Lucy the Elephant

This weekend we traveled to New Jersey for a family event.  We decided to take an extra day and check out an attraction that I had missed during my many years living in the Garden State.  Just south of Atlantic City there is a small beach town called Margate where Lucy the Elephant lives.  Lucy is a building shaped like an elephant built 130 years ago.  She has a fascinating history that  you can read about on her web site.  She sits right near the beach in a little fenced in area all her own.  You can take a tour of the inside for $7 each or just look around the outside for free.  There is a little gift shop and a grill next door.  You can climb up onto her howdah and get a nice view of the area.  I had a great time taking in this little piece of beach history.

Once we were done visiting Lucy we drove north to Atlantic City to donate some money to the slot machines in the casino.  We opted for Cesar's because we stumbled on their parking garage first.  When we entered the garage the price for parking was listed as $10 but somehow when we exited several hours later that price had ballooned to $20!  But, our goal was to have some fun and try our luck.  My strategy is to choose a machine that truly allows you to bet just one cent at a time if you choose.  Some of them are called penny machines, but their minimum bet is 25 or 30 cents.  One of my favorite machines uses a Wizard of Oz theme and we played that for awhile, but it was too pricey for my blood at 5 cents per line!  The real fun is when you win something special like extra spins or the chance to play the odds by choosing different "stars" with different winnings behind each one.  The casino is like it's own world.  Once your inside one you could be anywhere in the country and it could be any time of day....morning, evening or the middle of the night.  About the only thing that changes is the crowd. 

Once we tired of that we made our way back to my sisters house for a Memorial Day cook out and then back to the hotel to crash.  So today I'm catching up once again with the usual: unpacking, laundry, fill the bird feeders, water the plants and prepare for our next adventure coming up in just two weeks!