jersey shore

I have a ton of pictures and stories to post from the wonderful week before Easter that I spent in South Carolina, but tonight I wanted to share thoughts on our trip yesterday to New Jersey. We went to Jackson, New Jersey for a baby shower for my dear friend Jeanine, who was a close friend from Clemson- and an even closer friend since we left there! She is a practicing pediatrician in New York City now, where she lives with her husband Alex. I attended their beautiful wedding in Bermuda almost three years ago now. She's expecting a little boy in June, and it was fun to get to celebrate his upcoming arrival with her and her friends and family!

friends from high school, Clemson, med school and NYC

me and the glowing mama-to-be

lots of great gifts!

Jeanine and her adorable niece and nephew

Richard was extremely kind and drove me the 3.5 hours to New Jersey so that we could spend some time together and see Atlantic City after the shower, since neither of us had ever been. I had heard that Atlantic City wasn't the classiest place in the world, so my expectations were low. But it was definitely worth seeing!

We had dinner at the Continental Diner in Caesar's on the Pier, and it was really good. It's a Stephen Starr restaurant, and the menu was fun- we had buffalo chicken meatballs, kobe beef sliders and a yummy feta and red pepper dip.

the scenery was more interesting than it appears here

The Pier had these sitting areas by the windows, which were cute. A way to put your feet in the sand and enjoy the view without being outside...

We walked on the Boardwalk and the beach, but it was really chilly. It's sad that we were wearing coats and long pants in late April!

self-portrait

As a lifelong Southern Baptist, I have serious reservations about gambling. I have never in my life bought a lottery ticket (though my brothers once won $500 on one!), and I have only once played blackjack while on vacation in Punta Cana. But Atlantic City is obviously known for its casinos, so we strolled around a few of them while there. I ended up losing a total of $3.00 on the slots...no beginner's luck here!

pulling my first handle at the Tropicana

We went in the Tropicana, the Trump Plaza, Caesar's and finally the Borgota, which is much nicer than the others, but we weren't too impressed with any of them. It's actually kind of depressing. There were lines of people waiting at the ATMs, bays of slots machines full of players, and lots of tight, short dresses. We counted no less than 10 bachelorette parties, and seeing them made me thankful for my "quiet" bachelorette gathering on Edisto. It just all felt kind of dirty, and we were ready to get back to DC. I'm glad we can check Atlantic City off of our places-to-see list though!

late night gelata