Sunrise over the ocean was beautiful, but the washing machine bangs in the spin cycle.
We had a blast but the street noise made us put the baby's crib in the bathroom.
We moved some furniture. We fixed the door. We couldn't get the stain out of the rug.
We loved the food, the beach, the "dolfins," and watching the cops close the public bathrooms on the boardwalk, but it was probably grandpa's last vacation with us.
We had soooooo much fun! Thank you for sharing your beautiful home. Go Redskins! Yankees! Ravens! Red Sox! We hate to leave, but we'll be back next year. God willing.
Bye. See ya. Love,
Your guests.
Up and down the Delaware and Maryland coast this first weekend of the summer season, and from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, visitors from across the country will continue a simple but hallowed vacation ritual: scribbling commentary in beach house guest books.
Before there were blogs, and Internet postings, and those endless form-letter Christmas cards, there was the forum of the beach house guest book.
Glimpses into life
Poetry, praise, thanksgiving, joy, wisdom, hints of sadness and surprisingly intimate glimpses into life will be set down, usually in a small book kept by the phone or on the coffee table. Usually, but not always, the record is left by the person in the visiting group with the best handwriting.
The entries, directed to the homeowners as well as the world at large, will describe the weather, and the traffic, and what people did, and where they went. The authors will list their gripes -- often because they are asked to, but also because these are precious times and they want things to be perfect.
They will give lots of advice: who has the best ice cream, the best crabs, the best margaritas, the best rides, the best lemonade, the best burrito.
"Check out the peanut butter fudge milkshake."
"If you order delivery make sure they know where the door is. Our pizza delivery man tried delivering our pizza to the storage closet twice."
They will announce that the baby learned to clap here, or slept through the night here, or that this was the first family vacation, and this summer in this place will be remembered forever.
"This is where memories are made," said Jim Waggoner, vice president of the rental division at Long & Foster Real Estate in Bethany Beach, Del. "People want everything to be perfect, the weather, everything. . . . They look forward to it. They anticipate it all year. This is their vacation. This is extremely important to a family."
A review of about a dozen guest books last week in Ocean City and Bethany Beach revealed an array of emotions, predicaments and observations as families and friends gathered by the seaside over the past few summers.
The visitors came from Nebraska, Kentucky, Michigan, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Nevada, South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. Some Ohioans had a "whirlwind get-out-of-Akron" trip.
Most of the entries were filled with praise, but there are always complaints.
"Our vacation was very challenging," a renter in a new, well-appointed condo in Ocean City wrote last year. "The elevator was inoperable for three days. With an 80-year-old and a mentally and physically challenged adult, we were in a pickle. We were also sad the pool was broke."
A group that came from New York and Georgia for a wedding and some golf had a wonderful time in Ocean City. But their condo "needs an iron," they recorded, and "unfortunately bedrooms are very noisy from street traffic."
"It does get a little loud," another observer wrote, "but nice to hear people having a good time."
A couple listed the host of problems they faced. "Rugs had to be cleaned. Big black stains around table . . . Will never come clean . . . Pillows missing . . . Main TV started freezing . . . Other than that we had a wonderful time."
A Pennsylvania group alerted their condo's owners: "Just to let you know, the ice does not come out of the dispenser, and the washing machine bangs when it is in the spin cycle."
Elsewhere, visitors groused:
"Needs a bigger water heater . . . Needs a few more dishes . . . Needs a pitcher for Kool Aid . . . Would be nice to have a hand-held shower . . . Clock in the bedrooms would have been nice . . . Kids missed their pets . . . It took two days to figure out how to turn on the dining room chandelier."
Visitors from Virginia and Texas thought of Ocean City: "A lot of strange people, but pretty cool place."
"After midnight all the freaks come out," wrote someone else.
A correspondent with a panoramic ocean and boardwalk view wrote last summer: "I had plenty of fun watching the police lock down the [boardwalk] bathrooms and watching people urinate behind them on the beach. Watching drunken high school kids always brings a smile to my face."
Although some people complained, other vacationers solved problems themselves.
"Paul left your place better by fixing three things," a Pennsylvania woman wrote of her husband's good deeds last year. "The squeaky headboard with queen mattress . . . Put a new screw in the top lock on the condo door . . . Fixed the vacuum, which was not working. You will need a replacement belt."
But Paul's fix did not hold. Several vacationers later, a notation in the same book stated: "Vacuum cleaner does not work . . . We had to sweep the carpet."
'Thank you for our week in paradise'
Weather was a big topic:
"Rainy all week . . . "
"Hot, hot, hot . . . "
"Not as hot as Texas, thank goodness."
"Everything except snow."
There was the simple joy of being together. "Girlfriends rock!" nine women announced last May.
A member of a family, represented by four generations, wrote in an Ocean City condo: "Our Poppa wanted everybody to come to see the ocean one more time before he's unable to make the trip."
Another writer noted: "We came down here for a weekend with Dad. He is 81. . . . My Mom passed last year, and it was much too soon and too quick. We want to make the most of all the times we can have. . . . Love the wall paintings."
And a Marylander wrote: "Again we return to our lovely memories of last year. Your home was a shining light in a year of sadness."
A group visiting Bethany was able to make a happy pronouncement: "We learned [0f] the upcoming birth of our first grandchild. This house will always have a special meaning to us."
"My one-year-old son started walking in this home on our third day here," a New Jersey mother recorded, "and will always be remembered."
Indeed, penned a woman named Kathleen at a home near the beach in Bethany, "when the days are over, the memories are priceless. . . . In my life, the sun is shining even when it rains."
"Definitely an awesome place," someone else wrote.
"Thank you for our week in paradise."
