Wedding Bells: Frederick to Atlantic City

This is it! The day we drive to Atlantic City for some quality girl time before the wedding. But, before that, we needed food and in order to have some quality time with the groom, we all went out for lunch at a charming Vietnamese restaurant in Frederick. After a delightful lunch, we have some equally fabulous coffee at a local brew house before heading as fast as we could go to Atlantic City.

Vroom. Lurch. Stop. Go. Stop, go. 

You got it. Driving in the USA's east coast can be an adventure with google maps and gridlock. After a few hours of not getting very far, we opted to swing onto the local side roads and away from the incessant tolls. (Note to those renting a car, get the EZ pass. We didn't and wished we had it on more than one occasion as we scrambled for cash, exact change, and the worst $14 for a bridge toll.) 

We arrived early evening to the newly named Atlantic Palace, formerly Blue Green Palace. Our room was gorgeous and had wicked sea views. The staff were friendly and helpful throughout our stay. The room had a small kitchen and my favorite place to perch was on the wide window ledge that gave me a perfect beach view of the piers.

I think in my head I had pictured Las Vegas on the beach. It isn't really all that, but it was great for us. There aren't the shows and theatre, but it does have the board walk with the souvenir shops, food aplenty and all the casinos. Renovations are in progress along the boardwalks and the outlet malls are nearby. You can walk from almost everywhere to where you want to go.

Our first night of the bachelorette weekend, we checked into our wonderful hotel. It was right on the strip and very easy to navigate to. It has since changed names so naming it now is irrelevant. The girls and I strolled the boardwalk until we reached Chickie and Petes. I wasn't impressed by the menu or food but I was hungry. I would recommend going into the casinos to find good food. The music played up and down the boardwalk, while cabbies walked their push-cabs up and down seeking fares. We stopped to see the lights show and visited the Miss America statue. 

The overall impression of Atlantic City is that of an old world playground that is being forgotten in favor of other locales. There is a sense of a yesteryear that is trying to be recaptured through bringing in concerts and events. Nothing was playing while we were there. We were very surprised by how quiet it was. 

The following morning, we opted for pool and beach. Our hotel had a lovely pool that we could sit and watch the waves, the people and the activity. We had comfy deck chairs, a sun umbrella, access to the water and towels. Perfect. Later, we walked the boardwalk, did some shopping and gambled a bit before heading out for supper.

The bride and pal wanted hard shell crabs and the nearest place was Mays Landing. This was fine until we started driving for a long time...and google maps talked us to a side road in the middle of nowhere. Now 9:00 pm, our restaurant of choice was closed so back to mays landing we ventured. There it was...a sign that said crabs. We pulled in to The Watering Hole. 

The Watering Hole had a pool tourney on the go and we were about to breeze through and leave when a local stopped us and offered to clear a spot. So, we stayed. We stayed in our nice dressy clothes and stood out like a sore thumb. That lasted 5 minutes, then we moved to the bar. The bartender was warm and friendly, and made us laugh. Even better, the food was tasty and exceeded our expectations. I don't think we could have done better. It was local, earthy and great people that all called this place home away from home. It was awesome and unexpected. 

For a bachelorette party, it was unique...a toast to the road less travelled.

Wedding Bells: Flying in for the Epic Day

Packing for flights is never my strong suit. I tend to overpack at the best of times and on this significant adventure, I have one suitcase with five pairs of shoes. Five. I hereby commission someone to invent a comfortable pair of shoes that can covert from sexy little flip flops to a elegant heel with a slide on and off sole. It would minimize the damage. I have two flats, one pair of heels for the wedding, flip flops for the beach and another pair of heels for the little black dress. This is where being a girl can be challenging. All for the bachelorette to the wedding of a dear friend. Here we go...

Except Toronto Pearson workers are on strike...so at meant a long two hour call to Air Canada who bumped my first flight up by 18 hours and I left the house in a hurry. They were great but it was tiring as the flight was delayed six hours and nothing was open for caffeine intake at the airport. Toronto was packed with people and flights were cancelled due to the strike causing chaos. Instead of flying to Harrisburg, I was detoured to Baltimore. This meant a change of plans and I was frantically texting my peeps to let them know.

End result? We went to the bride to be's house instead of a hotel and participated in the 4th of July festivities in Frederick, MD.  We dropped off bags and proceeded to a lovely historically preserved downtown with a wide open field full of vendors selling fair foods at Baker Park. This was my first Maryland crab cake. We sat on a bench and watched an ever changing game of kickball. Basically, it resembled baseball with a soccer ball. The teams kept changing and evolving, with adults taking a lot of bruising as they tried to keep up with the kids. Late evening, the sky lit up with fireworks. People were swarming everywhere while fireflies flickered in the darkened evening.

Still, we didn't head back and instead, wandered into a local pub to sample some beer at JoJo's tap house. If nothing else, it was supposed to help me sleep. Tomorrow, onto Atlantic City.