonderful cars to see all over town.
• May 22 to 25 is Memorial Day Weekend! Yep, it's almost here.

Signs of Spring in Ocean City: First 80-degree Weekend

Spring weather: Very warm is the prediction for the last weekend of April throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.

Ocean City, Maryland, is no exception. We're at the beginning of a beautiful spring weekend, a weekend warm and sunny enough for the beach. It's true! Temperatures in Ocean City will be in the low 80s both Saturday and Sunday!

Going on in Ocean City this weekend:

Maryland International Kite Exposition. Along the beach and boardwalk form North Division Street to 6th Street. (Light southwest breezes predicted, 5 to 10 mph, all weekend.)

Ward World Championship Wildfowl Carving Competition and Festival at the Ocean City Convention Center at 4oth Street.

Bring sunscreen! Bring sunglasses. Bring your shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Bring your swimsuit if you want to sunbathe on the beach. Also, bring a light jacket. It will be very warm during the day, but you probably will want a sweater or light jacket when going out to dinner or walking the Boardwalk in the evening.

Regular gas is back down to $1.89 a gallon.

April Perfection

What is so rare as a week in April with perfectly scheduled weather?

Midweek, we had the April showers (two solid days of drenching rain in many parts of Maryland). The farmers needed that rain. Then, perfect timing: clearing on Thursday, and nothing but sunshine on Friday and Saturday.

Here in Ocean City, Maryland, the Boardwalk was surprisingly bustling when I walked to work mid-afternoon Friday. It was warm but still quite breezy. Kites galore in the wind above 5th Street. The temperature fell quickly in the evening.

Today, Saturday, is a perfect April day on the Boardwalk and the beach. Highs in the low 70s, and the wind has quieted to 10 to 15 mph. It's nice enough for shirtsleeves on the Boardwalk; warm enough for more than a few people to soak in the sunshine on the beach.

Today is Boston Marathon day! In Ocean City, we had a 5K run and a half-marathon. The mini-marathon started bright and early at the Inlet -- north on the Boardwalk, to North Division Street, west across the Route 50 bridge, then south on Route 611 to Assateague.

Most of the well-know Ocean City restaurants and hotels are open for business.

The Day After The Storm

The day after a storm is always beautiful.

The only similarity between today (Thursday) and yesterday (Wednesday) is that it's still windy. The downpour? Gone. The clouds? Gone. The temperature? Improving. The sun is shining brightly, the blue sky goes on forever, and it's quiet! We're savoring the remaining midweek days of the off-season, sunny days of peace and quiet. (And busy preparation.)

Right now I'd better go do some laundry, and some ironing. Tomorrow is Friday, and that's a work day.

The next couple of days: Friday, sunny and 64; Saturday, sunny and 70! Last time I looked, regular gas was $1.95 a gallon. I predict a nice, medium-busy weekend on the Boardwalk.

Got Spring Fever?

Rain, rain, go away. It's been dreary and rainy, rainy and dreary, not to mention cold, the past few days. At least it's washed the pollen out of the air. Parts of Maryland had been needing rain. This week should help with that, but the farmers say they will need a few more good, soaking rains this spring to avert drought in the summer.

We are going to have a WINDY, rainy, cold night in Ocean City tonight. A miserable night. I plan to stay inside and read, or maybe blog.

But the good news: We expect the clouds to part and the sun to shine on Thursday. And then warming!

For Friday, the Ocean City, Maryland, forecast is sunny, with temperatures in the mid-60s. A lot of folks might come down with spring fever Friday afternoon. The main symptom is a sudden, irresistible urge to get in the car, forget about work, and drive away. On a sunny Friday afternoon in springtime, the car seems to turn automatically toward the beach.

Saturday is predicted to be sunny in Ocean City, with temperatures pushing 70. Pretty nice for April!

Historic Ocean City Churches: St. Mary's Star of the Sea

It's Easter weekend in Ocean City, Maryland, an appropriate time to feature pictures of Ocean City's very first church.

Bishop Thomas A. Becker of the Wilmington Diocese purchased three lots on the barrier island in 1875, the year the resort was founded with the opening of the Atlantic Hotel. (The small lots sold for $100 each in 1875.)

Ocean City's first church, St. Mary's Star of the Sea Catholic Church, was built two years later, in 1877. At the time it was one of only three nonresidential buildings on the mostly barren island. A rectory was built next door in 1905. The St. Mary's Star of the Sea history page provides a detailed history of St. Mary's Star of the Sea and its pastors.

St. Mary's Star of the Sea, probably the oldest remaining building in Ocean City today, is in historic downtown Ocean City, at the corner of Baltimore Avenue and Talbot Street. The small, historic church is lightly used these days. Mass is still celebrated in the church on at 7 a.m. Sundays year round. Weekday morning Masses are held at the church during the off-season months.

Many more weekend Masses, and weekday Mass during the season, are celebrated at St. Mary's sister church, the much newer and larger Holy Savior Catholic Church, at 17th Street and Philadelphia Avenue. Complete information on Mass schedules and other church activities is available at the Web site St. Mary's Star of the Sea-Holy Savior Parish.