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08-08-05, 12:53 PM
Now that I've uploaded my pics, I thought I'd post about our adventures of this past weekend!
I'm not even sure exactly how it came about, but Kirke invited us to spend the weekend with her exploring Longport and Atlantic City. I explained that we were poverty stricken at the moment and can't really do any trips, but she was very persistent, saying all we needed was gas money - and I'm so glad she was! :)
I think the wildest part of the trip was finding out that Atlantic City was the city that inspired my favourite game, MONOPOLY!!!! :D I didn't realise that. We came into contact with the following Monopoly Streets:
ORANGE
Tennessee Ave
New York Avenue
RED
Kentucky Ave
Illinois Ave
YELLOW
Marven Gardens
Ventnor Ave (this was right near where we stayed)
Atlantic Avenue (rode our bikes on this street a lot)
GREEN
Pacific Ave (also rode our bikes on this street)
Pennsylvania Ave
No. Carolina Ave
DK BLUE - EXPENSIVE
Boardwalk
Park Place
Unfortunately we didn't get into any areas poorer than orange (or the railroads)...I would have loved to see the slums! LOL!
Anyway, it was quite an action packed weekend. We had to leave the house later than planned on Friday afternoon, because Paul's temporary boss had all kinds of tasks for him to do. We were therefore stuck in traffic. Since we were starving, we thought we'd stop for some pizza, and then we'd have drinks and munchies with Kirke (Joe) later that night. Paul really wanted stuffed pizza, which I have never tried before. We ordered a 14" stuffed pizza (which is basically a pizza with a crust on top) to share. This was a big mistake. First of all, they took FOREVER to get it ready. We had planned on arriving at Joe's house at 8 at the latest, and by the time we got our pizza it was 7, and we hadn't left Maryland! The pizza was ENORMOUS. It was 17" if it was anything. We had a piece and a half each and were completely stuffed. We brought the rest with us.
The drive took a looooooooooooong time, and we had to stop for ice cream of course. By the time we got to Joe's house, we were in the middle of a massive and scary thunder and lightening storm. We arrived around 10ish and presented our host with the leftover pizza! Fortunately she had eaten (we were updating her by phone as we went along.) She has a lovely little house that is walking distance from the beach. We were directed to the top floor, which had an inflatable bed. It was extremely comfy. We went to bed shortly after arriving.
Saturday we got to know Joe better, and found her tremendously friendly and outgoing. After breakfast, and went out for a 30 mile bike ride. That part of NJ is extremely flat so it was a nice change from the MD hill slogging for me! :p
We rode over bridges and saw lots of sights. We took many pics which are in the album (link below). After our ride, we had some lunch and went to the beach. I actually wore my bikini and had my picture taken!! :eek: The beach is the cleanest beach I have ever seen. Immaculate white sand with no garbage of ANY kind. It was amazing. Joe and I swam in the ocean, while Paul snoozed on a beach chair. He had zero interest in going swimming, but was very content. After a couple of hours at the beach we returned home, showered and went out for ice cream at Mooca Pazza, which has homemade ice cream. We then went home to plan our evening.
Over drinks, Joe told me about her side business of making jewelry. She does some really beautiful stuff. Earlier I had said something to Paul about wanting a pearl necklace, so Joe suddenly decided to make me a pearl necklace! She has a friend who farms pearls. When she learned about the amethyst theme of the wedding, she added amethysts and swarovski crystals to the mix. She gave me this beautiful necklace as a gift which I will wear to the wedding. It was quite an amazing and generous thing to do for a total stranger I think! I absolutely love it and am very grateful. :)
After a lovely homemade dinner of steaks, balsamic cucumber, tomato and fresh basil salad, stirfried zucchini mushrooms and onions, and corn on the cob, we went out to a very ritzy local bar/restaurant called Steve and Cookie's. It was FULL of people who were filthy rich and had dressed up to the nines. They had all had tonnes of plastic surgery done and looked pretty snooty. Paul and I felt very under dressed! Joe treated us to dessert and coffee there. We then wandered home, surfed the net for a bit and went to bed.
Sunday morning we got up earlyish and went off for our next bike ride, which was along the boardwalk and into Atlantic City. We took many pictures and ran into most of the monopoly streets there. After the ride we all went out for brunch at a very ritzy restaurant next to the marina. We nearly passed out when we saw the bill, but Joe AGAIN treated us. She is an exceptionally generous hostess and we really need to have her over when we get all the immigration and move stuff sorted out.
After brunch we took our last pictures (at the GORGEOUS Marven Gardens...man those houses are worth the $150! ;) ) and then Paul wanted MORE ice cream, which we had even though we were stuffed. Then we loaded up the car and were off. Well, we got totally lost leaving NJ. The road signage leaves MUCH to be desired. 3 hours of driving and we were STILL in NJ!!! With all the traffic, a drive that should take 3 hours took more like 6. We were pretty tired when we got home. Too stuffed to eat dinner too.
Well, enough of my blathering, here are some of my fave pics:
Joe:http://images.snapfish.com/3446766%3B23232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B%3A833573ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B869424%3Aot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694936ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp54%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694263ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp58%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694275ot1lsi
Can't believe I'm posting this! :eek:
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694943ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp3%3Enu%3D3235%3E985%3E3%3C3%3EWSNRCG%3D3232%3A%3A95%3A3%3A47nu0mrj
The necklace:
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694286ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694965ot1lsi
The rest of them can be found here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/416285040zeCvod
(I can't seem to make it link, so I guess you cut and paste into your browser)
I'm not even sure exactly how it came about, but Kirke invited us to spend the weekend with her exploring Longport and Atlantic City. I explained that we were poverty stricken at the moment and can't really do any trips, but she was very persistent, saying all we needed was gas money - and I'm so glad she was! :)
I think the wildest part of the trip was finding out that Atlantic City was the city that inspired my favourite game, MONOPOLY!!!! :D I didn't realise that. We came into contact with the following Monopoly Streets:
ORANGE
Tennessee Ave
New York Avenue
RED
Kentucky Ave
Illinois Ave
YELLOW
Marven Gardens
Ventnor Ave (this was right near where we stayed)
Atlantic Avenue (rode our bikes on this street a lot)
GREEN
Pacific Ave (also rode our bikes on this street)
Pennsylvania Ave
No. Carolina Ave
DK BLUE - EXPENSIVE
Boardwalk
Park Place
Unfortunately we didn't get into any areas poorer than orange (or the railroads)...I would have loved to see the slums! LOL!
Anyway, it was quite an action packed weekend. We had to leave the house later than planned on Friday afternoon, because Paul's temporary boss had all kinds of tasks for him to do. We were therefore stuck in traffic. Since we were starving, we thought we'd stop for some pizza, and then we'd have drinks and munchies with Kirke (Joe) later that night. Paul really wanted stuffed pizza, which I have never tried before. We ordered a 14" stuffed pizza (which is basically a pizza with a crust on top) to share. This was a big mistake. First of all, they took FOREVER to get it ready. We had planned on arriving at Joe's house at 8 at the latest, and by the time we got our pizza it was 7, and we hadn't left Maryland! The pizza was ENORMOUS. It was 17" if it was anything. We had a piece and a half each and were completely stuffed. We brought the rest with us.
The drive took a looooooooooooong time, and we had to stop for ice cream of course. By the time we got to Joe's house, we were in the middle of a massive and scary thunder and lightening storm. We arrived around 10ish and presented our host with the leftover pizza! Fortunately she had eaten (we were updating her by phone as we went along.) She has a lovely little house that is walking distance from the beach. We were directed to the top floor, which had an inflatable bed. It was extremely comfy. We went to bed shortly after arriving.
Saturday we got to know Joe better, and found her tremendously friendly and outgoing. After breakfast, and went out for a 30 mile bike ride. That part of NJ is extremely flat so it was a nice change from the MD hill slogging for me! :p
We rode over bridges and saw lots of sights. We took many pics which are in the album (link below). After our ride, we had some lunch and went to the beach. I actually wore my bikini and had my picture taken!! :eek: The beach is the cleanest beach I have ever seen. Immaculate white sand with no garbage of ANY kind. It was amazing. Joe and I swam in the ocean, while Paul snoozed on a beach chair. He had zero interest in going swimming, but was very content. After a couple of hours at the beach we returned home, showered and went out for ice cream at Mooca Pazza, which has homemade ice cream. We then went home to plan our evening.
Over drinks, Joe told me about her side business of making jewelry. She does some really beautiful stuff. Earlier I had said something to Paul about wanting a pearl necklace, so Joe suddenly decided to make me a pearl necklace! She has a friend who farms pearls. When she learned about the amethyst theme of the wedding, she added amethysts and swarovski crystals to the mix. She gave me this beautiful necklace as a gift which I will wear to the wedding. It was quite an amazing and generous thing to do for a total stranger I think! I absolutely love it and am very grateful. :)
After a lovely homemade dinner of steaks, balsamic cucumber, tomato and fresh basil salad, stirfried zucchini mushrooms and onions, and corn on the cob, we went out to a very ritzy local bar/restaurant called Steve and Cookie's. It was FULL of people who were filthy rich and had dressed up to the nines. They had all had tonnes of plastic surgery done and looked pretty snooty. Paul and I felt very under dressed! Joe treated us to dessert and coffee there. We then wandered home, surfed the net for a bit and went to bed.
Sunday morning we got up earlyish and went off for our next bike ride, which was along the boardwalk and into Atlantic City. We took many pictures and ran into most of the monopoly streets there. After the ride we all went out for brunch at a very ritzy restaurant next to the marina. We nearly passed out when we saw the bill, but Joe AGAIN treated us. She is an exceptionally generous hostess and we really need to have her over when we get all the immigration and move stuff sorted out.
After brunch we took our last pictures (at the GORGEOUS Marven Gardens...man those houses are worth the $150! ;) ) and then Paul wanted MORE ice cream, which we had even though we were stuffed. Then we loaded up the car and were off. Well, we got totally lost leaving NJ. The road signage leaves MUCH to be desired. 3 hours of driving and we were STILL in NJ!!! With all the traffic, a drive that should take 3 hours took more like 6. We were pretty tired when we got home. Too stuffed to eat dinner too.
Well, enough of my blathering, here are some of my fave pics:
Joe:http://images.snapfish.com/3446766%3B23232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B%3A833573ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B869424%3Aot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694936ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp54%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694263ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp58%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694275ot1lsi
Can't believe I'm posting this! :eek:
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694943ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp3%3Enu%3D3235%3E985%3E3%3C3%3EWSNRCG%3D3232%3A%3A95%3A3%3A47nu0mrj
The necklace:
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694286ot1lsi
http://images.snapfish.com/3446756323232%7Ffp45%3Dot%3E2326%3D%3A76%3D4%3B4%3DXROQDF%3E23239%3B8694965ot1lsi
The rest of them can be found here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/416285040zeCvod
(I can't seem to make it link, so I guess you cut and paste into your browser)