Add 100 more things to your Ocean City bucket list.
That’s what Mary Ann Bolen suggests in her newly released second book: “The Ocean City New Jersey Bucket List II: The Second Wave.”
After her family encouraged her to pen a local version of a “Bucket List” book they had seen in Key West, Bolen wrote and self-published her first book in 2012.
The books encourage readers to experience things unique to Ocean City.
“The reactions and responses I received from the first ‘Bucket List’ book in 2012 convinced me to do another,” Bolen said. “So many people thanked me for introducing them to different Ocean City adventures, and suggested a few of their own, so this book is a combination of everyone’s, young and old, favorite summertime adventures in America’s Greatest Family Resort.”
Bolen, 67, is a retired teacher whose career included jobs at St. Augustine in Ocean City and Cape Trinity Catholic in North Wildwood. She has lived full-time in a 108-year-old home on Park Place for 18 years, and she summered there for another 10 years. Her parents first bought an Ocean City summer home in the 1960s, and she worked at Stainton’s, among other seasonal jobs.
Her lifetime as an Ocean City resident and visitor led her to realize that “there is so much more than the beach and boardwalk that awaits everyone at the end of our streets, yet so many visitors simply scratch its sandy surface.”
From playing golf — real golf — in Ocean City to watching the daily flag-raising ceremony at the OC Waterpark, Bolen’s book covers the full range of Ocean City summer excursions.
As her grandsons grow tall enough for all “the big kid rides,” she wanted to be sure her second book included plenty of options for the young, as well as the “young at heart.”
Although the book is again presented as a challenge for readers to check off all 100 adventures, the author urges them not to rush.
“Take your time with it. Summer goes too fast as it is, and no one ever wants an Ocean City summer to end,” said the author.
She and her husband, Bob, bought their first home in Ocean City more than 40 years ago, then taught their children to appreciate the simple, sandy joys of bare feet, front porches and outside showers.
The Ocean City Bucket List II sells for $13.95 and is available at Sun Rose Words and Music (756 Asbury Avenue), The Cricket Box (at Stainton’s Gallery of Shops), Stingray Gift Shop (854 Asbury Avenue, Shriver’s (9th Street and Boardwalk) and other retailers in town displaying the “Bucket List” banner. It is also available on Amazon.com.
For information about ordering signed copies, email maryann.bolen@gmail.com.
