Home from Vacation

Take me out to the board walk;

Take me out to the crowd.

Buy me some Thrasher's and Fisher's, too;

Maybe some ice cream and a hot dog or two.

Deb did a bit of song writing on vacation. I came back to the room with the kids and she had the whole Take Me Out to the Ballgame song rewritten as a tribute to Ocean City.

Before I get to the food part, I'll tell you that this summer has been one of the hottest and driest I can remember in a long long time. So, of course, we had awful weather. It rained EVERY DAY but today, the day we headed home. The thermometer never broke 75. I swear the wind chill on the beach, when we did get out there, was in the mid 60's. To top it off, Deb and I both came down with summer colds just about the time we arrived on Saturday. So, we had that going for us.

Sunday afternoon was temptation central. I pretty much knew that I was going to give in to the fries, but in moderation. As we walked down the boards, we let the kids pick one of their favorites.

Our first stop was at Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard. My youngest picked this. Little did I know that frozen custard is a low calorie treat. Just 130 calories for a small serving. I was all in. That's less than my fat free/sugar free Jell-O pudding treat at home! I had the coffee/dulce de leche swirl. Needless to say, it was not our only visit to Kohr Bros.

My eldest selected Fisher's caramel corn. You can smell Fisher's from two blocks away. As you approach their stand, you see the machines cooking up the hot popcorn with gooey caramel. The sweet smell just pulling you in. We all had a few kernel's of that corn, but just a few.

Next stop: Thrasher's French Fries, aka mecca. You could feel the heat of the fryers as we walked near and smell the hot peanut oil (correction from the earlier post). Not a bad line, just 20-25 folks to be serviced first. Deb bought the medium size order -- about a 32 oz cup. She secured two additional cups to share -- one for me, with vinegar, of course, and one for the kids. How were they? Well, unfortunately, they didn't suck! They were absolutely everything I remembered. Maybe better. Hot, juicy, salty, vinegary, perfect!

From there, we walked the mile and a half back to our hotel. We all felt quite sated, even though had history repeated itself, we would have all had the custard, shared a large popcorn, then shared the bucket size (think large movie theater popcorn) fries. Although it all felt glutinous, it was truly a diet victory, being able to taste all of those great foods without going crazy.

Sunday night, we had a healthy visit to the Phillips buffet. I concentrated on the steamed shrimp, veggies and salad.

We did do some snacking, certainly more than normal, but we were on vacation. Monday night we drove to Kohr Bros. after our dinner out and my youngest insisted that we walk home. Deal!

Wednesday was another visit down the boardwalk. This was not quite as successful as I got my custard fill, my own small Fisher's and some of Deb's fries. We realized as we walked back that it would be our last visit to the boardwalk as old habits were rearing their ugly heads.

In the end, we all had a good time. We didn't have nearly enough beach time, but the kids enjoyed themselves and Deb and I have now both kicked our colds, just in time to return to real life! And, the food was good. It's part of the vacation experience, but just a part.

Tomorrow, I'll nervously step on the scale knowing I'll kick any unwanted change in a few days.

L'Chaim!