The Upstate Life

Monday, July 09, 2007

Dewey/Rehoboth Beach Roundup

The day after the Fourth, The Upstate Life and crew headed towards the beaches of Delaware for a much-needed vacation. Despite having lived in the metro area for nearly seven years, I somehow have never experienced the Dewey retreat. One of our friends who organized the trip found an amazing townhouse in Rehoboth that had to be one of the best beach rentals I perhaps will ever stay in. Oh, and just like the Clipse, we got it for cheap. Place was four stories, had two (!) balconies, four bathrooms (crucial if there's 12+ people staying, which there were), leather couches, was equipped with every kitchen appliance available, and was about a 15 minute walk to the boardwalk. There was also a community pool which proved to be quite useful on Days 2 and 3 as Day 1 was spent at the beach in pure humid misery.

We took the Jolly Trolley from Rehoboth to Dewey the first night and went to the Rusty Rudder for dinner and drinks. It's amazing how as soon as it becomes 9pm, the parents and kids in attendance dynamically shift to the 21-24 year old douchebags in less than an hour. Ladies, please take notice: if you want me to get out of your way so that you can get to the bar's only bathroom, a simple "Excuse me" will suffice. Please don't try to aggressively push a 6'2" 190 pound dude without saying anything. It's just self-defeating. After a few hours of listening to the cover band stylings of Love Seed Mama Jump (evidently, every band in Dewey is required to play solely covers), I had grown tired of the scene and called it a night around 12:30, just a half hour shy of when the bars close.

If you ever go out to dinner in Rehoboth, you have to eat at Catchers - place was phenomenal. I got the 14oz Prime Rib which was $20.95, but for just $3.95 more you could add a broiled/fried crab cake, which I of course did. Thanks in part to the tax-free culture of Delaware the entire meal came out to around $30. We then again took the Trolley and went to Bottle & Cork for Friday night's evening activity. Looking at the calendar, I was surprised by how many reputable acts perform there during the summer (Pete Yorn, The Rentals, We Might Be Giants, etc.). I was thinking to myself how awesome it would be if The Hold Steady played instead of another cover band (Burnt Siena I think, that or one of the other Clarendon Ballroom cover bands [that should be its own genre btw]), but I digress. The lack of cover was apparently made up by the $4 cans of beer. At least the Rusty Rudder had $2.75 drafts. I ended up ordering mixed drinks most of the night which ended up being just 50 cents more. Paying $4 for cans of Bud Light is beyond justifiable.

Drained from the previous two evening of partying and days in the sun, a few of us opted to checkout the boardwalk Saturday night instead of heading to Dewey for a third night. We spent most of our time in Funland playing skeeball, and more importantly, pinball. Whenever I get a place, I'm going to be the guy that has a pinball machine in his basement. I can't get enough of it. Anyway, I bought the requisite Thrashers fries and Kohr Bros which were, of course, amazing. I'm always intrigued by the people who buy the supersize buckets of the former, especially during the day when it's 95 degrees outside. That's way too much grease for somehow who's already too gross from the awesome combination of sunscreen and sweat. I somehow missed out on Grotto's the entire weekend but I'll get by. Overall, it was a pretty fun weekend and I didn't even get sunburnt. The neurotic reapplication of sunblock actually paid off!

Posted by Brett at 2:10 PM |