It is a true privilege to be able to travel. When I am not on vacation I forget what it’s like, so as soon as I am on my way to a vacation the gratefulness sets in. Part of why I made a big career change was to be able to control my personal and professional time so I could really utilize my time, overall. Thankfully, that has allowed me to travel quite a bit this year. South Carolina, Atlantic City, and our honeymoon… that’s a lot and I recognize that; especially after taking off for three weddings, and three bachelorette parties, in addition to two gaming conventions with my fiance, all in the last year. I absolutely recognize the privilege I am exercising here and I am so grateful to be able to be in this position.

This girls trip to Atlantic City was a long time in the making. Originally, more than a year ago in Texas Roadhouse right after Sam bought her wedding dress, the four of us (NIkki, Sam, Kayla, and I) were talking about how life was changing so rapidly and soon we will be mostly married and how childbearing is on the horizon and that will change our lives. This shook us into the realization that we never really did a wild spring break trip, and no one was really doing tropical for their honeymoon, so the idea of a “friendmoon” vacation to an all-inclusive Punta Cana resort was born. There were some changes in the process that lead us away from that though, and we finally decided on a closer resort vacation to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. All four of us were Skyping when we booked it online and then called the hotel with a few questions. Upon calling them, we found out that they had closed their nightlife pool bar scene; and practically everything but the casino closed by, like, 7pm in the resort. This was not cool with us since we are 25 not 125, so we canceled our reservation and were back to square one. Sigh. We searched and searched to find a spot that met our criteria: resort, spa, good food and drinks, nightlife, near water would be preferable, and if near water, a water’s edge that allowed the drinking of alcohol, a casino would be neat, and we really wanted to go somewhere none of us had been before. We searched long and hard for this place. Finally, I found the Ocean Casino and Resort in Atlantic City (once my review of the resort is up it will be LINKED HERE). We picked dates and booked it!

We drove out to Nikki’s house in Hershey, PA on Tuesday to spend the night at her new home. We ate at one of her favorite spots, Tattered Flag, then went for wine at the Springgate Winery. We liked the Tattered Flag, although our waitress was only okay and a bunch of the drinks and specials we wanted to order were already sold out. We had two bottles of wine at Springgate Winery: a red called Renove and a white called Detente. The red was so yummy. It tasted like alcoholic grape juice, but that also means it was quite sweet. The white wine was much drier but Nikki and Sam preferred it. Kayla preferred none of it and drank iced tea, instead.

Then on Wednesday morning we brunched at First Watch before being New Jersey bound. The food and drinks at First Watch were very tasty, although their water was luke warm. From there, we got on the road toward Atlantic City. We stopped at a Kirkland’s along the way because we don’t have any near our houses and Nikki raves about the one near her. They have these amazing smelly bags that you set around your house in inconspicuous spots and they just emit good smells. We each bought some of these. Sam and Nikki bought sleepy shorts, and Sam bought a candle, too. (more on these items later)

We drove the next few hours to Atlantic City, arriving around 5pm. We valeted the car, got a bellhop for our car full of bags (we have NO idea how to pack light), and ventured around the hotel until we found the lobby to check in. Unfortunately, the bellhop dropped the bag with Sam’s candle and sleep shorts in it, breaking the candle, so we tossed it back into the car to deal with later, but that meant she missed her new sleep shorts while we were there (the candle has now been mended to be functional and the sleep shorts have finally been worn).

Our hotel was absolutely huge (see my resort review HERE for more) but check-in was easy. Our room was on the 43rd floor (out of 48 floors, in case you were wondering) and it was absolutely beautiful, espeically the BREATHTAKING view of nearly all of Atlantic City. Ocean resort is the tallest building in Atlantic City, so nothing obstructed our floor to ceiling, wall-to-wall hotel window view.

AC19 ocean hotel from boardwalk daylight.jpg

For dinner that night, we ate of Villain and Saint right there in the resort. They had a Happy Hour with Mojitos and Flatbread so obviously that's what we got. It was good! Not the best mojitos ever, but not bad at all. The flatbread was a bit of a challenge to cut, rip, and eat but we figured it out. Then we explored our giant hotel, got Starbucks, and went down to the ocean. Although it was chilly, the ocean was breathtaking at night. Plus, we were very near the Steel Pier which has a big, beautiful, light-up ferris wheel that reflects it's lights into the waves. It was truly mesmerizing.

