Ocean

Linda Di Lembo of Puyaalup, wash., was in Ocean City as a kid when "the ocean froze .. I remember actually walking on the ocean. ... My friends just don't believe me." I do. It was mid-February 1979, the second-coldest on record. Mayor Harry Kelley Jr. told The Sun that the ice slabs "froze the surf. ... I actually saw people walking on the ocean." Sea ice wrecked a pier and piled 15 feet high on the beach

Laurie E. Williams, a homemaker and former Ocean City resident, died of liver and kidney failure May 21 at a hospice in Sacramento, Calif. She was 52. The former Laurie Elizabeth Yuhn was born in Baltimore and raised on Kent Island and in Cockeysville. She was a 1972 graduate of Dulaney High School. Mrs. Williams lived for many years in Ocean City, where she worked part time delivering The Sun. She moved to Sacramento in 2005. She was a talented musician, artist and poet who signed her works "Breeny," family members said.

Ocean's Thirteen hit movie screens last week. Ocean's Twelve was met with lukewarm reviews. Besides the all-star cast, what makes this third Ocean's intriguing? WHAT YOU SAY The music from the Ocean's trilogy is most intriguing to me. Have you ever listened to the soundtracks? They are phenomenal. The music is what makes the movies compelling and memorable. Kudos to the composers, producers, etc.! Beth Clark, Port Matilda, Pa. THE NEXT QUESTION Nancy Drew, the 1930s teenage sleuth, has become a media franchise with books, a television show (during the 1990s)

WHAT'S NEW Beach shuttle service Crossing Ocean Highway with kids and coolers in tow just got a little easier in Ocean City. Beachgoers can now turn to e-cruzers, an east-west shuttle service that will ferry vacationers from the bayside to the beach and back. The open-air vehicles have professional drivers, can carry six passengers plus gear and are powered by rechargeable batteries. "We're not adding to traffic congestion or pollution; we're reducing it by giving people a safe and convenient way to get to the beach," says Russell G. Rankin, founder and president of e-cruzers, who ran a test trial of the shuttle last summer.

Another Senior Week at Ocean City has passed, where tens of thousands of high school graduates vacation in the deluxe comfort of seasonal rental units, partake in only the finest of nonalcoholic carbonated drinks and adhere to all traffic laws. Seriously, did your child come home from Senior Week with a purple mohawk? Shaved head? Tattoo? Piercing? Did the public buses unwittingly become clothing-optional? Did your family car come back with new markings usually associated with hitting a pole?

What it's about: Kevin Costner plays Mr. Brooks, the successful owner of a chic Portland, Ore., box company, with a comely wife (Marg Helgenberger), a smart, pretty daughter (Danielle Panabaker) and a compulsion to kill. Rated: R The Scoop: Mr. Brooks has a walking, talking id named Marshall (William Hurt), but it's hard to dramatize a split personality when you start with zero personality. Grade: C The Valet What it's about: Daniel Auteuil plays a married captain of industry who thinks the only way he can hang on to his business position and his supermodel mistress is to have her pose as the live-in lover of a fellow who parks cars at a restaurant.

Worcester County : Assateaugue Body in surf could be Morgan student The body of a young man recovered in the surf off Assateague Island National Park might be that of Lij-Paul Headley, a 19-year-old Morgan State University student who apparently drowned in Ocean City on June 17, police said yesterday. Pfc. Barry Neeb, an Ocean City police spokesman, said his department was notified by U.S. park rangers that the body had been recovered about five miles south of the ranger station. It was that of a young black man, Neeb said.

MY FAVORITE PLACEDiscovering the CanariesWhenever my wife, Betty, and I visit our daughter and her family in London, we make a point of looking over British travel catalogs. We have always been puzzled by the overwhelming coverage devoted to the Canary Islands. What gives? Here is a place it seems Americans never visit.When a little study revealed that the Canary Islands are Europe's favorite resort, with more than 6 million visitors a year and hundreds of hotels, we decided that on our next trip to London we would take a side trip to the Canaries.

John W. Rodgers, 83, salesman for 40 yearsJohn W. Rodgers, a retired salesman, died Monday of cancer at Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. He was 83 and lived in Ocean City.Mr. Rodgers spent 40 years as a salesman, first with the J. H. Filbert margarine firm in Southwest Baltimore and then with Smith Motor Co. in White Marsh. He retired in 1975 and moved to Ocean City in 1983.Born in South Baltimore, he graduated from St. Mary's Star of the Sea parochial school. He was active in Catholic fraternal orders, including the Knights of Columbus.

Scientists at Brown University said yesterday that they had found tantalizing evidence that the northern lowlands of Mars once bore a wide ocean that, until it dried up, had waves, hidden depths and long beaches.The findings, reported in today's issue of the journal Science, were hailed for making the best case yet for the existence of a sea on primordial Mars. Although the findings bore no direct evidence of alien life on the planet, the large amounts of water would indicate that life might once have thrived.

