On September 23rd, my husband Skip turned 60 years old. If you know Skip personally, this fact will almost certainly shock you. (smile) He comes from a family with very long lives and excellent aging patterns -- his father looked like he might have been 70 when he died at 91; his father's mother looked about 75 when she died at 97 (and they both had 'young' health until their moments of death).
Skip has not been away from home on a vacation since we bought out my ex-partner (business) five years ago (he tends to get obsessive about watching over things and being available in case of need). He's also a home-body who does not enjoy traveling.
My Mom gave us a week's vacation as a gift to celebrate Skip's birthday (she owns several weeks of vacation time with RCI). I decided that we should go to the beach and I wanted somewhere within an easy drive (5 hours or less). What we found was a week in a small residence hotel in Atlantic City, about half a block from the boardwalk, right in the middle of town (Park Lane, 117 Martin Luther Kind Blvd).
My son Hugh's birthday is September 24 (he turned 22 this year), so he is always part of the celebration. (grin) I guess, since we traveled this year, we can include Frodo's birthday on September 22nd -- though I have no idea how old he is now. Putatively at least 70 or 80, I guess, if Tolkein dreamed him up in the 20's or 30's? (Is there an expert on Middle Earth in the house?)
We decided to take the scenic route to AC and drove along route 40 through southern New Jersey -- very rural (with patches of recent rapid bulid-up) for the most part and quite pretty. We drove up on Friday, Sept 22 (thus, journeying on Frodo's big day and commemorating his extensive journey, yes?).
The hotel was very nice, a little long in the tooth in places, but peaceful and very clean and had nice staff. The boardwalk was excellent entertainment for us (all veteran people watchers). The weather was gloriouis! We ate and walked and slept and read and played (not gambling -- we all respect the house odds too much to get entertainment out of throwing away money:) ... and then did it some more. What a lark! I took a bunch of photos of architectural details -- am thinking quilts here (I love looking at buildings and the loving details that the makers add to them).
Here are a few of the highlights:
This is the convention center, from the boardwalk side. I was actually here once, several years ago, for Spring Quilt Market (but I did not know then that there was a boardwalk side or I would have explored it). Here are more details:
This is Absecon Lighthouse (ab-see-cahn), now decomissioned but once the protector of this string of barrier islands:
This is the current headquarters of the New Jersey gambling commission. Great details on this building:
We ate at the Rainforest Cafe one evening. If you ever have a chance, grab it! These photos are a little dark (it is really, really rude to flash a bright light in someone's eyes when they are trying to eat a good dinner in a nice, dark restaurant ... so I took these photos sans flash):
One thing we saw frequently along the boardwalk was street muscians -- sax players (like the one in this photo), drummers, guitarists, trumpeters ...
Another thing there were lots of were pedicabs (I rode in one when my back gave out one afternoon):
The last time I was in Atlantic City, I thought the _city_ part looked very slummy. This time, it looked like a working class town with real neighborhoods to me -- local churches, corner groceries, families everywhere. Even though this economy in this town obviously runs on the casinos, the people were clearly community oriented. Lots of kids, families, several generations together. Here is a family playing cards one pleasant afternoon in the memorial park near the convention center:
Right after I took this photo, a young Mom and kids came back from buying ice cream and the whole family wandered off down the boardwalk, teasing each other and chatting happily.
Here are two of the many casinos we strolled past on the boardwalk that I liked the looks of:
The Taj Mahal
The Wild, Wild West:
And, just so you know that we _were_ near the ocean, here is a shot of the beach one afternoon:
I love beaches and I like very much to walk along the edge of the water on sand ... but ... my preference is bare feet and NO cane. Walking on sand when I need to use my cane seemed ... foolish ... I hope that next time I am near the shore I won't need the cane and can stroll through the surf with pleasure.
One last detail:
