Before the ocean city trip, i had two concerns: 1) nobody would want to go out and we'd spend the week drinking in the house. and 2) we'd go to a "good" bar the first night, and love it so much that we'd waste the rest of the week going back there.

Now, luckily, OC didn't turn into the debacle that the skiing trip apparently was. The people I went on vacation with actually wanted to enjoy life and such and such. However, on a 7 night trip, we somehow managed to go to this corny bar/club "seacrets" a whopping 4 times!!!

The best way to describe Seacrets was that it was "like Disney World wrapped up in a bar". Why is that the best way to describe it? B/c not only did i say that (as a negative), but someone actually said that as a positive. That's right, apparently people want to go to a bar that reminds them of the cliched corporate interpretation of what a beach bar should look like. It's like going to Italy and looking for an Olive Garden to eat dinner.

It's hard to describe the physical layout of Seacrets, but here it goes. When you first walk in, there is a huge area where bands play. I was mildly impressed with the fact that there were two mini stages for the bands, so as one was finishing the next band could start right away. The corniness factor kicks in immediately, though, when you look down and realize the floor is all sand. Lame. Then, there all fake palm trees under this tent to give the "atmosphere" of a beach bar. The only thing that was missing were the mechanical jamberee bears that we found all so entertaining at eight years of age.

The trickery of Seacrets continued as there were tons of small bars scattered around the pathway. I will fully grant that this "complex" was enormous for a bar/club, but it was all smoke and mirrors. Under no circumstances would anyone go to these little bars scattered around the water. They were litterally a little shack w/ bar stools around it. Oh, actually, people would actually stop at these bars if they were bored out of their minds and wanted to get away from the "seacrets scene". I know b/c Dan and I couldn't wait to leave the niteclub area the first night.

But regardless, the point of these bars was to show off how big the place was w/o actually putting the land to any good use. "oh look at how big this place is, we should spend the entire week here exploring". And by exploring, i mean of course going to the club and dancing there for 4 straight hours.

Ok, as I'm sure you've gathered by now, there was a night club as the "2nd" attraction. It was decent, relatively speaking. There were several very corny gimmicks that certain people just ate up. First, there was confetti that fell down every few minutes. At best it was a mildly entertaining visual the first 20 times it happened. At worst, it was painfully annoying as the stuff got caught on your shirt and fell in your drink. 2nd, there were gigantic balloons that would slowly decend onto the dance floor. This led to the inevitable need to punch the balloons back up in the air. I have to admit that I enjoyed doing this as well. Then again, I'm the type of person who can spin a roll of masking tape up in the air in my apartment for 3 straight hours and not think twice of it.

The final gimmick was by far the most overated. The floor "bounced". The way it was described, you'd think we'd be on a trom-bumb-balino. However, the "bounce" was basically what you would find by walking on those metal doors that lead to basement entrances on the street. Yes there was some give and when the whole crowd did it at once, you could actually feel it. Big deal. Next.

[to be continued. i need to go to school now.]