The robotic pirate mannequin mocks museum visitors from behind thick glass, which is good because he looks like a dummy you wouldn't want to mess with.
"Aye there, you scurvy dog! What ye be lookin' at? Ain't ye never seen a pirate before?" says the voice-activated buccaneer featured in the Pirates Plunder, a new museum in Ocean City that's a couple of blocks from the seaside.
Filled with ocean-floor artifacts, pirate history exhibits and a theater for pirate movies, Pirates Plunder is designed to be a diversion from the town's tourist magnets, a place to go when you've had your fill of the rides, the miniature golf and the famed boardwalk.
Such places appear to be few and far between in Ocean City, but the family that seeks a break from a day at the beach will find some that are reasonably priced and kid-friendly, just off the sandy beaten path, and near other popular attractions and restaurants.
"When you come to the beach, and you've gone to the miniature golf and the boardwalk, there's not much [else]. We try to bring something here that shows what pirates were all about," said Scott Diehl, a Frederick resident and deep-sea diver who opened Pirates Plunder at 26th Street and Coastal Highway about a month ago.
The Ocean City Life-Saving Station Museum, at the southernmost tip of the boardwalk, is a destination that has been part of the landscape for decades. It offers a glimpse at how lives were saved at sea by the U.S. Life-Saving Service, which eventually became a part of the Coast Guard.
It also features relics from shipwrecks along the Delmarva Peninsula, an exhibit that has sand from all over the world and a bathing suit collection, which includes a garment dating back to 1910 that looks more like a dress than a bathing suit.
"It's one of our more popular exhibits," said Sandra Hurley, the museum's assistant curator.
Admission is $3 for adults and $1 for kids ages 6 to 12.
Then there's Northside Park, the area's largest park facility.
The 58-acre complex, which begins at 125th Street and the bay, is a hike from the boardwalk. Yet it is a lure for amateur sporting events (lighted softball, baseball and soccer fields) and also features a fishing lagoon, a footbridge, two playgrounds, two piers, walking paths and a picnic area.
