Greetings from Asbury Park

Well, we just came back from our trip to NJ and NYC and boy was it amazing.

Tonight I'll write about the first half of the trip before it blurs too much from all the fun of the second half.

We started by taking the red eye from Seattle to Newark. Whatever Conan O'Brien says about that town is probably true. So after touching down at 6:30 am with basically no sleep, we were off to our car and the Jersey shore.

The first 30 minutes were an adventure as we struggled with road signs, directions and turnpikes - but after several turnarounds and countless tolls we finally got headed the right way.

At about 9:30 we saw the sign for the promised land and new that things were looking up. We found the boardwalk and took a stroll with the early morning dog walkers and sanitation crews. Its definitely a place that is well past its prime, but it looks like it is on the upswing.

Since I'm writing and not dealing with photos at the moment - here is a flickr feed from someone else - its pretty much what we saw. It'll give you the basic idea - and it was a beautiful morning.

Anyway - the fat kid was getting hungry and was totally exhausted so we headed on to Atlantic City to find ourselves our room. We hit town about 11:00 am and prayed to the hotel gods that they'd let us into our room early. Well, I must have looked so ragged that they wanted to get me out of the lobby so within about five minutes of our arrival we were unloading our bags into one of the biggest most beautiful suites I've had the pleasure of paying for.

When I say that the bathroom was bigger than my kitchen and dining room - I'm not exaggerating - and it even had an extra room for TCB - so that was nice.

Anyway, we took a little nap and headed downstairs to find some grub. As often turns out to be the luck with me and Casinos I have a knack for missing the lunch seatings and get stuck surrounded by excellent restaurants that are all closed and am left eating chicken strips in the cafe. They're not bad and they fill you up, but they aren't good either.

Anyway, after another nap to help get back on track we decided to get some snacks and a glass of wine. Luckily, it was just hitting 5pm and the restaurants we're all opening up, so we went to Fornelletto where we enjoyed some great vino, and the burratta bar with roasted peppers - man that was a great way to get started.

We then hit the casino floor for some Super JackPot Party!!! We're not big gamblers, but we do love us our penny slots. Overall for the trip we finished up about $40. That's not too bad for penny slots.

The next morning, we got up and headed out to see some of the sites of Atlantic City. Its interesting. I don't want to say that I saw it all, or even have a great feel for it - but I'd have to say, like any city there are good parts and bad - there its just a little easier to find them and they're a bit more extreme.

We enjoyed Caesar's Palace - its a lot like the one in Vegas. And the shopping mall that they have that goes out over the beach is first class. Also took in a touch of some of the other Casino's but was freaked out by the animatronic miner talking about the goldrush. Aside from Caesars, the rest of the boardwalk hotels (what I saw of them) was more like the Freemont Street experience in Vegas - if you like it, you'll be fine - if you don't...

They also had a huge outlet store shopping area - I wouldn't call it a mall because main streets went right thru it - but it was several city blocks - probably a shoppers dream. I was hungry and thirsty and missing my lunch window again so it was less of a dream for me.

After a delicious lunch at applebees. (Okay- that was a blatant lie. we ate at Applebee's - but it wasn't anything like delicious) We headed back to the Borgata.

This dinner was one I had been dreaming about for a while.

The Borgata has Bobby Flay's first steakhouse and that meal was absolutely amazing. We got a beautiful bottle of wine - I had a well seasoned, perfectly cooked steak the size of my head, and we paired it with two kinds of potatoes and some asparagus. The Fat Kid was in Heaven.

I gotta run now, but I'll pick up here real soon and give the highlights of the next day and concert- this is as much for my memories as anything else.

Gin Hahn,

T