Autumn On The Eastern Shore
*Before I start this post, I want to give a HUGE thank you to Toyota for lending us your Toyota Sienna for this trip! We were traveling with a ton of cargo and people this trip and without the space that the Sienna provides, we would have been in a lot of trouble scrambling to find a car that could hold us all. The Sienna was such a huge help on this trip, and of course the drop down TV was a dream feature for the kids during our 3 hour drives to and from the airport. Toyota, you saved the day, thank you!
I’ve had people ask, “what’s your obsession with Maryland?” Well, the answer is my Grandparents. My Grandparents moved to Ocean City when I was about 8 or so. My Grandma and “Boompa” (our version of Grandpa) are the rock of our family, they’re amazing in every aspect of the word. On October 23rd they celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary (goals I know)! This was our chance to do something for them, they’re always the ones doing things for us so it was a nice change being able to do something like this for them. So we planned a surprise trip to Maryland and a surprise party with all of their best friends and family to shower them with love and huge congrats! Well, my sister blew the surprise that we were going out there, oops, but the party was still a shock to them and they loved it and felt so special.
So, although Maryland is such an amazing place and I love the ocean, the beach, chasing baby G in the sand, walking the boardwalk, etc. the main reason we find ourselves in Maryland so often is because of my adorable Grandparents and the rest of our family that lives out there. We really just got lucky that they moved to such a stunning state. We typically visit in the summer, for the warm beach days of course, but it was a nice change to get to experience Maryland and Ocean City in the fall. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, so to get to go on an autumn adventure was a ton of fun. Although, I will say we went a few weeks too early to see the fall foliage in full effect. You can see from the photo below that the leaves were starting to change but they were in the early stages.
Warm sand or cold sand, we love the beach! Some days I think Giulian was born to be a beach baby, the way his eyes light up and he sprints to the waves. He loves it. The distance between the boardwalk and the ocean is long (I tried to google it for an exact distance but no luck), and baby G and those short, chubby little legs of his sprint from the boardwalk to the beach the moment he spots the water. I mean fast too, I really have to keep my eye on him 100% of the time otherwise he’d run straight into the water. I suppose he’s the male, baby version of Moana. Watch this adorable IGTV video of him in the water this summer, you’ll see the joy I’m talking about. He just squeals with excitement, and gets super mad at mommy for not letting him jump right into the ocean all by himself. He doesn’t understand why I hold him back from doing so, sweet little one year old has no clue those waves would suck him right in. Not gonna lie it gives me massive anxiety, but watching him have so much fun is worth it all. Like I said, he loves it.
My personal favorite is when we play in the sand up by the boardwalk, there’s way less worry. Even on cold days we’d both take our shoes off and enjoy our toes in the sand. Sand just feels amazing on toes no matter its temperature. Ocean City has fun things in the sand near the boardwalk for you to let the kiddos play on, playgrounds and big sea creatures emerge from the sand they can climb all over. Even in the fall, there’s plenty of fun to be had!
“Warm sand or cold sand, we love the beach.”
Thanks so much for following along on our #GrecoFamilyTravels! This is not my first Ocean City, Maryland post and it most definitely won’t be my last. I love it so much there, maybe one day I’ll do a post on our move there (haha a girl can dream right, Nick wouldn’t move there until we’re old and grey). Again, thank you Toyota for lending us the Sienna for our trip!
