Atlantic City: Our Last Hoorah

A couple of weeks ago we went for a short vacation to Atlantic City to celebrate Dan's birthday and to have one last vacation as a family of three. Atlantic City is only a few hours from us, but surprisingly I've never been. We found an awesome deal for a weekday stay at the Tropicana, which turned out to be the perfect hotel for us.

Zahara did great in the car, and we were in AC by lunch. We packed a picnic lunch for ourselves so we headed straight to the beach. Though it was a bit windy and chilly, our little beach baby could not contain her excitement. Don't you wish you got that excited about anything these days? Oh, to be young.

It was too cold to go in the water, but we changed Z into a bathing suit anyway so that she could run and jump in puddles and make sand castles. This beach was absolutely perfect for us since it had a giant sandbar right at the shoreline. I haven't seen a beach like this before, but essentially there was sand, then a very shallow bit of water (maybe a few inches deep), then around 50 feet of more sand, then the ocean. This meant that Zahara could have practically free reign to play by herself with us watching from a bit further away. She loved the freedom, and I loved being able to sit down. Ha!

She completely wore herself out, so after a bit of snuggling we went to check in to our hotel.

The Tropicana was perfect for us. It is enormous and full of fun things for Z to look at: flashing lights, fake sky, tons of people, lots of restaurants and shops. The indoor pool was a lifesaver the next day, when it rained all day long. We ate dinner at Carmine's, which is a family-style Italian place. The portions are ridiculously large, but luckily we had a mini-fridge in our room and could eat the leftovers the next day for lunch. The eggplant parmesean was delicious, and was even better the next day.

The next day was rainy and gross, but Zahara didn't mind. She spent four hours in the indoor pool!

Since we were on vacation, we indulged a bit and had ice cream. Ok, full-disclosure, we had ice cream every day. I regret nothing.

We spent some time exploring AC, but to be honest, there isn't much to see. The town is a shadow of how it must have been during its heyday, but we still enjoyed walking down the boardwalk. After dinner we headed back to our room and read some books before bedtime. We made a makeshift barrier for the really tall bed by placing the bolster under the sheets. After lights out, we spent an hour listening to Zahara sing show tunes--yes, really!--while I desperately tried not to laugh.

We grabbed a few more hours of beach time on our last day before heading home.

I can't believe that's our last vacation as a family of three! Can't wait until our first vacation later this summer as a family of four!