Cape May to Old Saybrook, CT

Didn't post last night; too tired and too late to try to do it.

We got up in Cape May, drove to the Lighthouse and looked in the museum there, walked over to the beach, and just looked around a while. Then we hit the road headed north.

We visited several beach communities and headed to Atlantic City. Neither of us had ever been there, and we wanted to see it and to walk on the boardwalk to see what was there.

Atlantic City is pretty big, with lots of big hotels and casinos. Trump has several casinos, along with Ballys and others.

We found a parking place and went to the boardwalk. It was nicer than I had imagined; clean and wide; perhaps 50 feet wide, with lots of little shops along the mainland side. Many were the cheap Tee shirt shops; some tattoo shops, and food places. Nothing that interested either of us very much.

Walked up to one of the casinos. I asked Big Sis if she had ever gambled or been in a casino. She replied that she had not. So I asked her if she wanted to go in. She said it was alright, but she was not interested in gambling.

We walked around a little so that she could see the slot machines, craps tables, and other gambling stuff. At one point, I decided that I wanted to play a slot machine a little. So, I put $5 into the machine, and after about 10 minutes, had credits worth $6; a dollar profit! So, she decided that she would try $5 as well. She played about five minutes and lost her $5. I told her that it was a cheap lesson, that it did not pay to gamble. I think she agreed.

After that, it was time to move northward.

We took back roads north and westward, to keep away from New York City. We stopped in Parsippany NJ at a nice, but badly overpriced Hampton Inn.

Got up this morning, and rode through New York and on into Connecticut. We had decided to stay off I-95 and to stay on US 1 as much as possible. So we did. We have connections to US 1; our maternal grandparents lived in Henderson NC, near US 1, so there was some personal connection to the road.

It winds around I-95, sometimes on one side, and other times on the other side. It goes through numerous small towns and townships, making the progress slow, but with lost of interesting sights to see. It was an easy drive most of the time, and she is a great navigator, so it was a good day.

Towards the end of the day, we chose to stay at Old Saybrook for the night. Went into Essex to see sights, and had a beer at the Black Seal Bar. Pretty good, but pricey. Then dinner at the Griswold Inn, a place that has been in continuous operation since 1776! It was excellent. We shared a salad and pasta dinner, and it was wonderful and too much to eat!

It has been a good trip. We've talked so much about our childhood and things we did and people we knew and played with. A wonderful trip down memory lane. It is what I had hoped it would be. Her memory of people and facts is amazing. Once she's mentioned a person, I can then remember almost all of them, and picture a lot of them, but she had to jog my memory to help me remember.

The weather has been great the last two days. while the first two were not very good, the past couple have been almost all blue skies. But it was hot today, with 97 degrees showing in one place.

Tomorrow, we plan to get to Cape Cod.