Pictures From Our Brief Trip to Atlantic City

So yes, I mentioned in the earlier post today that I went down to see Ringo Starr in Atlantic City (AC) last weekend.

Believe it or not, despite having lived in New Jersey for most of my life, I have only been to AC twice before, ad it had been well over two decades since my last trip down there. For one week or so early in 1996, I went with a friend and his family to Atlantic City, which was the first time that I ever had gone gambling. Believe it or not, I actually did rather well, going from maybe $360 that I had originally brought with me, and at one point having over $580 or so in my wallet (yes, I kept that kind of cash literally in my wallet at that point, for some reason). And yet, when we left, I had lost a lot of that money on our final night there, and came home with just around $500. That might sound like I came out on top, but somehow, all I saw was the money that I lost on that final night. It kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. 

The next time that I went down to AC was more spontaneous. It was in 1999, just after a Black Crowes/Lenny Kravitz show that was unexpectedly cut short after Kravitz passed out due to heat stroke, if memory serves correctly. Being a lot younger, and also being with two other young guys who both liked gambling, and since we were already a decent part of the way to Atlantic City, they prevailed on me to go ahead and drive down to AC. Once again, I left with more money than I had come with, although my total winnings were, literally, something like $5. Still, it had been a fun night, one of those memories of some spontaneous adventure that you pretty much only do in youth. 

Obviously this time, I was a lot older than either of my previous two trips down here. In 1996, my friend and I had both just turned the legal age for gambling (and he was much more of a gambler than me). In 1999, I was still quite young, in my early to mid-twenties. Now, this time around, I was a father, and my son is closer to being the age that I was on either of those two earlier trips than I am. 

Still, it was kind of fun, and felt a bit adventurous, to come here again. We came here specifically for the Ringo Starr show, because again, the tickets went down and down in price. The tickets that we wound up getting were not particularly great, but they were relatively cheap. And we were there!

After the show, we decided to take a walk along the famous boardwalk of Atlantic City. On the drive down here, I had explained how the game Monopoly is actually modeled on Atlantic City, which was a detail that he had not been previously aware of. But he had heard of the boardwalk, of course. We took in the bright lights, and went right down close to the ocean. In fact, we both touched the water, which felt surprisingly warm. It was a brief visit, but a pleasant one nevertheless. And no, I did not gamble. Not even one hand of my old favorite game, Blackjack. So this trip cost me a bit of money, but it was relegated to the cost of gas and parking. Not losing money while gambling. 

In any case, we both took some pictures. Some of them came out rather nicely. In fact, the pictures of the Ferris wheel reflected in the waters of the ocean came out exceptionally well, I thought. It was one of those rare instances where the image on the picture actually exceeded how it looked in real life, because I do not remember the reflection in the water looking quite as colorful as it came out in the pictures. 

Enjoy!