Thursday, July 31

Well this was a really busy day.  We had seen a brochure about historic Smithville near Atlantic City and we decided to take that route before we went to the Atlantic Boardwalk.  So glad we did.

 

The buildings are all old and were moved to that area for restoration.  The first shop we went into was originally a horse stable and is now a really neat variety shop.  I could have spent lots of money but knew that wasn’t really smart.  We saw some of the cutes signs and some really neat yard items such as pumpkins.  This was called the “Two Country Ducks” and we got a picture of the ducks walking by headed to the parking lot ACROSS the street – they all made it.

 

We got a picture of the train used to carry folks around the village and, since Brooks loves trains, I just had to put a picture on the blog just for him.

 

The Smithville Inn is a nice restaurant and bed and breakfast and the bridge goes across the lake where people can rent paddle boats for a neat ride.

 

 

James found a friend for the first time in several days so I made his picture with both of them!
 

This was a really great morning and now we headed to Atlantic City boardwalk.  On the way in we saw a drawbridge, a wind farm and a lighthouse.

 


 

We parked in the lot of Trump Taj Mahal and headed to the boardwalk.  We saw elaborate casino/hotels including one with a huge golf ball on the top!
 

We learned these are nothing like the hotels in Las Vegas where the hotels are decorated like other countries such as Caesars (Rome), The Pyramid (Egypt), etc.  The ones in Atlantic City are just decorated casinos.  But the boardwalk is very interesting.  There is a carnival on the pier which has a double decked carousal among many other rides.
 

There are lots of “touristy” shops and lots of places to eat.
 

 
Blake Shelton was staring in a FREE concert on the beach and people were in line to get in.  The line was there when we first got there and was still there when we left a couple of hours later.  It was moving the entire time and later that night we heard on the news there were more than 6,000 people at the concert.  I believe it!  There was no need to go to the beach because the speakers were so loud you could hear everything from the Boardwalk!  We saw some really unique sand sculptures  

 

and James found a couple more friends.  I can’t keep him away from “pretty” women! 

Going back to the hotel we agreed that we had not lost anything in Atlantic City – glad we went but no desire to go back.  Another long day!  Oh – one thing I nearly forgot.  James had left his hat in the hotel and his head was blistering.  He stopped to buy a cap where everything was 99 cents.  As we were walking down the boardwalk I noticed the cap was TOO small.  He had bought a “toddler” cap!  No returns so he wore it the rest of the day – I wonder what people thought.