First, the most exiting news is I didn't get a headache the whole trip. This was the first trip in a long time where I didn't have to make sure I had advil & magnesium stashed in multiple places. When I felt like I might get a headache, a little potassium was enough to chase it away. This is really really great because trips mean bad sleep, stress, carby foods, wonky schedules - all the stuff that almost guarantees a headache. I was able to enjoy the trip so much more.

First we stopped at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA. Unfortunately we got there too late to take our time going through the museum, but we were really impressed. Spouse and I aren't civil war buffs, but we've been to the major battlefields around here because history is history, and our current state of politics makes looking at the past more relevant. The battlefields are still worth seeing, but if a person only had time to visit one location, the National Civil War Museum is the clear best choice. Really great exhibits, lots of artifacts, top notch presentation. Excellent museum, even (maybe especially) for people lukewarm on the civil war, because it covers everything.

Second day we got to Philadelphia before 9am for the sweet early bird parking deal under the Independence Hall visitor's center. $14 until 6pm! That put us in the middle of the major touristy sights - Independence Hall (tour tickets were sold out, but we walked around the outside), Liberty Bell, whole bunch of other things, plus no hassle restrooms at the visitor's center (these big cities have dicey bathroom access - a clean, free restroom is a treasure, esp when you started your day with a very sketchy complimentary breakfast at the budget hotel). We walked to the riverfront, saw some ships, saw some statues, got into the Museum of the American Revolution. GREAT museum, really really enjoyed it. The employees working there are very into their jobs and more than happy to talk nerdy history details, five stars to them. Fantastic large, immersive exhibit that covers the whole revolutionary war. Ended up being really glad we went in there first thing, because it placed the other buildings and exhibits in context. Waited in line to see the liberty bell (anticlimactic, overrun with cranky, bored children - why parents tow their young kids to these things is beyond me - it's not a fun theme park, all the kid knows is they are hot and tired and bored). Went to Washington Square and saw the tomb of the unknown soldier of the revolutionary war - and this was actually the most impactful thing for me, because the whole square is a potter's field - an unmarked graveyard. Today it is a beautiful park with tall trees and a lovely fountain.

We have been spoiled because the Smithsonians and many others are free museums and generally when we do stuff in the city it only costs us gas and maybe treats. A nice perk of spouse's job is he has secure parking, so we park the car for free and go see free museums - who wouldn't want to see them all? But in Philadelphia they want ~$20 per museum ticket, and there are a shitton of museums. You'd go broke doing everything. So we just did the one paid museum and then walked around, and that was still really nice. The only thing we wanted to do and missed was to tour the battleship New Jersey. It wasn't in walking distance and by the time we got done with Independence Hall area there wouldn't have been enough time to drive over there and see it.

Then it was on to New Jersey to find a beach. Originally we aimed for Atlantic City, but once we got there we realized we just aren't gambling/casino people. The giant billboards lining the road that alternate offering help for addiction, abuse hotlines, and promises of lucky winnings put a damper on any guilt free enjoyment. Churches alternating with porn shops. Atlantic City is a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Not really possible to do anything there without realizing you are indirectly supporting a temple of rot. Reminds me too much of Pleasure Island in the animated Pinocchio, where the boys enjoy a carnival funhouse before being turned into donkeys and sold to work in the mines. It creeped us out so we kept driving. The southern half of the island is mostly very expensive beach homes.

We ended up getting a hotel room more inland (cheaper) and then scouted Ocean City to figure out how to actually get to the beach. East coast is so weird, I'll never get over how difficult and expensive they make it to do something simple like go to the beach. I guess it's just because the population is so dense, and they weren't planning towns 100 years ago with the crush of automobiles and tourists in mind. So there's never enough parking, there's no such thing as free parking, there's loads of parking rules to follow, too many cars on the little streets, everything is crammed together, etc. Plus the toll roads to get there. Like, I just want to go to the beach. I grew up on the central coast of California and I feel like people should be able to just go to the beach on a whim, easy peasy. Especially coming from Alaska, the way the beaches have been exploited seems incredibly mercenary and insane. I suppose we have our own version - in front of the entrance to Denali National Park is a tourist catered town the locals refer to as "Glitter Gulch". Resort hotels, tourist shops, restaurants, tour guides, etc. Any way they can think up to skim off some of those sweet tourist dollars. Same atmosphere, but parking is at least free.

So we scout out the parking situation and where we can get a breakfast burrito in the morning, then head back to the hotel. I demanded that we have dinner someplace where I can get real vegetables that aren't a form of potato. Picked out this irish pub. We walked the mile over there so we could both have adult beverages. We had to wait a good while for seating (so long I thought maybe they were snubbing us because we were the only ones wearing masks, but we just had the bad luck of arriving at the height of the dinner rush), but dinner was excellent. Delicious brussel sprouts. Walked back to the hotel pleasantly tipsy and full. Even got good sleep!

Next day, found a metered parking spot for the beach (only paid $6 for 4 hours), walked over to a cafe for good breakfast burritos, walked to the beach. Had beach time, walked the boardwalk, found a snowglobe souvenir, got tasty lemonades for our vacation cups, people watched, enjoyed ourselves and made it back to the car before our parking time expired. Really nice day. Drove home.

