Atlantic City, Sea Isle City

Day 2 – July 20^th

After the long drive, my wife let me sleep in for my birthday.

We took our time getting ready. Ate breakfast and lunch and got the trailer organised. Then we took a drive to find our new campsite. We stopped by the office to finalize our registration. Then we headed off to Atlantic City.

Atlantic City was everything I expected it to be. Signs everywhere, expensive cars, outlets. But one thing I didn’t expect was all the poor areas. I found a parking lot right near the boardwalk and the attendant looked at the GPS and said “Make sure you take that thing out da winda.”  This made Guylaine and I very uneasy.

First stop, Ripley's Believe it or Not right on the boardwalk. This Ripley’s was a little different from the one in PEI. A few things are the same, but most of it is different. We were in there for about an hour and a half.

When we finished, we walked the boardwalk before hitting the beach. We visited some of the shops (all the kids wanted hermit crabs) but we felt really uneasy on the boardwalk. I had the backpack with the camera gear, and Guylaine and I both felt like we were being watched. Lot of rough looking characters. We checked out the beach. It was packed and wasn’t as nice as we expected, so we decided to skip it. We made one more stop at James' Salt Water Taffy shop. They sell a huge amount of candy af all kinds. Now I know what they mean when they say “Like a kid in a candy shop. The kids went nuts they wanted everything. Not me. I had all kids of self control. (Thanks Guylaine).

We left Atlantic City and decided to check out the beach close to the campsite in Sea Isle City. This a beautiful, quiet little tourist town of about 1500 people. It looks like most of the homes are summer rentals. There are ice cream and seafood shops everywhere. We drove for a bit and found a parking spot close to the beach. The beach here is beautiful. Very soft sand and good size waves. We hung around for a bit and the kids really had to go to the bathroom, so we headed back to the trailer.

I had the nearest Walmart programmed into the GPS, so we went there. We were rushing because I thought it closed at 9:00. Turns out it’s open until 12:00 – and it’s not a super centre, so no beer, no groceries. We stopped at an ATM to get some cash for the campsite. They don’t take debit. Then we gassed up the truck. I asked a guy there where I could get some beer (it is my birthday after all). It was getting late so we decided to eat out. I programmed the GPS for McD’s and it brought us to North Wildwood. VERY busy at night. We saw a Pizza Hut beside the McD’s and just decided to go there instead. We got back to the campsite about 11:00. The kids watched a movie, Guylaine and I had a few beer before the storm started. We had seen lightning all night and the storm finally hit. And it hit hard. The thunder was so loud Guylaine screamed a few times. It rained hard. We went to bed shortly after midnight listening to the rain.