Resort

OCEAN CITY -- From the boardwalk to the beaches stretching north toward Delaware, throngs of people converged here yesterday, unfolding lawn chairs, popping umbrellas and devouring french fries to kick off the traditional summer season.Some 300,000 people were expected to descend on the resort city this Memorial Day weekend, bringing smiles of relief to rain-weary hotel, restaurant and shop owners, who reported business has been slow during the past month."We've had a lot of rain, a lot of cold weather," said Bill Gibbs, owner of the Dough Roller restaurants.

Ski resorts offer summertime mountain magic for families looking for value-packed vacations.Why? Because keeping the condominiums and hotels booked and the restaurants full when wildflowers bloom and lift lines fade from memory makes good fiscal sense.What attracts families? Scenic views, rates that range from 20 percent to 45 percent below those in prime snow season and great services -- including health clubs, organized children's programs, mountain biking, golf and tennis clinics, water slides, nature hikes, hot air ballooning, horseback riding, river rafting and concerts under the stars.

OCEAN CITY - They didn't name hurricanes back then, but 70 years later, old-timers who remember and merchants who can only imagine it say the Great Storm of 1933 that lashed the Atlantic coast and roared up the Chesapeake Bay was the best thing that ever happened to Maryland's only beach resort. Described in the American Meteorological Society's August 1933 weather review as "one of the most severe storms that has ever visited the Middle Atlantic Coast," the slow-moving weather mass dumped 10 inches of rain a day for nearly a week, even before wind gusts as high as 80 mph and a 7-foot tide arrived.

WASHINGTON -- Russia's recent economic history has been a series of flirtations with disaster. It has repeatedly gone to the brink, requiring assistance from the International Monetary Fund.But if its economy requires large-scale help anytime soon, it is not clear where the assistance might come from.Pinned down in Asia, the IMF -- the world's lender of last resort -- says it is strapped for cash. The IMF estimates that it has only $10 billion to $15 billion easily available to fight another national meltdown.

OCEAN CITY - Mayor James N. Mathias Jr., for many Marylanders the face of this Atlantic resort, is up against stiff opposition this month in what some say could be a watershed municipal election. Challenger Vincent Gisriel Jr. is running as a slow-growth advocate who says the town has failed to rein in developers or hold the line on property taxes. "People are stirred up and ready to go to the polls," says Gisriel, 60, a state tax assessor who has been a lonely dissenter during much of his 14 years on the town council.

CITY ON THE SAND: Ocean City, Maryland, and the People Who Built It. By Mary Corddry. Illustrated by Ellen Corddry. Tidewater Publishers. 200 pages. $19.95.IF YOU like Ocean City, you will like its story. If you love Ocean City, you will probably love this book. Even if you don't like the present glitz of the "new" Ocean City, you should read it.Author Mary Corddry was The Sun's Eastern Shore correspondent for 17 years. In this book, which follows her "Museums and Monuments of the Eastern Shore," Corddry renders a fascinating history of the state's premier resort, the city that has entertained hundreds of thousands of Marylanders over the past century -- and appalled quite a few, as well.

MORRIS, CONN. / / Architect David Sellers feels certain there are folks out there willing to spend $1,950 to hunker down for a night in a cave. Not just any cave, of course. This is a custom-built retreat made from enormous boulders. Windows shaped like eyes offer views of a vast meadow. A huge stone fireplace -- so big it has a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk feel -- looms at the foot of the king-size bed. "People are going to see it," Sellers said, "and think, 'Oh my God, I've always wanted to get inside a giant rock pile.

OCEAN CITY - The old familiar image has it this way: mom, dad, grandma and three kids, all in a precarious clump of folding chairs, coolers, sand buckets, shovels, body boards and towels, waddle out into eight lanes of Coastal Highway that on busy beach days carry 60,000 cars. Mostly, they make it across just fine. This summer, reality in Maryland's tourist-clogged ocean resort has proved deadly. Shocked by four fatal accidents on the busy north-south artery this vacation season, Ocean City officials have begun an all-out effort to improve pedestrian safety.

Losses at Rocky Gap Lodge & Golf Resort, the sprawling state-owned retreat built to help revive Western Maryland's struggling economy, accelerated last year, pushing the four-year total to $18.9 million, according to a legislative report. Rocky Gap lost $5.5 million in its fiscal year that ended June 30, 2002, compared with a $3.5 million loss the previous year, a report by the Department of Legislative Services says. The document also reveals that Rocky Gap's liabilities outstripped its assets by $6.4 million at year-end, a sixfold increase from the prior year, while revenue fell 9.3 percent.

HAMPSTEAD -- Patrick and Susanne Flynn haven't owned Cascade Lake very long, but the couple has big plans for the 22-acre water resort in Hampstead.The Flynns, who purchased the property, at 3000 Snydersburg Road, in April, want to make the predominantly summer resort available in the off-season."