Monday, April 20, 2020

Atlantic City 2019 day 4

August 7th
At Wast!



During the night I was awakened by an uneasy feeling.

My daughter was standing next to the bed staring at me.

During the night she was awakened by a 7.5 on the Richter scale earthquake.

“Dad…you’re snoring again.”

I spent the rest of the night on my face, and we woke up early(ish) to request a delayed check out allowing time for a beach visit. 

The visit happened, but the weather pattern switch led to Wizard of Oz wind machine level blusteriness.

The little clamp on umbrella was dislocated immediately upon its raising, and I spent the day holding it in position.  It was more of a sand shield than a sun screen, and I played Captain America to protect Anabelle and me from having our features sandblasted off.  As long as she’s tanning, Rosa can ignore up to a Class Four hurricane.

I read behind the blockade, Anabelle actually joined her mother in tanning for a while (to the bare minimum of suggested time) before playing in the sand a little.

We splashed at the edge of the surf, but Rosa was the only one of us seasoned enough in moving water to go in to any depth.  With the sandblasting and extra seaweed, Anabelle decided to stay dry for the drive.

I saw my first jellyfish in the wild.
WOO! NATURE! 

It was about the size of a quarter and washed up on the beach briefly between waves. I thought it was a torn sandwich bag.
woo. nature.

And, apparently, it might have been a cluster of sea snail eggs.
But I'm still saying its a jellyfish.


We caught Joe and his rolling ice cream cooler one last time to bid farewell to our restful days as we left the beach. As usual for our trips, a pair of shoes (Rosa’s) and a hat (Anabelle’s) stayed behind in the trash as we left.

Rosa actually hung on a bit longer than we to grab some final rays while we went in to clean up and do a weather check. A weather check is our official family past time of the last day in Atlantic City. It’s like the ocean tries to chase us home.

We went back to ADAM Good Sports Bar for lunch, proving we should have gone there the night before. Anabelle’s quesadilla was as good as always making her happy, and they replaced the buffalo chicken cheesesteak that I had to heavily modify each time with similarly flavored, but more grilled and less topped sliders, making me happy. Rosa kept with tradition by grabbing the fries and sharing other bits of our plates making all of us happy.

We ended up in another comedy laced baseball discussion, until we discovered a different TV was tuned to the Insane Sports and Wipeouts Channel!  OWCHIE!

If anything, the wind had gotten worse by the time we went for out post lunch walk.  Opening doors was a major muscle and cardio work out, and I had to employ my juggler like reflexes regularly to snatch my hat out of the air behind me.

Anabelle stopped at the Polish Water Ice stand yet again, because she’s traditional.

She checked the rings in B- Iconic. After four years of debating the giant standing bird ring, she was ready to purchase it…and it was gone.

Luckily, she found an equally ridiculously large snail ring, and all was right with the world.  From the mall we crossed into Caesar’s Palace to say hi to it, and initiate taking several photos of ourselves we’d forgotten to throughout the trip that we continued doing on the way back. Sometimes the relaxedness gets to us.

We stopped for a final Gluten free cupcake. I debated, once more, and once more got nothing. I finally realized that cupcakes always look better to me than they end up tasting.

On the way back, the Polish Water Ice samples were not out.

THE HORROR!!

Luckily, for the sanity of the ride home, they were only being refilled. We pretended to look for roasted nuts in nearby stores while Anabelle stalked her prey.  She and I both got a spoon of mango for the first time.  My going at all came after her spoon, to hand it to her once we walked out of sight. Unlike other flavors, she may amazingly like a full sized one of mango on a return trip.

We did find a new place with the roasted nuts Rosa likes.  They used smaller servings for the same weight charge than the Tropicana does, meaning we will be returning to the old place next time. They did, however, have larger ice cream treats for less money than on the beach. We may need to reassess our loyalty to Ice Cream Joe.

In our final pass through the Tropicana, I got some taffy. What started as a tradition for us and multiple members of the family has faded away to only souvenirs for work. Slowly but surely, my entire family has come to the realization that the stuff tastes like fruit flavored silly putty.

Before reaching the garage, I picked up an apple juice for Anabelle as she trained for Disney. I also used the final day cookie coupon.

I finally realized that cookies taste even BETTER than they look to me.

Nom Nom Nom…mmmmm, yum! I eat it! 

Just about as soon as we left, fountains of rain came off the ocean to chase us out of town. Siri earned her keep very well by helping us onto the Turnpike to save us time getting around the combination obstacle course and canal zone the Parkway had become.  She also helped fantastically when I accidentally got off 78 where I wasn’t supposed to, likely due to excitement as we passed the airport when Anabelle pointed out, “We don't have to be here till next week!”

I kept saying we could stop and bring something home. That’s because crazy hungry damages the connection between my brain and vocal cords.  Yes, we did have some pizza in the freezer, but when I need to address an end of the vacation unhealthy craving, frankly I deserve it freshly made.  After unloading the car, I drove out again to Denville Pizza, insuring the proper celebratory ending to the trip.


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