WASHINGTON WEEKEND TRIPS BY CAR.

WEEKEND TRIPS BY CAR

FROM WASHINGTON, D.C.

SUMMER 1967

To the beaches, the ocean beaches, start early or late. Make the Chesapeake Bay bridge

before 9 am Saturday morning. You are going to go either to Rehoboth Beach or Ocean City, or maybe to a more lonely Dewey, Fenwick Island or Assateague Island.

The Bay Bridge route is well marked, and traveled. I do mean traveled, sometimes very slowly.

Rehoboth Beach, the prim old lady, a 100 yard wide beach of white sand. Plenty of hotels, some rather crusty, and numerous regulations on parking, what to wear on the boardwalk, the riding of bicycles and other matters. On the board walk are the short order restaurants and amusement booths. Bring your money and have a good time.

Just to the south is Dewey Beach, rough, loud, visit the VFW barbecue, again bring your money. South of Dewey thing can get wild, an narrow road, sand dunes on either side, marsh,

seven miles clear and wide. Yes there are side areas, parking lots, for the weekenders who shun the crowded boardwalk. Here you can park, clamber over the high sand dunes, sit, watch the sea crash in.

Bethany Beach, well kept, a motel in the center of town, with little of the resort glitter of Rehoboth. Their boardwalk is a half mile long and the beach well attended and clean.

Past Bethany drive into Assawoman Wildlife Area, birds among the marsh, then here is Fenwick Island and more development , new modern design houses, many set high on piling high

up to escape the storm high tides that come. In to Maryland, houses, motels, land for sale, everywhere, even a shopping center.

Ocean City is Maryland' s ocean tourist mecca, an endless town, Bobby Bakers, ocean

side Carousel Motel , always jammed. Exclusive seashore developments are endlessly touted by Real Estate Agents. The central attraction of the carnival atmosphere is the boardwalk, lined with shops and hotels, car jammed everywhere in the narrow street. A walk itself is nothing more than a museum of human wildlife.

Take a seat in one of the cool beer caverns that line the boardwalk and watch the crowd. You are sure to find something, every shape and size is here, outlandish outfits, Hippies, grandmothers,

beauties, staid old timers wander to and fro.

An utter change of scene is a drive , past the inlet, crowded with fishermen, across the

Sinepuxent Bay to Assateague , wild, free, unspoiled, lovely. It is a National Park with services,

parking lots, camping sites, bath houses, concessions, but no hotels. No boardwalk but bike trails.

Thirty two miles of sparkling beach , dunes, sea grass, surf for fishing, very satisfying. Heading back to Washington ? You are on your own and if you enjoy driving in traffic, you have got it.

Abatract July 18, 2017, Harrison H. from Washington Evening Star, 16 July 1967. Weekend Trips.