AC19 ferris wheel at night lights on beach.jpg

Then we went back to the room, ordered a bottle of room service wine, (cause we were on VACATION) and relaxed with each other. Although I train with Sam at the gym a few times a week, and live near enough to see Kayla more than we actually get accomplished, it was nice to get the four of us back in the same room, just like when we were in college. Adult friendships are hard when everyone has a million things to do in their lives, but we think it is important to make time for each other, and if that means spending some money to get away together, it is important to do that to keep strong the bonds of our friendship. Friendship takes effort. It’s not easy to make that effort when you’re struggling mentally, have something super time consuming happening like schooling or working overtime, or going through a season of life that requires attention like a career change or a big purchase. Making that effort is so important and I am so touched to know that I have a group of people who will make that effort.

On Thursday, the weather was rainy so we went to the Exhale Spa in our resort. Before we donned robes, we stopped for breakfast at Cafe 500 in our resort. The coffee was not good; I didn’t much like the Bloody Marys but Sam and Nikki did. I had an amazing Salmon Bagel Platter that was very tasty. The wait and service were a little slow at this restaurant, so we filled out time with the Myers Briggs 16 Personalities test (ENFJ-T, INFJ-T, INFP-T, ISFP-T: guess who is who) but we still made it in time for our massage appointments.

Wow, was the spa dreamy. All the decor was meticulously designed for relaxation and aesthetics, so it was amazing to even be in a place that gorgeous, not to mention all the amenities. They provided robes, sandals, hot towels, tea, and water throughout the spa area. We got massages with aromatherapy, relaxed in two different jacuzzi tubs, did stints in the stream room, then the sauna, then the salt garatta, and floated around in the indoor pool. Although the rainy windy weather was a bummer, being in the spa all day instead was a pretty glamorous substitute.

After the spa, we grabbed Tapas at Amada in our resort. It wasn’t Kayla’s favorite, but the rest of us thought it was really fun. If you aren’t familiar with Iliza Shlesinger’s comedy, you need to see her skits about Tapas and Flatbread. The wait staff at Amada was insanely attentive and the view of the ocean from our seats was once again, beautiful.

On our way into the city, we saw an advertisement for a Burlesque show at the Borgata hotel. Unfortunately, the Burlesque club at our resort was being renovated into a speakeasy themed club so we decided to go see this Burlesque show at the Borgata instead. We took a quick Uber ride there and the show was so much fun! The dancers were quite talented, especially the aerial artists who performed from a metal contraption hanging from the ceiling. I'd love to learn how those ladies spin tassels from their nipples! What a skill! There were two male jugglers that were super cute and made us laugh, too. I love watching performances and often when I do it reawakens my desire to perform. If there were a Burlesque Troupe in my area I would absolutely love to dance on it.

We wandered around the Borgata a bit and bought a Cigar in their gift shop. I had this image of myself smoking a cigar playing cards in the casino so I needed to buy a cigar for that. We watched the fish in our resort lobby, took some pics in a photogenic spot for the blogs with the unlit cigar, then spent another night on the beach with some Truly and the cigar. Good thing Kayla is worldly because I totally would have smoked the cigar incorrectly without her knowledge.

On Friday, we had Harper’s in our resort for breakfast. They served French Press coffee that was very good. They also gave us samples of a Pineapple smoothie that was surprisingly good! I had Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes that were… interesting. They tasted good but I still got a bit tripped up with the ricotta taste. Then we went a-wandering again because we wanted to find our hotel pool. The resort website boasted their like 4 swimming pools but we couldn’t find them! We finally asked at the desk and got a hotel map, then located the pools and outdoor jacuzzi.

Since it was still a chilly day, we went down to the Boardwalk to shop and buy sweatshirts. We stumbled upon the Sugar Factory and got drinks. It was a pretty unique experience. The Sugar Factory has specialty cocktails with neat flavors. Some drinks were definitely better than others. Then we walked off some of the alcohol while Kayla got her fortune told for $5 and THAT was a laugh. Tell me your funniest fortune teller stories in the comments!
By then, we were hungry and hadn’t had crab legs yet so we did a quick google search for best crab legs and found Atlantic City Bar and Grille that was only a few blocks away. We walked there and had better Bloody Marys. It was all pretty yummy! ...But we all did feel a bit undigested once we got back to the room.

We stopped at the man-made stone pier outside our hotel on the way back, the one we could see from our seats at Amada the night before. The atmosphere was very beachy… feeling the warm rocks under my feet then the cold mist of the ocean water… that’s what vacation is made of.

