The heat is on! Yes we slept with the heat on last night in June, in Atlantic City. What’s that all about?
We had a great breakfast at the close to the marina restaurant GilChrist which is a family owned breakfast diner around since the ’40’s. Great prices, food and great service. Highly recommend it on a trip to AC. We wanted to head to the boardwalk for the day. It was overcast with thick clouds and cold. Bundled up in our 4 layers of clothes we head to the bus stop to wait for “The Jitney”, the local bus. It’s one of those shuttle buses that usher you around the airport. They don’t have a schedule but run every few minutes. Sometimes you’ll see 3 or 4 of them all bunched up at a stop because there is no real schedule. They just keep running the same route over and over again. There are a lot of them though so no worries because one will be around in a few minutes.
We are dropped off by the Tropicana on Atlantic Avenue. A little tidbit of information about Atlantic City. The game Monopoly named its streets after the streets here in Atlantic City. We saw just about all of them as they cross Atlantic Avenue. We walked the longest boardwalk we have ever seen for hours. I had the idea years ago to cover the boat fenders with cheap Tshirts. I forgot to buy Tshirts for this trip. So now I’m on the hunt for them because the Erie Canal is disgustingly dirty and grinds dirt into boat hull. The Tshirts work really well. Found 4 at the whopping price of $13.00.
We walked to the northern part of the boardwalk where the Taj Mahal, The Rebel and the Shoreline is. The Taj Mahal closed down last October. The Rebel never really was opened because it never took off, so to speak and The Shoreline is now strictly a hotel with no casino. The casino was The House of Cards. Apparently the Taj Mahal has been purchased. It is a magnificent building with its Arabian theme. It stands on at least 1 city block and towers over the ocean to at least 50 floors in the sky. The Rebel sits empty with its modern looking blue glass and industrial styling. It too is at least the same size. We also saw that the massive Hilton Hotel, down past the Tropicana is closed. It too is a massive structure that sits empty.
We had lunch at a little pizza joint, with amazing homemade ingredients, that was run by friendly Hispanics. We thought that was rather funny. Found out that us ordering lunch at noon was odd as they were mainly preparing for breakfast. We don’t fit the schedule of the casino goers, I guess. We made it to Caesar’s with its shopping mall built on a massive pier out to the ocean. You can sit in chairs and read for hours looking over the beach and its skyline. So peaceful, The day opened up with clouds but by the afternoon we were hot under the cloudless sky and had to peel back the layers of clothes. I wouldn’t say it became warm but the sun made an impression on Scott’s forehead. He’s seen a bit too much sun.
We tried to make it to the Imax in Tropicana but missed the start of the preview of Wonder Woman. Sorry we missed that one. Later in the day we stopped at a seaside, beach bar for a bevy. Most of the day was spent walking and taking in the amazing sights of the boardwalk. It’s the start of the tourist season here so it isn’t yet busy. Finding a Jitney bus stop was easy on Atlantic Ave with several buses available.
Its an easy night tonight as we have been preparing for a possible run on the shallow waters of New Jersey on the ICW. The winds are not cooperating for an outside run on the ocean. We’ll be up and out at high tide in the morning.
