TWiP: Back in Ocean City ⋆ Polka Dot Cottage

It was lovely being back in our favorite spot on the Jersey Shore this week. This year, since I was taking clips for my 1-second-everyday project anyway, I put together a 3-minute video about our trip. That was fun. After 14 years vacationing in the same spot, it gets hard to come up with new pictures to take and new stories to tell, so I love that I did this for 2021 🙂

I’m already thinking ahead to next year. I’d love to be able to rent a house for a whole week, instead of four nights in a hotel like we usually do, so I think I’m going to keep my eyes open now and maybe find something affordable to rent. I wouldn’t even have to take off too many days from work – I can do my job from anywhere, and doing it next to the ocean sounds very appealing to me…

So, what is This Week in Pictures?

It’s a roundup of the little (and big!) moments I have captured all week. Most of these images are posted on Instagram, but others aren’t posted anywhere but here. Some days there may be no photos, and other days there may be multiples. It’s more laid back than the Project 365s of previous years. You can learn more here 🙂

Photos taken with 📷 (Canon EOS 80D) or 📱 (Samsung Galaxy S9).

TWiP Clips

Here’s a very short video, featuring 1.5-second moments from the week. This week’s clips are mostly beachy 🙂:

Saturday

Hello from the bathroom of Room 104 in Ocean City, New Jersey 🙂

I amused myself at Castaway Cove tonight, taking pictures of all of the pretty lit up rides.

Sunday

Watching the waves crash into the fishing pier 💙🤎
(View original post on Instagram.)

Ocean City has pioneered a program over the last few years, where raptors are used to chase the seagulls away from the boardwalk and back to the beach. As someone who has lost a whole ice cream cone to a bold seagull in the past, I appreciate this program. Plus, the hawks, falcons, and owl we saw were beautiful, well trained, and didn’t mind posing for pictures.

Story for Sunday

Monday

I was pleasantly surprised to find the bike rental place open today (when you go in the off season like we do, nothing is guaranteed to be open on a weekday). So I plunked down a few dollars for a daily rental and rode to the far end of the boardwalk’s commercial section, with the wind in my hair and an iced Ocean City Coffee Company coffee in the basket. This is an awesome way to Monday 🤩
(View original post on Instagram.)

So it turns out the ocean is really, really cold.

Story for Monday

Tuesday

That’s a wrap on our 14th annual Ocean City weekend!

Wednesday

Got a little over 3 minutes? Here’s a taste of our long weekend in our happy place at the Jersey Shore. Neil says it could double as a @oceancitycoffee ad 😜☕ (Music by @joakimkarudmusic)