Taking Atlantic City

Waking up at what counts as the crack of dawn on a Saturday (7:00am) turned out to be totally worth it for our adventure to Atlantic City. Usually, I would be pretty groggy hauling my butt out of bed that early, but my brain was too excited for MEATBALLS to get very upset about anything. J and I managed to wrangle Krista and Tom into the trip, so we all met at the Alamo car rental at 9:00 and hit the road. I thought I was being super clever getting the standard size car (versus the economy or compact) for $2.00 more, but somehow our Pontiac Grand Am was using the extra space in weird places. Like, J's head hit the ceiling, but the glove compartment was approximately three feet deep.

The batteries for Krista's iPod car adapter wore out, so we listened to the radio (fun fact: Krista cannot get enought of the Black Eyed Peas song, "My Lumps." I enjoy it because it IS catchy and Krista enjoys it so much. But "my lady lumps"? I just...I don't know. I sort of feel dirty listening to it). When we stopped and Krista hopped out to get more batteries, we made another space discovery behind the back seats, which folded down to expose the trunk. A trunk with a coconut in. Krista has already discussed this on her blog, but I must emphasize how weird it was to find a coconut in the trunk of a rental car. What are you doing that you acquire and forget a coconut? The coconut provided much hilarity for the remainder of the trip.

And then...meatballs! I really owe a lot to Krista, who inspired us to be really hands-on with the coverage. We got backstage and talked to a lot of the competitors. The whole thing can be found here, though I warn you: there are a lot of meatball-gorging pics! I have to say, this was one of the most fun things I have done in a long time. I loved meeting everyone and it made me want to become a food competition groupie. Can I get paid for that?

After the competition, we hit the quarter slots. This was my first go at gambling in a casino andI found the experience fun. For the first fifteen minutes. Until my ten dollars ran out. Aaaand, I was pretty much done after that. I think you might have to be less poor than me to want to shove money into a machine for the sole purpose of watching it eat it. I mean, I won a quarter here and there, but after it became clear the Burning Sevens weren't going to hand me my millions, I was ready to leave. We strolled down the boardwalk and made out way to the Trump casino, where Krista won $50 and broke even. Then it was off to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum (Tom's favorite game was to look at an exhibit and go, "I don't believe it!" Totally fun game) and candy shops for some salt water taffy. There were guys who patrolled the the boardwalk with little plastic-enclosed carraige-like boxes that you could climb in and pay to be pushed up and down the stretch. The men looked exactly like street vendors selling drunk tourists instead of pretzels.

I think I love Atlantic City a little.

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