Wanna take a trip to Atlantic City?  Come on!

First, we'll head to Lindenwold to pick up the train.  It's only 5 dollars one way.  Not too bad for a 50 mile one hour trip.  Those train tracks lead back through Cherry Hill and across the Delaware River to Philadelphia.

We'll be riding NJ Transit with stops all along the way until we reach Atlantic City.  Good thing we brought some knitting.  (Elanor's May sock.  Yep, I'm sorta behind in her sock of the month gift).  Just a bit more and it'll be done.  Unfortunately, my handsome husband is sitting there and holding his hand is much more enjoyable than holding the knitting needles.  And yes, I say that with a straight face and in all honesty!

Here we are coming up to AC. One of the cool things is how the water starts to take over the land as you get closer.  And you can see the windmills that are outside of the city. We asked for a day with no rain and we got one.  Thank goodness for the occasional cloud cover or we would be baking in the heat and humidity.

The ride down is quiet and pleasant.  We are on the 2:23 train that gets us into the station at 3:30.

There's a waiting jitney (small bus-like vehicles that move all over the city) and we're off,  headed for the boardwalk.

I like boardwalks.  I like the fact that you can smell the salt/suntan lotion/hotdog/peanut/people conglomeration.  It's wonderful fun to look at what people decide is appropriate to wear out in public.  I'm sorry that they moved the Miss America pageant away from here.  It's cheesy atmosphere is perfect.

What shall we do first?  We can look at all of the shops that sell "sundries" and the same few t shirts and sun dresses.  We can go into Ocean One, the mall.  It has stores we don't see everywhere.  Oh no!  We have to leave because the fire alarm is going off.  Someone is probably smoking where they're not supposed to and has set off the alarm.  We don't get to see the dancing fountain but that's ok.

I know, let's go into a casino and give them some money.  They'll let us play with their slot machines for a few minutes but basically we could  just hand them  money right at the front door.  We are lucky in a lot of ways but gambling?  Not so much.

Ready for dinner?  I am and by now the outdoor restaurant we have chosen has some shade.  It's called Bungalo and is inviting looking isn't it?

It turns out to be more style than substance, unfortunately. The wait staff is all young and pretty to look at but they don't seem to pay much attention to us.    Peter Kevin is ordering a drink made with muddled cucumber and gin (very refreshing) and I am ordering a pina colada. I don't often order alcohol since it makes me sleepy but I thought I'd splurge a bit.  This was disappointing in that it had very little flavor.

Disappointing is the theme here.  Our meals are ok but not worth the exhorbitant prices they charge ( I order lobster ravioli and get 3, count'em 3 ravioli).  We'll eat and not linger too long.  The club music is good but a bit loud and we can't talk.

We have to stop at Steel's Fudge and get some fudge (and carmel corn) and by now our (ok, MY) feet are getting sore.  I have not worn good footwear for this (but I'm cute!) and my toe is developing a blister.

We can sit down by the Korean War Memorial and rest.  It's quiet here and the sound of running water is pleasant and restful (and it's odd to have a war memorial right here on the boardwalk).  We have about an hour before our train home and we can either walk the 10 blocks or so to the station or wait for the jitney. 

We just miss the jitney and a taxi fortuitously drives by and we splurge on a ride back to the train station.

The ticket agent is rather surly.  I guess he would rather not be working on a Friday night but I understand that.  We'll sit in the cool station and wait for them to call the train.  You'll know when it's time when people start massing at the door. 

Our ride home is less quiet as we are sitting behind 3 18 yr old young women.  They were noisy and loud and overly silly all the way home.  I don't mind giggling and laughing but these girls are hitting each other with train schedules and yelling.  It's all I can do not to tell them to act their age.  And of course, they are riding all the way to Philadelphia. (and someone really should tell them that wearing clothes that allow great rolls of pasty white (or whatever color) flesh to hang out between your shirt and pants is not attractive.) 

We ignore them and watch the sun go down as we head west.  You can see the storm front moving toward the shore.  We were lucky we missed it.  We pull into the train station at 9:15 and find our car right where we left it. We'll head home, shower off the sweaty afternoon and eat carmel corn while we watch the original version of The Andromeda Strain. 

What a nice day it was.  I'm glad y'all decided to come with us.  We'll have to do this again sometime.