Coming soon: my bittersweet vacation

I am one week away (really only four days) from vacation. I'm looking forward to it quite a bit, even if it is pretty local. That's right, I'm headed to the O.C. with my extended family. Yes, I know Bethany and Rehoboth are nicer. And no, I'm not driving to f*#king North Carolina for vacation.

In order to put this trip in context, you have to realize a few things:

1. My family has been going to Ocean City since 1974, when there were only one or two condos and no big grocery stores. In fact, there was pretty much nothing but sand and an occasional outpost between 33rd and 108th Streets.
2. When I say family, I mean my grandparents (RIP), my aunt, my cousins. And now a new generation, with our own children.
3. We always go the first and second weeks of August.
4. We've stayed in the exact same apartment complex every year, almost every year in the same unit. It's like a second home in many ways, including the furniture that's been there since 1974.

So Ocean City to me holds a nostalgia that it wouldn't hold for the newbies who rightfully label it a pit. It is a pit. It suffers from rampant development, unlike its Delaware neighbors. Unfortunately, every year it becomes more pit-like, because the remaining old growth is being cleared away for new, higher density units. So each year I'm able to see a few more two story apartments or old-style motels razed and replaced with five, seven, or ten story packed buildings.

Of course, higher density means more traffic, less beach space, and importantly more revenue for property owners, businesses, and the city tax coffer. It also means, for our family at least, that some of the little charm that remains in Ocean City fades year after year. If our apartment complex is ever sold (it's six individually-owned units, so it would take some time to convince all owners), I don't think we'll be back. Ocean City won't care; five or ten families will take our place.