The Finer Things Club Visits the Jersey Shore and Atlantic City

This weekend, Dana, Christine, Jackie, and I visited the Jerz. Dana's family generously opened up the doors of their shore house at Stone Harbor for our rest and relaxation, while the Borgata opened its doors for our entertainment.

A word on gambling. I had never been to the casinos as an adult. The only other time I had been in a casino, I was 14 years old and not allowed to stop and look at anything or make eye contact with the people dressed up as gladiators at Caesar's Palace. So after our enormous dinner at Bobby Flay's and a disastrous key lime pie dessert, I was let loose. As we are high rollers and the one-cent and two-cent slot machines are beneath us, we made a beeline for the five-cent slot machines. At the "Amazon Queen" I put in five dollars and in a few moments I cashed out with $10.70! The envy of all, next I tried my luck at "Russian Treasure" thinking, hey, this is going to be very lucky for me. In a matter of minutes I was down $25 and thinking that this machine was very realistic and completely Mother Russia-like -- there IS no treasure, and it takes all of your money and spits in your face, figuratively. The loss of my original earnings of a whopping five dollars is still a sore subject, although I still loved the Borgata because its background music included Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, and DEPECHE MODE in its rotation. It's almost as if the casino knew I would be in attendance.

After Christine and Jackie left on Saturday afternoon, Dana and I spent the rest of the time at Stone Harbor. Here are some pictures that I enjoy:


The view from Dana's porch. We sat and read here when it wasn't too cold. I loved the house and adopted it as my own.


Late Saturday afternoon/early evening, there was a huge storm. Towards the end of the storm we drove around the entire island and looked at all of the houses and condos. This one was a Katya pick. I probably liked it only because it looked bright and pretty in the rain. Otherwise, it isn't really in the same style as all of the cute shore houses.


We also drove around for about twenty minutes, breaking all sorts of traffic laws, to get a good shot of the Stone Harbor water tower. Sadly, this is the best I got.


Sunset on Dana's street.


Sunset on the bay.


I snuck a picture of some random people in front of the sunset.

In addition to house hunting, we spent a significant amount of time in the center of town. I made poor Dana go into town with me for shopping at least four times. My favorite shop was called the Frog and Toad and it just sells STUFF, a lot of STUFF. I felt inspired to purchase this kids' sketchbook:



The sales lady asked me if I was an artist or art student, to which I replied no, I just thought the book was really cute, but secretly my soul was smiling. Maybe I will start a new blog section called "I dabble" where I share pages of said sketchbook. You've already seen my dabbling in photography with the point-and-shoot. Wait until you see me dabble with Crayola markers.

My other glorious purchase was a book on Frank Lloyd Wright's favorite furnishings. It makes me really want to go visit Fallingwater sometime this summer or fall. My parents took me there too, but of course I was too young to appreciate it.

On the way back from the shore, to pick up our spirits and also delay coming back home, we made a few pit stops. In addition to two farmer's markets, we stopped at a random winery, Auburn Road. We were only in there for ten minutes, but tried two wines and walked away with some bottles of Pinot Grigio. Great success!

Thanks again to Dana and her family for a fantastic weekend!