My husband Danny's and my birthdays are in the winter and 5 weeks to the day apart from each other. By January & February, we're usually pretty tired of the cold weather and looking for exciting things to do. Danny & I are known for taking what seems like ridiculous road trips just to get away. We have a very different opinion than most on how far is too far to drive in a day. So, for our birthdays we said we would find a time in between the two and drive to get some of our favorite donuts and coffee which just happen to reside in Ocean City, New Jersey.
Ocean City is about a 6 hour drive with no stops, so for us, totally doable to drive to and from in a day! We gathered some things and jumped in the car at about 4:45am so we could get to Jersey in enough time to relax for a little before having to turn around and come home to PA. Most of our motivation for this road trip stemmed from our desire for Drip N' Scoop donuts & coffee, along with my lifelong desire to see the ocean in the winter. We go on a family trip to Ocean City, New Jersey every year, but it's always in the summer, so I was curious to see what this town was like in the off season. We arrived in town around 11am and immediately made our to donuts! We set up shop with some coffee & food and just hung out for a few hours planning our PNW trip coming up this summer. After a while we decided to walk around town and pop into some of my favorite shops there, despite it being freezing and super windy.
We then made our way to the boardwalk to take a walk on the beach. It was pretty surreal seeing the boardwalk so empty compared to the summer months and almost all of the shops closed up. The boardwalk had more people than I expected though for a cold and dreary day in February. After moseying the boardwalk for awhile we moved on to the beach. Another strange experience was being in boots and a winter coat walking through the sand compared to barefoot in a bathing suit. We took in the sounds of the ocean reminiscing on all of the past years that we had been here, and looking forward to all of the times to come. We took some photos, chased some birds, and touched the water before the cold and wind was too much.
And what would a visit to Ocean City, New Jersey be if we didn't stop for some Manco & Manco boardwalk pizza? We ate our pizza while watching the Olympics along with the workers at the pizza shop, who were all men and clearly related in some way and whose wives and kids were all in the shop for lunch. We made one more stop back at Drip N' Scoop for some coffee for the road. On our way back to Pittsburgh it started to rain a little in Philly, and shortly after turned into a crazy snowstorm where we couldn't see anything and almost called a hotel room in Hershey home for the night. Luckily we made it home safely, just with a few hours added on to our estimated return time. All of this to say that the trip was totally worth it, but to do it again, maybe we'll check the weather first.
