- [Together] We're the Troutman family, - And on this episode of "Great Family Adventure", we're exploring Ocean City, Maryland.

- Check out the beach!

(upbeat music) - [Emily] When picking a family vacation destination, a big part of it for me is finding someplace where each one of us individually is really looking forward to something.

So Ocean City, Maryland really embodied that for me and our family.

Each one of us had something we were really looking forward to doing, and we got to do that.

(upbeat music) Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 [Exciting music] In4Adventure.com inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure for 20 years, we've been fueling innovation on the water.

Our commitment is to improve the quality of life for people all around the world.

At ISLE We believe life on the water is a life better in balance and by these additional sponsors.

(upbeat music) - Well, it is quarter after four in the morning.

We have about 15 minutes before we take our shuttle to the airport.

So I think it's time to wake these guys up.

And we're heading to Ocean City today, so this is gonna be exciting.

Early morning flight, let's get to it.

Pull it out.

- Nothing like being asked what do you wanna do on Mother's Day and waking up at four in the morning.

But the good news is at least we're going on a trip.

Ocean City, Maryland.

Here we go.

(upbeat music) - We're going to the Ocean City.

Megan, Megan?

- [Emily] Maryland.

- Maryland.

(upbeat music continues) - Coming into Ocean City, travel's a big part of it for us.

How easy can it be?

And here flying to Salisbury Regional Airport made it quite simple because it's a short drive from Ocean City and it's a really easy family friendly airport.

- So we made it here to Ocean City, Maryland, and have an absolute gorgeous little Airbnb, unique stay here.

Only steps away from the beach.

So loving life here and getting ready for the adventures ahead.

Rock and roll.

- So my family spends a lot of time around rivers and the kids love water, but their absolute favorite thing in the whole world is getting to see a beach.

So the first thing we did when we arrived here at Ocean City was throw the bags into the cottage and just run out to the water.

- [Nick] Tucker, look at the helicopter!

(helicopter engine roaring) Whoa.

(helicopter swooshing) That was cool.

(upbeat music) - [Emily] There is so many fun activities we can do at the beach.

So the kids have different ideas on what they wanna do.

Running out of the waves, go hunting for seashells, building sand castles, you name it.

All of us tend to be really busy the whole time we're at the beach, and that's really fun.

We each get to do the things we wanna do individually, but at the same time, we're all having a blast as a family outside.

- Look how big this guy is.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

(upbeat music) - After we burned some energy at the beach, we went back to the cottage, we cut up some fruit, got the kids fed, and then we hit the boardwalk to go find our way to the Kite Loft.

(instrumental music) - [Nick] We eventually found our way to this really cool kite shop, which has all sorts of different kites, different sizes, different shapes.

Look at this place.

- Get it.

Get it have toys.

- What?

(Parker laughing) - Uh oh, they have toys.

See, we're kind of- - Oh my goodness, Tucker, look at this.

(instrumental music) - The kids were on fire.

The second we got into the kite store, had a ton of toys and a million different shapes and sizes of kites.

So it was actually really fun together as a family to pick out which kite do we wanna get.

We'll be back.

- [Nick] Thank you.

- [Emily] Thank you.

- [Nick] We're gonna go fly these things.

- You got a professional kite.

Does that mean you're a professional kite flyer?

- What do you think?

Yes.

- [Emily] Once everyone had selected the perfect kite, Nick included, we came back and it was perfect kiting conditions.

Super windy, which made it really fun.

- Mom, look!

(instrumental music continues) - The wind out there was a little bit high, which made it perfect for flying kites, but it also got a little sporadic with some of the kites.

Either way, we just had a blast out there to go as high as we could, to fly around, run around with the kites, and yeah, the kids had a blast just flying kites out on the beach.

- [Emily] Oh God, it's coming in.

(instrumental music continues) (instrumental music) - Another gorgeous morning.

Looks like it's gonna be a bluebird day today.

So I think today is a perfect day to head out and go kayaking.

- One of my family's favorite things to do is go kayaking.

When we found out that we go kayaking inland in some brackish water and check out a real crab pot at Ayers Creek Adventures, the kids were all in.

- [Nick] Getting out to Ayers Creek and really just kind of getting into the tranquil, quiet calmness of the salt marches was really cool because it really is just a more quiet morning versus the hustle and bustle here in Ocean City.

- So we're gonna go on what we call our salt marsh tour.

- Okay.

- And so we launch from here and we paddle out about an hour.

And along the way I'll identify birds, talk about water quality, talk about habitat.

- Awesome.

- Talk about invasive species.

So kind of an environmental tour.

- Here we go.

- We're located about three miles south of Ocean City, about three miles north of Assague and about three miles east of the town of Berlin.

(instrumental music) The creek here is tidal, influenced from the ocean.

The water is brackish.

It's both salt water and freshwater combined.

And so we see a variety of fish species here as a result of that.

And not too many in there.

You see that?

You see that one in the corner right there?