Message in a bottle? That's just trash One day you are at the beach enjoying your hard-earned vacation. It's a wonderful, sunny day. The sand looks great after being groomed last night. The waves are coming in nice sets. The dolphins are playing offshore. You decide to go ride your boogie board in the surf. Just then, out of nowhere, comes a glass bottle and slams you in the head. Or perhaps, as you are walking out in the surf to get to those perfect waves, you step on a large piece of glass from a bottle that has just smashed against the rock jetty.

What happened to summer? It seems to have disappeared faster than a tub of Thrasher's fries. Luckily, the weather is still summer-appropriate even though the kids are returning to school and yellow leaves are beginning to sprinkle the sidewalk. For now, we're giving fall the strong arm while we reminisce about our vacation by the shore. Over the past few months, we've been taking a dip in the ocean scene and finding the best of the beach. Our Baltimore Sun bloggers have been checking out the coast from Rehoboth Beach, Del., to Ocean City and beyond.

There's no reason to leave your environmental ethic behind when you go to the beach. There are simple ways to take care of the sand and surf that don't require a lot of work. If you need some help thinking about what you can do before you go, while you're there and when you're heading out, here are some suggestions: Find eco-friendly accommodations. : Green hotels and B&Bs will do things such as recycle, collect rainwater, use low-flow toilets and alternative energy and use recycled materials in their decorations and uniforms.

When Brian Frueh and his wife, Lynda, traveled to Ocean City this summer for a week of vacation they brought their taste for craft beer with them. And so on a recent Friday afternoon the couple was lunching at Island Oasis, a small restaurant on Route 611 just west of Ocean City. Choosing from 12 beers on tap, Frueh sampled a Pale Ale from Evolution, a new craft brewery in Delmar, Del., just north of Salisbury. After lunch he enjoyed a glass of Peg Leg Stout, made in Baltimore by Clipper City Brewing.

Annapolis native Andy Dehart has always had a thing for sharks, in a good way. That makes him a perfect match with the Discovery Channel, which celebrates its 22nd annual Shark Week this week with seven days of afternoon and prime-time programming dedicated to everyone's favorite ocean predator. As Discovery's official "shark expert," the Severn School graduate has been spending a lot of time lately talking up the big fish. We caught up with Dehart, whose day job is director of biological programs for the National Aquarium in Washington, as he was headed for a TV appearance in New York.

Authorities continue to search for the body of a 13-year-old Maryland boy who disappeared in the ocean Thursday at a Garden City, S.C., beach. Sgt. Robert Kegler of the Horry County Police Department said the state Natural Resources Department used aircraft over the weekend to search the ocean. The Georgetown Sheriff's Office sent a boat to assist with the search as well. "We will have 24-hour coverage of the general area where he went missing until recovery is made," Kegler said. Horry County Police have not identified the boy nor his hometown, but South Carolina television stations have reported his name is Lonnie Hill.

Search-and-recovery efforts for a 13-year-old Maryland boy who disappeared while in the ocean at Garden City, S.C., resumed Friday morning, according to police. The teen had been in the Atlantic Ocean with friends early Thursday afternoon when he disappeared, according to Sgt. Robert Kegler of the Horry County Police Department. Kegler did not identify the boy. But a South Carolina TV station reported that friends had identified him as Lonnie Hill, and that he played for a Greater Glen Burnie Junior Sports League team.

Veterans of Woodstock '69 will look back fondly on that rock concert of rock concerts on its upcoming 40th anniversary. Those who attended (and others who claim they did) will make a pilgrimage to the Bethel, N.Y., site to wax nostalgic over what became a defining moment for early wave baby-boomers. I didn't attend Woodstock, now sorry to say - but I did, along with millions around the globe, follow that other great 40th year past event: Apollo 11. Those of a certain age carry their own special where-we-were, what-we-were-doing stories vis-?

GEORGE SHOR, 86, Early researcher of plate tectonics George G. Shor Jr., the geophysicist whose studies of the ocean floor helped lay the foundation for the theory of tectonic plates and continental drift, died July 3 at his home in San Diego of complications following a series of strokes. He helped develop the nation's fleet of ocean-going research vessels, was a principal in the abortive Project Mohole to drill a hole deep into the Earth, and played a key role in creating the California Sea Grant program, which funds marine and coastal research.

Popular mapping programs project that the trip from the Baltimore area to Ocean City should take about three hours, but with a little effort and planning you can easily meander there in nine. While for many the trip to Maryland's ocean resort is a race along U.S. 50 to squeeze in every last hour on the sand, less-hurried travelers can find a multitude of fascinating, scenic and sometimes downright delicious distractions on the Eastern Shore. By getting a start in the morning, you can reach the beach before the sun goes down and still take in such attractions as bargain shopping at Prime Outlets, an old-time grist mill at Wye Mills, wildlife encounters at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, a down-home lunch at a small-town roadhouse, a gem of a folk art museum in Salisbury and a farmers' market and some power shopping in Berlin.