Then we did the hard work of getting ready to go out to the nightclub. Our resort housed the HQ² Nightclub so Nikki, Sam, and I went there and Kayla relaxed in the room since nightclubs aren’t her thing. There was a dress code, “upscale fashionable,” that didn’t allow sandals so I had to wear the heels I had worn to the Burlesque show the night before, which are also the shoes I wore to Sam’s Bridal Shower and Wedding. They have been broken in, but still a painful shoe to wear for multiple hours of standing… but they are gorgeous shoes so I wore them anyway. Because I hadn’t really planned for the dress code, I wore the black tank dress again, I just did my hair and accessories differently. We had to be at the nightclub before 11:30pm to get in for free. It was practically empty for about an hour but once the party got started, it was a great time! Worms in a sea of fish, yanno? But we made the best of it! The crazy thing was that there was no seating in this nightclub outside VIP Bottle Service seating. Thankfully, a dude from a VIP table spotted me hobbling. After some dancing and chatting we finally got to sit down for a few minutes! The DJ played some really good songs throughout the night, some were popular new songs and some were from the 2000s. By the end of the night, around 3am, we were pretty tired and all of our feet had enough so we followed the lead of some other partiers and removed our shoes. We tossed them in front of us, to be unencumbered, which created a circle of us dancing around the shoes. This sight threw off the security and they gave us a stern warning. We held our shoes until it was time to quit the dancefloor. We closed down the club around 3:15am, piled into the elevator, and went back up to our room. We chewed some Nauseen, showered, and snuggled in for sweet dreams.

On Saturday, we finally got to hit the beach. The weather warmed up enough for our last day to be mostly sunny so we grabbed a quick breakfast (it was easily past noon though) and more hot Starbucks. I had heard that the beach was really long, like the walk to the waters edge from our hotel would be lengthy, but the shore in front of our hotel was relatively short. Kayla brought this wild lounger that I'll just have to show you…

Laying on the beach near the water when it's only about 72 degrees outside is a bit chillier than a beachgoer would hope. We didn't make it in for a swim but we watched a gaggle of middle aged men approach the water, hype each other up, lose their shirts, and sprint for the water. Of course they didn't have towels when they got out. Masculinity is so interesting to watch manifest when males are in a pack.

We had Hard Rock Cafe for dinner our last night in Atlantic City. Hard Rock is a travel staple for dinner. It's a crowd-pleaser and at least mid-grade fancy in most cities. The Hard Rock in Atlantic City is very pretty, it's highlight is a huge, wall-sized, bathroom mirror.

We had a great waiter, too, that make us laugh through our whole meal. He was very dad-like.

We finally hit the casino that night. Kayla gambled for the first time. She played a Wheel of Fortune Slot machine. Unfortunately, she lost all the money she played but she had fun, and that’s what matters! The casino was enormous. They had tons of Blackjack tables, in addition to about a million slot machines. They did have my favorite table game, Let it Ride, but I was plum outta cash by the time we made it to gambling so that card-playing cigar photo never came to fruition.

On Sunday morning we checked out and called for our valet. Kayla held onto the valet tickets during our trip so she was trying to pay the $10 for our valet but their computers wouldn't give her the receipt. Eventually, after many tries, the staff gave up, freed us, and we got to the car. We know next time that we will just pack our own trunk. We would have thought valets who do this for a living would have been better at it. It required some adjustment.

We stopped at Perry's for breakfast. It was cheap and quick. Our food was good and the service was good. The bathroom door was terrifyingly loud when closed though, like it was being shaken inside the threshold by a giant. Other than the scary potty experience, it was a nice, cheap meal to get us on our way. We stopped for gas and left the Atlantic City. Nikki got dropped off first, then we got lunch at Wendy's in Hershey, and departed toward Altoona. I got dropped off at home, then Kayla, then Sam got home around 9pm.

Travel home always seems the longer and more boring. But I didn't feel any dread, I even missed home and my fiance! I don't dread my "regular life." My day-to-day existence doesn't bore me. I felt reinvigorated upon coming home. Vacation gave my brain the opportunity to flesh out a million ideas I want to try. Travel gave me the space to be imaginative, which I don't always feel inspired to explore. I didn't come home feeling rejuvenated because of sleep or relaxation, because I definitely didn't sleep more or relax more, but my mind got to process differently by the seashore and from 43 stories up.

TLDR; one big highlight was definitely the Burlesque show. I loved our fancy hotel, all the yummy food we ate and drinks we drank, and of course, the nightclub. If it matters to you and you can make it happen, travel with people that matter to you. Those snapshots in time become memories that timestamp our lives with descriptors that make our hearts warm. Like in the future we will say "oh yes, that was the summer we went to Atlantic City," and "life has changed so much since we could drink until 3am!" Travel makes me appreciate home and my day-to-day life so much more, too. It also gives me perspective and some space to grapple with what's in my mind differently than I had been at home. I had a really awesome time in Atlantic City on our Friendmoon 2019.

Here’s my review of the Ocean Casino & Resort!