That's called a blue crab.

And it enters through these little funnels right here and can't find its way out again.

It goes into the pot because in here that's chicken meat.

If you order blue crabs around here for dinner or for a meal, this is what you get, this crab, just like that.

- It was really nice to have Steve as our tour guide because he has been living here.

His grandparents were from here.

And so he has a lot of history about not only the birds and the wildlife, but everything that has to do with the salt marshes just inside of Ocean City, Maryland.

(birds chirping) - Okay, so this is one of the largest coastal salt marshes in the Maryland coastal base system.

And so a lot of the animals that live here, including the bald eagle, are dependent upon the marshes for their survival because they support fish and other organisms that live here.

The marshes are also critically important for flood control.

Marshes act like a sponge and absorb a lot of water and hold it back from damaging upland areas, developed areas.

So they kind of expand with additional water and go down again when the water recedes.

And so they're critically important for controlling flooding upland.

(instrumental music continues) - While we're traveling, we homeschool the kids.

And so having our guide kind of explain all sorts of parts of the ecosystem, how the birds and the fish and the crab all play a part of the ecosystem of the salt marshes, just really gives that perfect homeschool environment out in the outdoors.

What do you think we should call the Eagle?

- Fred?

- Do you find a name for him?

Freddy?

- Yeah.

Freddy.

- Freddy the Eagle.

- [Emily] Freddy the Bald Eagle?

- Yeah.

- Freddy the Bald Eagle?

He's pretty cool, huh?

- And then the other one is Gary and then that one's Bobby.

- Bobby, Gary, and Freddy.

(instrumental music) - The Airis Creek Adventure is just outside of Ocean State, is a great opportunity for our family to explore the marshes.

So I didn't know a lot about the marshes here near Ocean City, and it's a ton of brackish water, so there's a lot of different creatures and animals that we got to learn about that live here.

And so for the kids, it was just a great education session, and mom and dad learned a lot too.

(instrumental music) - [Older Child] Mom, Parker wants a cake.

- So we had such a busy day of activities and we decided, you know, we're gonna keep it close to the cottage and just enjoy a good snack and dinner meal sitting all together.

And it was really nice.

So the sun started setting, it was getting later in the evening, but we just got to chill out, enjoy the warmth of the fire, and have some good food.

Bit my finger.

(Parker laughing) (instrumental music) (upbeat music) When we go on these family trips each one of us kind of says like one thing we wanna do.

Both kids were screaming beach the whole time.

So Nick and I had to come up with the rest of the things to do.

For Nick, it was jet skiing.

So he found Paradise Water Sports online and realized that we could do a guided tour on the jet skis and actually go somewhere for lunch.

So anything motorized that goes back is totally up Nick's alley.

- What's up guys?

My name's Logan.

Welcome to Ocean City, Maryland.

So we're here at Paradise Water Sports.

We're gonna get you guys on these jet skis, take you on a nice guided tour through Ocean City.

Rip around on the skis a little bit.

Finish our day off at Fish Tails, grab some lunch, get the kids on the pontoon boat, go tubing.

Just have a great day here.

- Awesome.

This sounds like a blast.

- Can't wait.

- Cool.

Let's get in the water.

- [Logan] Let's do it.

- Hey Parker, what are we about to go do?

- We are about to get to do is we're going to do jet ski.

- We're about to go jet ski!

Let's do it.

That's us, Parker.

I absolutely love getting on jet skis as much as I can.

I think for Emily, it was one of her first times ever out on a jet ski, and I don't think either of the kids had been on one before either.

(upbeat music continues) - Are you driving us, Parker?

- [Parker] Yeah.

- Woo!

(upbeat music continues) - Parker and I were out on one jet ski and she loved ripping donuts around in circles, going over and over and over.

She renamed the whole donut, the cinnamon roll, which just added to our whole experience ripping around on the jet skis.

- Parker and Nick were on fire the whole time.

Meanwhile, Tucker and I were a little more timid.

You know, Tucker has never been on a jet ski, and I didn't really wanna tell him that mom also has never really driven a jet ski.

Tucker, what do you think of our first time jet skiing?

- It's fun.

- Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Mommy's never driven one before, but don't tell the kids that.

Did you hear me?

- Uh huh.

(upbeat music continues) - Another really cool experience out on the jet skis was that we were able to pull straight up to Fish Tails and dock the jet skis to go have lunch at Fish Tails restaurant.

They had incredible food, again, a gorgeous view, and we had a playground right there for the kids to kind of play around while we were eating lunch.

Just made for a perfect lunch experience out with the jet skis.

- Mahi Rubin.

- Yes.

Booger, how's your booger?

- Parker, of course, just wants more adrenaline.

She's had a little taste of it and she just wants more.

So when they mentioned the word "tube", she was like, we're going tubing.

(upbeat music) - We had an absolute blast out on the water with Paradise Water sports ripping around on the jet skis.

Parker kept yelling the whole time that it was the best day ever.

