Atlantic City Summer 2021 Day 2

Thursday July 8
We See No Horseshoe Crabs
 
Per our planning, we woke up early to hit the beach.
 
Per “it’s us”, Rosa looked out the window, declared, “It looks icky out.”
And we all went back to sleep for two more blissfully comatose hours.
 
I think Atlantic City sleep is the one of the most relaxing sleeps I get because of the unfamiliar setting mixed with the lack of scheduled activities.
 
Since I’m not in my normal bed, I have frequent micro-wake-ups during the night. I konk out immediately again, but the constant infusions of “Ahh, I don’t have anything to do, and no specific time to get up” is massively restful.
 
The clouds parted as we arose (again), had breakfast and assembled our beach going paraphernalia.  One phernalia we did not have with us was the little chair I usually sit in, because of the predicable levels of chaos and disorder while leaving.
 
After double checking everything to be sure I didn’t have to go back into the hotel like every other time we journeyed to the beach, we arrived at the shore, and laid out our blanket. 
 
Then Rosa said, “Did you grab the cheap digital camera we always use at the beach?”
And back into the hotel I went.
 
Rosa soaked in the sun, and I hid under a makeshift towel tent reading an excellent Star Trek novel. 
Anabelle split the difference, laying in the sun a bit while finishing the Gerard Way Doom Patrol run.
 
Being the most sun drenched, Rosa was the only one of us to withstand splashing a bit in the frigid waves to cool off.  Anabelle waded with her a little.   Whatever bits of me popped out from under the towel developed a Food Network quality sear instantly, keeping me from entering the ocean. At that point the salt water would only serve as seasoning.
 
Rosa decided she’d prefer some peaceful tanning without having to listen to gringo flesh sizzling.  She stayed on the beach while I brought Anabelle back to wash and change in preparation for the only previously planned event of the trip. 
 
On her return, Rosa went the wrong way discovering the second “secret passage” to our room and increasing the coolness of the Tropicana in Anabelle’s eyes.
 
After Rosa joined us, we took our daily boardwalk stroll.  Lunch was at the Guy Fieri hole in the wall barbecue place at Bally’s Western casino.  There Anabelle met up with Maya, a fellow new Villanova student who lived in the area. 
 
We had a fantastic time talking to her, and her mother. They’re a Villanova family, both of Maya’s parents plus other members attended, and we learned a great deal.
 
In hindsight, the limited barbecue place may have been a poor choice. I believe Maya said she was vegetarian, leaving her with the macaroni and cheese side. There was nothing gluten free for Rosa (a new dietary adventure in our family) except a bag of chips, and they got rid of the buffalo grilled chicken I really liked there.
 
Once we parted ways, the three of us used this day for our long Boardwalk stroll before the weekend crowds started to come in.
 
But first, we had to stop at the depressingly more and more empty pier like mall.
 

There was a sign at the entrance for B Iconic, the store Anabelle gets her crazy big rings in.  The sign stated, “We’re open! They’re not!!!!” detailing how to find it as one of the last operational stores in the place.  Anabelle found a Pearl and Flower ring (of course) and we hit ItSugar for some candy on the way out (also of course).
 
My already laughable finger dexterity took a nosedive when donning the “fits all” plastic gloves needed to harvest my fat free candies, some dark chocolate, and Grandma’s souvenir popcorn flavored jellybeans.
 
Anabelle picked up a “Queen Frostine” Funko Pop, her favorite Candy Land character. Sadly, she did not pick up a Mr. Mint.  She didn’t care, but I was sad because  (for reasons no one in the universe including herself knows) when she was little Anabelle always called Mr. Mint, “Mister Tikipants!”
 

At the checkout counter, I grabbed a pack of candy cigarettes, as I hadn’t seen them anywhere in decades.  In another “sadly” they no longer dye the tips orange to make them look lit.  This was extra “sadly” because I had one of the peppermint-flavored pieces of chalk in my mouth when we were home, Anabelle thought it was a breadstick, snapped off the end and ate it.
Then she drank nearly an entire gallon of milk to get rid of the “foulness.”
 
I guess it was far too long since we did a summer trip to Atlantic City. I forgot that buying dark chocolate in the heat means you have to eat it all immediately while walking to avoid a huge mess. There are worse punishments.
 
Resuming our “whole Boardwalk” adventure, we saw Among Us merchandise everywhere. I feel like the stores may have stocked up on that stuff at the height of its popularity, and then were stuck with it as things opened up.  Then again, I am never going to be an expert on popularity or timing.
 
Anabelle was crushed that her Polish Water Ice place was closed, destroying the opportunity to increase her tiny spoon collection. They were setting up for yet another frozen daiquiri and pina colada stand in its location.   Anabelle sighed stating, “I bet they won’t be giving out free samples anymore.” 

We enjoyed the sunny day all the way down to the Hard Rock resort and back. Afterwards, we returned to the room to enjoy our earned rest for a while.
 
