Atlantic City Day 2 January 4 2026

A Tiny Beach Experience

 

Per the whole point of this, and any, trip to Atlantic City, we all slept late. Once we finally reached the land of the living, we set things up for the day. Anabelle stayed behind to read for a while. (That’s my girl.)
 
Rosa and I went down to the beach. Rosa needs to see the ocean every so often. I had a vital role to fulfill in this situation.
 
At first, we accidentally got on an elevator going up, because we both forgot to push the button when we got there. It is possible to relax too much.
 

Rosa enjoyed the beach because she is genetically disposed to, and also because I fulfilled my vital role. This role was to say, “Stop worrying about finding Gluten Free restaurants while you’re here and focus on the ocean.”
 
We spent a while with the gulls and pipers soaking in the peacefulness. When we finished, we reached out to Anabelle to meet for lunch at the Crepe place that was closed the night before.
 
Rosa grabbed a taco bowl from the giant “to go” Counter Service place downstairs that connected to Casa Taco and most of the other restaurants on that level. Anabelle and I met up in the Crepe place where I had an existential crisis.
 
Anabelle immediately ordered the Açaí bowl she wanted there.
I tried to make a choice that would somehow align with my cardiac diet. For the first two selections, an ingredient was unavailable. CrazyHungryLand does not only happen in Disney.
 
Finally, I decided if I was cashing in a “Leave Me Alone, I’m On Vacation,” I’d have something I enjoyed. Therefore, I ignored the crepes the place was named for and had a fruit covered Belgian waffle.

Fed and mentally restabilized, we stopped at the same Counter Service Rosa got her lunch from for her own, “Leave Me Alone, I’m On Vacation,” and she got the roasted and coated nuts that are her favorite AC snack.
 
Another superhero conversation dominated this day’s stroll on the Boardwalk. Now that Anabelle could wander casinos unfettered, we could easily poke around the memorabilia down at the other end at the Hard Rock Café. They had THE PANTS from Motley Crue’s “The Pants Album.”
Or whatever it’s really called.

 
Down past the Showboat, way at the end, we tried to figure out what the Ocean hotel was. At first, we thought it was business based because of the display cars parked around it. Looking at the hotel and website, it seemed more beach based. Maybe it shunts to business for the winter?
 
Ooh look, a light house!
 
On the way back, while we discussed past Atlantic City adventures, the wind kicked up to unpleasant levels.
 

We ducked into Resorts, the hotel we stayed in when Anabelle was wee, to avoid the blusteriness. Hey, Breadsticks was still there. I wonder if that will be important later? He said, tossing in some foreshadowing.
 
Having Anabelle be allowed to walk anywhere on the rug now made navigation much easier. It also meant I would not be unceremoniously tossed out of a casino against my will again.
 
Resorts had Rosa’s fish machine… we thought. (You got a lot of foreshadowing in this hotel… a shame if something were to happen to it.)
 
Back out in the wind, a woman sat on a bench feeding squirrels while yelling Happy New Year to all passers. Local color adds a lot to our trips.
 
Swarms of those push cart “chauffeurs” were at every entrance begging for a hire in the frozen, lean, and windy times. The only thing that tempted us was avoiding the massive seagull swarm that dove down at us.
 
I admit it was far colder than it was supposed to be even for January. Thanx to Anabelle’s new ability to traverse casino rugs, we could take the inside connected route through Bally’s, their Cowboy Casino and Caesar's.
 
There was more nostalgia for us passing the entrance to Johnny Rockets, where wee Anabelle loved to eat and watch the dancing waiters. There was only one guy eating in there and Anabelle realized the waiters would probably still have to dance on schedule. The empathic embarrassment mortified her.
 

While reduced from the days of animatronics, the Cowboy place still had some fun sights. Based on the piped in music, Anabelle did a Hip Hop demo as we entered Caesar's. Nothing unusual here.
 
Unlike our hotel, the little store in Caesars had a lottery ticket machine. It was sold out of the $1 ones, so we thought. (More casino foreshadowing.) Therefore, Anabelle and I cashed in our New Year’s Eve ticket winnings on a couple of $2 tickets.
Anabelle won $10, the largest take in years of our Atlantic City trips. I won $2 and grabbed another ticket. Another winning thing- songs Anabelle liked were played all over the place, indoors and out, leading to more dancing demonstrations.
 
We crossed over to the desolate and abandoned Pier Mall, and Rosa inquired if we could get some Swedish Fish. This is not an offer I would ever refuse. She also wanted some chocolate covered nuts. I probably should have mentioned the dark chocolate covered malt balls I always throw in to avoid the near gluten emergency as we left.
 
We bought the usual Grandma souvenir of popcorn flavored jelly beans from ItSugar as well. While paying, I made an impulse buy of candy cigarettes. The vast scope of this impulse is illustrated by the fact that I didn’t realize I bought bubble gum cigarettes until we were back out on the blustery boardwalk.
 
The wrapper of the first “smoke” blew away immediately… shortly followed by the second “smoke” blowing away even quicker.
 