What a fun little way to enjoy Ocean City.

(instrumental music) - On one of the chillier mornings, Nick decided that we were gonna go out and hit the beach, and he decided not only was he gonna go hit the beach, but he was gonna bring the sup out to try to surf some waves or just go for a little bit of a paddle, kind of underestimating the size of the swell.

- So I flew here to Ocean City with my sup board and thought I would take it out into the ocean to try to catch some waves.

(instrumental music) Though I kind of got tooled a lot trying to get out past the breakers, eventually I got out there and was able to kind of hang out, enjoy some of the ocean, paddle around a little bit, try to catch some waves, but I probably got tooled a lot more than I did surfing the waves.

Wow!

(waves crashing) - We were warm, nice and cozy out on the beach watching him, but we were all cheering for him when he was standing up.

(upbeat instrumental music) - Still made for an awesome afternoon.

Maybe need to wait for some better wave conditions next time.

(waves crashing) (birds chirping) (upbeat music) (instrumental music) One of our favorite things to do when we explore a new area is to get on the bikes and just go cruise and see what we can find.

And the Boardwalk is an ideal spot to take the bikes out and just cruise because it's this beautiful scenery between everything Ocean City has to offer with the shops and restaurants and stores and then the ocean views on the other side.

- The Boardwalk has a ton of things for the kids to check out.

Of course, ice cream was a must.

On top of that, there was sculptures in the sand, like dinosaur eggs and so forth.

So the kids' attention was definitely captured the whole time.

And it was nice to be able to zip between all these different attractions while visiting the Boardwalk.

- Jump!

(upbeat music) Ah!

Ah!

Ah.

- Woo, Parker, the wind!

(birds chirping) So the kids decided that we were gonna go to Nick's Putt Putt because sure enough, it's dad's putt putt place, and Nick's family actually grew up with a lot of golfing.

His dad was a big golfer, and so that was something they did a lot of.

And so it's really fun for Nick to do that with his kids as well 'cause he grew up spending a lot of time on the golf greens with his dad.

- [Nick] Tucker absolutely loved the idea that there was a Dino themed mini putt at Nick's Mini Putt.

So we went over, played a couple rounds, 18 hole mini putt.

Tucker gave us the walkthrough of what all the different dinosaurs were at each hole.

(upbeat music continues) - Two.

3, 4, 5, 6.

(Nick laughing) - Oh!

I think we eventually lost the scorecard.

I think we may be all won in our mini putt game, but it was a lot of fun just getting to take the kids out.

- For our kids to go out, play some putt putt, it's a great way to be out in the sun doing something active together.

And it's always wildly entertaining and a little bit competitive.

(upbeat music) - So we couldn't come to Ocean City and not visit Jolly Rogers on the pier with the iconic Ferris wheel overlooking the beach and ocean views.

We decided to bike over with the kids and take the whole experience in.

And really, it was as much fun as we could ever imagine.

Hey guys, let's go check it out.

- At Jolly Rogers, there's a ton of things to do for the whole family.

They've got the arcade style games, so Nick and I got to be a little competitive and try some of those.

And then on top of it, they have a ton of different rides.

Whether you're Parker's size, Tucker's size, or even for Nick and I, all of us were having a blast.

- Tucker was pretty nervous at first, wasn't sure about some of the fast spinning rides.

Parker again was super game right off the bat.

She wanted to do as many of the rides as possible.

But after a while, Tucker kind of built up his courage.

And by the end of it, we had done every single ride possible with Tucker, including The Hurricane, which was the fastest ride out there.

(upbeat music) (all yelling in excitement) We couldn't wrap up Jolly Rogers on the pier without the local favorite and classic Thrasher Fries.

It's been going on since 1929.

They're french fries with a lot of vinegar and salt.

And so we had our Thrasher Fries out on the pier, enjoying the views, overlooking the ocean.

(birds chirping) (upbeat music continues) - Overall, the day was a big win.

Everyone had fun in their own ways, whether it was playing the games, riding rides, playing at the beach, it was just a big day full of activity.

And sure enough, we ended up with way too many stuffed animals, so we're gonna have to figure out how to fly those things home.

(instrumental music) - [Nick] So we're off to the airport soon, heading back home.

But it has been an absolute blast, really just getting to experience all that Ocean City has.

- So to come here and have it be so easy, easy to get to, the lodging setup's easy.

The beach is super accessible.

The Boardwalk goes like the whole lang, so you can walk or bike.

I'm just really impressed with how family friendly this area is.

I mean, it's affordable.

The food's great, the environment's great, and it's fun for the whole family.

- It's gonna be a sad time having to say bye, but we'll be back for sure.

(instrumental music continues) Funding for Great Family Adventure is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 [Exciting music] In4Adventure.com inspiring, educating and encouraging outdoor adventure for 20 years, we've been fueling innovation on the water.

Our commitment is to improve the quality of life for people all around the world.

At ISLE We believe life on the water is a life better in balance and by these additional sponsors.