Two different day trips

Day trippers are a central part of Ocean City life and culture. People who live within driving distance come in during the day to walk the boardwalk or hit the beach, maybe grab some lunch and then head home by evening. Kelly and Jeff Doughty are day-trippers of that stripe, king of. They have a family place in Ocean City where they come occasionally to spend the weekend or even a week's vacation, but more often the Eastern Shore of Virginia couple shoots up to Ocean City in the morning and just knocks around for the day. That was the case recently when I ran into them. I was in town with BL, our videographer, looking for people to interview. Our hope was to speak with the Golden Man, a living-statue type busker who stays stock still until you feed his basket with money. After that, well, this happens: He broke character for a second when we were about to interview him, but then someone hit him with a couple of dollars and we lost him. That the things about being a busker, you really only need to be super famous in a 100-foot radius, so performing for people who are right in front of you is more lucrative than talking to a couple of guys with cameras. For their part, the Doughtys thought his performances were, in and of themselves, worth the trip. "We come here and watch his act all the time," Kelly said. "He's been out here for years." He seemed good natured about it. Hopefully, we'll catch him when he's getting off duty and get a proper profile done. Speaking of off-duty...

Krista was up for a long weekend from Virginia and treated herself to a quiet beer at the new Monte Carlo pool bar.

A day trip to the pool

Krista was all on her own at the pool bar atop the Monte Carlo hotel downtown. Her mom had taken her kids to the beach and everyone else was asleep in the room, so she took the opportunity to treat herself to a beer and some sun on the hotel's roof. She and Carlo DiFilippo, who runs the bar, were hanging out with some other patrons, letting the lazy afternoon go by. The Monte Carlo rooftop bar is a new attraction at the hotel. It is open to the public serving beer and wine and a great view of the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. Carlo seems to be having fun getting the place organized, and we were able to do a brief interview with him (catch it on an August episode of Ocean City Stories on our YouTube page). For her part, Krista was happy for the sun and the quiet; and of course she was happy for the beer.