Every year my family takes a two-week trip down the shore to the same condo in Ocean City, New Jersey. As I’m writing this, the two weeks are coming to a close. I look forward to coming on this vacation each year because I love the beach and spending time in Ocean City.

Besides going to the beach as much as possible, we have a list of places we visit every year. Our favorite place is Kessel’s Korner, with the best fries on the island. People also say they have the best tomatoes, but I can’t vouch for that. Other places we like to go include Piccini’s for crab pizza, Hooked on Breakfast and Island Grill.

The weather wasn’t great during the first week of our trip. There was barely any sun, and it rained or stormed almost daily, making it not great for the beach. We still tried to go as much as we could, even if only for an hour or two. Since I worked most days, on my days off I tried to spend as much time on the beach as I could.

One night during the first week, we headed to the boardwalk to go on rides with family friends who have a 3-year-old. We haven’t been on rides in forever, so it was fun seeing the joy they bring to little kids. Not going to lie, I went on a couple and had a lot of fun — we even went on one of the upside-down roller coasters on our own.

After spending the day on the beach on Saturday, I met up with some friends in Margate for a night out. We went to Maynard’s, which has a lively outdoor beach bar.

The second week we had much better weather. I took off two days and, luckily, both days had beautiful beach weather. We’d eat breakfast and then get ready to head down to the beach for the day. I like to stay until after 5:30–6 p.m. so I can read and get the most out of the day.

Even with bad weather the first week, we still had fun, and I am already looking forward to next year!

— Mary Melnick, social media and editorial coordinator