Back at the Tropicana, Anabelle decided to try her hand at a slot machine for the first time. She picked a Double Diamond Penny machine, which, interestingly, is a combination of the types of machines Rosa and I like on the rare occasions we play slots.
 
Anabelle put in a dollar, spun the wheels a bit, and took out a $2.20 voucher. She proclaimed, “This is the stupidest thing I have ever done.” (That’s my girl!)
Following up with, “Imagine being addicted to this.”
The machine didn’t give out change, meaning she ended up a dollar ahead with a voucher for 20 cents.
 
We wandered around upstairs and down in the Quarter and peaked into the “Time for Wine” store. My friend from past visits seems to have moved on to better things. I was glad I had the two vacation beers the day before as they had no interesting weird ones in the cooler.
 
Heading back to the room, we noticed the Christmas tree light and music show had stopped and figured it only ran on the weekends. 
 
Back in our room at four o’clock…it still wasn’t made up. This continued throughout the week, no matter that we did not hang the “go away” sign. Luckily, one of the housekeepers was still in our hall and I was able to ransack her cart… with her help! Woo!
 
Hey, I won five dollars on the same type of scratch off as Anabelle! This was our biggest Atlantic City winnings in quite a long time. We celebrated our gambling prowess by resting together for a bit.
 
A rogue biscotti bag tore off one of Anabelle’s nails, sending me down to the little store to get a pack of Crazy Glue. Oh, excuse me “Future Glue.” Cyanoacrylates have been around for decades; can we stop giving them stupid names?
 
All repaired, it was time to dress up for “Fancy Night” at Cuba Libre. As always, the women in my family put my definition of “Fancy” to shame.
 

Given the location, and the bottle of Kraken Rum I always have at home, instead of the rum flight, I went with a Rum Punch. It was the right way to went. 
 
Y’know, for a guy who doesn’t usually like Mango or Butter, I’m a huge fan of the Mango Butter this place puts on the table.
 
Hey- “Respiro” by Sebastian Yatra. I know that one!
 
Rosa went with the only thing always gluten safe in Atlantic City once more, rice and beans. She enhanced her return to this dish with fried plantains and the awesome and unusual plantain and turnip chips with three dips. (Don’t knock 'em till you’ve tried them folks!)
 
Anabelle and I split an oversized paella. She allowed me to take some of the larger pieces because she had some of Cuba Libre’s amazing Yucca Fries to go with it.
 
Because we paced ourselves, a rare family dessert was enjoyed. The other rarity for this city was a Gluten Free mocha selection Rosa was able to enjoy.
 
Anabelle termed her tres leches, “a sensual experience.”
 
For my “dessert,” I went with the Empeñadas Del Mar. True, the shrimp and other sea creature stuffed and fried bundles of tastiness were not technically on the dessert menu. However, they were the correct decision. I may have ordered them as Empeñadas Del Mas… but since I did want to eat "mas," I feel they counted.
 
The waiter gave me a very Star Trek answer when I asked about the sauce accompanying them.
“It’s green.”

 
The evening’s music continued to be fun. Mixed in with multiple versions of “Feliz Navidad” were Spanish versions of “Satisfaction” and “Winder Wonderland.”
“Don desta la nieve Navidad!”
 
Rosa and Anabelle danced along in their chairs to “Despacito” before we finished up.
 
As we passed through the Quarter this is as good a place as any to mention the weird eye art place. Iris Galerie (for that was the name) would do a high definition scan of someone’s iris and pupil, and then. for various levels of exorbitant funding. make paintings, jewelry or other art out of it. I guess they figured the “more money than sense” crowd were likely to show up at a casino.

 
There was a bit more gambling. I played a while on one of the Poker machines I used to enjoy. It did not peak Anabelle’s interest in the least.
 
She did try a Wonder Woman machine… because Wonder Woman.
Very quickly proclaiming, “This is so stupid.”
That’s my girl!
 
Back at the room, we made plans to hunt down Rosa’s fish machine the following day. We checked out the Breadsticks menu for nostalgia reasons. Compared to the minimal selection down that end of the Boardwalk, it didn’t look half bad.
 

Following our shower parade to wash the casino smoke off of us, that came from even our brief encounter, we shifted back to the “resting” theme of this trip. We all read a bit. Anabelle wanted to make an iced coffee and went out to the ice machine. She returned proclaiming.
“There’s a freak in the hallway.”
There was a guy just standing there, who pointed and said, “That’s my room.”
I’m sure it is, sir.
 
Requests for Disney Trivia quickly transitioned to the “I’m thinking of something in Disney World” Twenty Questions game. This even more quickly transitioned to Anabelle’s “Would you rather” Disney World questions, all of which, yet again, had some mention of Haggis.
 
While reviewing possible meals for the next day, noticing the Burger Bar in out hotel had a “Bean Burger” led to a return. When I first brought up the existence of the “Beans in My Ears” song, Anabelle quickly transitioned from disbelief to absolutely loathing it. I played it for a while before we all drifted off, because I am a horrible human being.
 
18,235 steps, 6.5 miles

Click to Continue

Click for Index