Having learned a lesson from the Philly trip, we remembered to bring both the Roku stick AND it’s remote control.
 
What we did not remember was that Tropicana Televisions only have accessible RCA inputs, not HDMI.
 

Therefore, Anabelle did a complex “Queen Frostine” photoshoot on the windowsill before we watched the penultimate episode of Loki on Rosa’s IPad.
 
Anabelle watched a little bit of Netflix while Rosa channel surfed and I read some comic books.  More importantly, we did a menu search for gluten free items to prepare better for other meals.
 
I really should make a Grid for everywhere we go.
 
Rosa’s surfing, while mostly her standard fix it up shows, also focused on Tropical Storm Elsa heading up the coast right at us.  This happens far too often when we go to Atlantic City.
 
They woke me up. 

(Napping with a Comic Book on my face is one of my key Atlantic City activities.) 

This was in order that we could get ready for a late Cuba Libre dinner.

 

It was, as always, SOOOOOO GOOOD!
 
Or as they say in Cuba-
SOOOOOO GOOOD!
(Everyone spoke English there in Godfather II right?)
 
As often happens with the three of us, everyone got sides and appetizers except me.
 
Rosa used the double helping of hummus with the vegetable chips and an order of rice to make her gluten free extravaganza.
 
Anabelle had an excellent seafood soup called Levanta Muerto- “Raise the Dead” Soup with a side of yuccas.
 
I had the long-lost fish from our first visit in a broth, which turned out to be the same soup Anabelle ordered but a bigger bowl with the fillet and some habanero in it.  Perhaps “Pez Cobia” means, “Raise the Dead and Set them on Fire.”
 
I had a fantastic mixed rum drink.  Now that the confusion over which of the three in the dark rum flight I used to get:
1) Was the one I like best.
2) Was Kraken rum.
And
3) 1 and 2 were not different as originally stated. 
 
I’ve been keeping a stash of Kraken at home and there was no need to get the rest of the flight.  But you still gotta have some rum there on vacation, so…
 
Finally, there was a moment inside when we were fully dressed. We took the opportunity to past the North Tower gambling tables to get new Caesar’s cards, now that Caesars bought everything on our side of the boardwalk.
 
Since she’s not old enough to be allowed in that area normally (and let’s face it, it’s not as if we have to go collect major winnings ever) Anabelle was stunned that the Cages, like in the movies, were real.
 
Rosa had issues with her card, and went back to get it fixed. 
Spoilers- it wasn’t.
 
While Rosa dealt with her card issues Anabelle decided we two should have one of our Ad-ven-tuuuuuures! *jazz hands*
We went back to the room together to grab the car keys (using the secret passage of course), and then used them to retrieve my sunglasses from the car.  My newly lasered eyes really needed them in direct sunlight now.  The entertainment of the evening was provided by a gathering of generic “beer boys” lounging around outside the elevator to the West Tower. 
 
On the way back to the room, we stopped in “Time For Wine” to pick out my weird vacation beer. I was way too full to have it then, but I didn’t know if the guy I always talked to about movies and comics worked weekends since we hardly ever stayed into those.  He was there, we chatted about current events, how things weren’t as “normal” as folks liked to think, and why he was happy his boss decided not to remove the Plexiglas. 
 
Anabelle commented on the rather odd fact that somehow at seventeen and as a non-drinker, she’d made friends with a guy who works in an Atlantic City wine shop.
 
Passing the elevators, the “beer boys” saw Anabelle and one excitedly said, “Hey, is that the same girl?”
 

And that’s when I killed them your honor.
 
HA HA, just kidding…
 
Mostly.
 
Rosa eventually met us back in the room, complete with two non-working cards.
 
The room safe gave us a “low battery” warning, which was concerning considering we locked minor items like car keys and wallets in it when we went out.  The maintenance guy came quickly and naturally, there was no such warning.  Fortunately, he was well experienced with folks that have our kind of luck and tried again until it displayed. He replaced the battery and the safe was safe again!
 
We played a several hands of Doctor Who Uno before and after he came, where Anabelle stomped on me as per usual.
 
There was a great deal of excitement planning to revisit an old favorite. We learned P. F. Chang’s had a massive gluten free menu, and planned a return to a place we hadn’t been since our earliest Tropicana stays.
 
I read Anabelle the posts about our family Fly film fun, (buzz buzz) and we all turned in for the night with two pauses in our otherwise highly restful evening.
 
The first was at around three o’clock in the morning when Elsa hit the coast and our phones screamed out a tornado warning. We all jumped out of bed and ran to the window…

(in hindsight this was probably a poor choice.

And not only because the window was completely fogged over like it is whenever it rains there, meaning we saw nothing and went back to bed.)
 
A short while later, I believed I was still awake,
However, my wife and daughter throwing pillows at me accompanied by shouts of, “You’re snoring!” convinced me otherwise.
 
Eventually we all settled in for what remained of the evening.

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