This past weekend marked the return of the cruisers in Ocean City, which typically serves as the unofficial kickoff for the summer season in Ocean City as businesses get their first big rush of crowds. While the cruisers and thousands of visitors rolled into town this past weekend for Cruisin’ OC, many locals (and likely many visitors as well) have been left with a bad taste in their mouths for many reasons, most notably after seeing the cars burn out on the recently paved roads and witnessing the amount of trash left on the streets and beaches. Regardless of your feelings about this past weekend, summer is just around the corner and with it comes many reasons to love, visit, and enjoy our beach resort town. We’re looking forward to a fantastic summer 2016 in Ocean City, MD and you should too!
Free Family Fun
While enjoying time in Ocean City this summer, make a point to take advantage of all of the free events and activities that the town puts on each year. Free summer concerts are held all summer long at Sunset Park and Northside Park, along with plenty of chances to enjoy free movies on the beach each week. Family Beach Olympics and the OC Beach Lights are perfect events to enjoy with the entire family, as well as the free family programs at the Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum.
OC Air Show
Ok, this needs little introduction or fanfare as the OC Air Show is well known in our area at this point, but we love it so much that we can’t resist acknowledging the highly anticipated Ocean City event. Each year the Ocean City beaches and boardwalk are jam packed with locals and visitors that are eager to see the military jets flying overhead. This year marks the 9th year for the OC Air Show and will include the return of the Thunderbirds as the headlining flight demonstration (look for the Blue Angels to return next year for the 10th Anniversary show).
Seafood Feasts
It wouldn’t be summer without a few seafood feasts! One of the reasons we love living on Delmarva is the access to fresh seafood, including fish, oysters, clams, soft shell crabs, and of course, Maryland blue crabs. We’ll find any excuse to enjoy a seafood feast with friends on a hot summer day and fortunately for us, we have SO many restaurants to help us achieve that goal. For crab feasts, we frequent Belly Busters, The Crab Bag, Crabs to Go, Crab Alley, and Hoopers. What we particularly look forward to this time of year though are soft shell crabs! Available May through September, we try to feast on soft shells as much as possible.
White Marlin Open
One of the biggest events of the summer is the annual White Marlin Open. The week-long event brings thousands of visitors to Harbor Island on 14th Street in Ocean City to watch as the boats pull in with their big catches of the day. The weigh-ins bring a lot of excitement and fanfare, especially as the competition for the top spot gets fierce. This year’s White Marlin Open will take place August 8 through August 12 so make your plans now.
Fourth of July Festivities
Before we get to the White Marlin Open, there’s Fourth of July to enjoy! The quintessential summer holiday, Fourth of July means BBQs, crab feasts, and fireworks (unless you’re in the local service industry, in which case in means a banner weekend with larger crowds and hopefully, big tips). This year, Fourth of July falls on a Monday so plan for a long holiday weekend at the beach. Tip: Traffic is unavoidable during the busy summer weekends in Ocean City, so the best plan is to be prepared for it and enjoy the ride.