I liked Ocean City, NJ. It has a much more family oriented vibe than Atlantic City - no alcohol on the boardwalk. Glad we went on a weekday when the crowds were at a minimum. It's not a wild beach experience. There are no shells worth keeping, there are no tide pools to explore, there is no broad expanse of lonely, empty sand. But it's a tourist town, it is what it is. We enjoyed the waves and the water and the abundance of people watching. We goggled at the boardwalk shops. Why are they so obsessed with miniature golf here? Miniature golf everywhere, multiple elaborate courses with fancy water features and pirate ships. On the one hand, that's cool? But on the other, why pay to play miniature golf when you're already at the beach? Clearly I am not the target market here.

Nice trip. We took routes that avoided tolls, which meant a lot of more rural backroads and that is way more fun than the highway. It's interesting looking at different kinds of homes and businesses and getting a better idea of the character of a place. There's a lot more rural/farming space on the east coast than I would have thought. Some places have cool old buildings, some have the generic cheap strip mall aesthetic that could be anywhere. They love their cheap plaster garden statues in New Jersey.

(It wasn't all sunshine and roses - I got really mad at spouse the second day. When we finished the revolutionary war museum I was hungry. Breakfast at 7am was hurried and not good. It's 1pm, I'd been on my feet for four hours and I've always had weenie feet. The museum cafe was stupid overpriced, not into eating there. There's tons of restaurant options around. We got in line for the liberty bell and I mentioned I was hungry and could use a break. Spouse says okay. I'm thinking we're going to get food after the liberty bell. 30 minutes of standing later he decides we're going to Washington Square next. Okay, we walk over there. I get him to pick a place to eat. He decides to take the scenic route, with extra walking, and then we get there and the place he picked is closed. He picks somewhere else a block away, we walk over there, it's not one of the historic looking restaurants we've been walking past but more like a regular mall food court and the tables are all filled. My feet hurt so much, I don't have the reserves to veto this place and go somewhere else. I try to find a place to sit and the only open seats are at a counter area where it's a fixed bar stool directly facing a blank white tile wall. White tile wall a foot from my face, like I'm in the dunce corner. I wanted to look at nice scenery and have a relaxed lunch with real food, you know? Like, there's a point where I am past the point of hungry, I don't care what I eat, I just want some fucking food and to not be on my feet. Spouse pushed things past that point and I was miserable. Then I burned my mouth on the cheesesteak and that sealed the deal. It wasn't his fault the first place was closed, but the fact that he knew I was hungry and pushed all these things and THEN the place he picked was closed just did it for me. I got pissed off. We left the food court and I told him, for future reference, when I say politely "I'm feeling hungry, a break would be nice" that translates to stone cold: "you have twenty fucking minutes to get me to food before I am miserable." Don't push me to the point of misery, when I have no spare energy for broken plans. This is at least the third time spouse has done something like this. The first time I ended up severely dehydrated and crying in the rental car and I had to beg him to bring me water because he forgot about me - I really thought he would have figured it out then, but no. I express that I am tired and need care and spouse hears "let's keep going for a while longer". NO. UNACCEPTABLE. And then I end up the angry, unreasonable one!! If I had my own money I'd just stop in my tracks and get lunch for myself, and tell him to go do whatever he wants. But I don't have my own resources right now, and I feel like a pull toy. Anyway, I was pretty mad, but he got that he fucked up and we were back to rights quickly enough. I hope I've made my point emphatically enough that we won't have this problem again. When I say I need a break, give me a fucking break. Not in an hour. ASAP. Don't make me freak out about it. That's all.)

Mask situation was fairly normal until we got to New Jersey, and I don't think they give a rat's ass there. People weren't masking up at all in Ocean City. A few of the boardwalk employees had masks, but I saw exactly one tourist wearing a mask and she had it below her nose. Spouse and I kept joking, well if we catch covid we know we got it from there. But really, there's probably at least 4 places where we could have got solid exposure at this point. There was a super sketchy Arby's in PA, the irish pub where nobody wore a mask except us, the hotel room with the guy sneezing and coughing up a lung on the other side of the wall, and the place where we ate breakfast burritos. So here's hoping we didn't pick up that souvenir, or the vax does its job. Not gonna lie, it was sort of nice, being able to pretend we were in a world with no covid for a few hours.

Sounds like the older folks at spouse's parent's house are struggling the most with the virus, as we feared. The word is that everyone in the house is flat exhausted. Spouse's mom thinks she is recovering, but they can't get spouse's dad to eat. At least nobody is in the hospital.

It's surreal, being on vacation at the beach with nobody wearing masks, and spouse's parents are currently struggling with covid.

Our friend Daniel is supposed to come stay with us this weekend. I need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner, maybe from the D&D cookbook, and possibly try a tweaked version of the spotchka recipe. I got this brew glitter stuff - it's fine edible glitter you can put in drinks to make them look fancy. I am hoping it will give the spotchka the right sci-fi finishing touch, because the tonic water/blacklight combo was not as glowy as expected. Plus the tonic water tasted gross, imho.