Jess and I got back from Dewey Beach this past weekend.  We spent the previous week there on vacation with my family.  Here are the highlights:

*  We ate at Grotto Pizza and Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop (a couple of our favorite places down there).
*  I read a few trade paperbacks (one volume each of Powers, Ex Machina, The Walking Dead, and Fantastic Four) and some of The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell.
*  We had really great weather the whole time except for one evening when it rained.
*  We saw dolphins just off the coast several times.
*  The week was so relaxing that I never thought to get out my camera and take any pictures.  The picture above is of a place that we saw in Maryland on the drive home.  It is called Dance Explosion Performing Arts.

All told, we both had a really good time.

Last week, I went on vacation to Ocean City, Maryland with my girlfriend and her parents.  We had a real nice time relaxing on the beach, and other than Hurricane Earl cutting our week a day short, it was a really nice vacation.

This was the first time that I’d ever been to Ocean City.  I have been to Dewey Beach, Delaware a number of times.  Ocean City was a much bigger place and much busier, although the area that we stayed in was rather calm.  Other than hanging out on the beach, we went to the boardwalk one evening and we went mini-golfing on another.  The mini-golf course was dinosaur themed and Jess became obsessed with what she named “Aqua-dino”…part dinosaur and part ocean creature (you can see the picture above).  While we were leaving town to avoid Hurricane Earl, Jess feared for Aqua-dino’s safety, but I’m confident that it survived unscathed.

At the beach, I read 2 books: Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer and Boom! by Mark Haddon.  The Krakauer book is about a double-murder that took place in 1984 and how the crime was rooted in Mormonism.  I’m sure that some people would see the book as a critique of Mormonism, and while that particular religion certainly has some peculiarities, I thought it was much more a look at faith in general.  The Haddon book was short and fun.  If you are familiar with his work, Boom! is certainly worth reading, but if you aren’t, I would recommend reading A Spot Of Bother and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime first.

After leaving Ocean City, we drove back to Jess’s parents’ home in Harrisburg and stayed there for a day.  On the 3+ hour drive back to Pittsburgh the following day, Jess and I started to notice a lot of license plates from other states, so we started a list.  We ended up seeing 24 different states, as well as Washington D.C. and Ontario.  This also inspired us to attempt the 50 state challenge along the way (the 50 state challenge is where you just try to list all 50 states).  We got stuck on 49 for an hour or so and had to look up the missing state back in Pittsburgh.  (Damn you Wyoming!)

All in all, it was a nice trip, but it is nice to be back in Pittsburgh just in time for football season.

I spent the last week on vacation with my girlfriend and some friends at Dewey Beach in Delaware.  It was the second year in a row that I’ve been there.  Here are the highlights:

* We met Dave Grohl.  I saw him walk by us and we later found him further down the beach.  We said hello, told him we were fans, and asked if we could get a picture with him.  He was very friendly and he posed for a picture with us.  I’ve now met Dave Matthews and Dave Grohl this summer, which is pretty cool.

* I read the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.  It was a fascinating book not only from a baseball perspective, but also from the perspective that in our society, we cling to accepted knowledge even when the facts clearly don’t mesh with what we think we know.  I also read the first half of the book Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  It is really good so far, but I’ll wait to say more until I finish it.

* We ate at the trio of my favorite Delaware beach restaurants: Grotto Pizza (a Delaware pizza chain), Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop (a Delaware sub shop chain), and Dos Locos (a great Mexican restaurant).

It was really nice to relax at the beach for a week, reading and sitting under an umbrella, but now I’m back and I’m ready to blog!