LBI
Yeah so I haven't done a real entry in a very long time. I went on vacation to a place in NJ called Long Beach Island...I've been going there since 1990 I think. I try to go there every August with my family but the last time I was there was in 2002. I finally got the chance to go back this August. I went from August 24th to August 29th and had a lot of fun. We have been staying at a Motel called The Sea Shell Motel since about 1997. I used to stay at The Engleside from 1990 to 1996. I miss staying at The Engleside. The Sea Shell Motel used to be painted dark gray but to our surprise it was now painted pale yellow. We checked in at 2:45 and then unloaded the car and rolled our luggage into room 106. On the first night of my vacation we went to some restaurant called Bistro 14 and i ordered a bowl of scallops, shrimp, lobster, pasta and spinach (blech). It was pretty good but the scallops made me sick. I'm NEVER eating scallops again. But before I got sick last Thursday I went to the casino at the amusement park there called Fantasy Island. The casino was fun......I ended up holding 3 buckets of tickets the end of the night haha. I had 2 buckets of blue tickets and a bucket of white tickets. Blue tickets were 5 points each and the white tickets were 15 points each. I didn't cash in my tickets until Friday night. I got some cool stuff though: a licorice scented candle, an electric guitar thing, light up 2 hearts lamp, a light up yo-yo, a wooden necklace and bracelet set, and a bubble thing in the shape of a train and it also had a whistle on it. But during the day on the beach on Friday there were a lot of seagulls flying around and some little kid screamed at them: "Get away you birds!" It was pretty funny.....the little boy said it at least 10 times til they all flew away. Friday night I had a good dinner too at a place called the Gazebo near Fantasy Island.....I had ziti with chicken in vodka sauce. We woke up for the complimentary breakfast on Saturday. Then at 10 we hit the beach....but it was really chilly and looked like it was going to rain but it didn't. On Saturday night we ate at The Engleside. At the restaurant there I got angel hair pasta with 5 or 6 big shrimps. I could hardly finish the shrimps. After dinner, I played mini golf with my dad and sister then scored in second place. After mini golf I went on the Scrambler and the Giant (Ferris) Wheel. Then I got a flavor burst ice cream that was half vanila and half black cherry. Then I went to shopping area called Schooner's Wharf and went to the Candy Store and got a large sour apple jawbreaker and a box of salt water taffy. Also at the Candy Store,I got something called an elephant ear...it is a large flaky pastry with a cinnamon swirl. I shared it w/ my sister cuz it was too big for one person lol. After finishing that huge elephant ear pastry I bought an anchor necklace, a mexican beanie baby, a vibrating alligator (it vibrates when u pull the tail haha)at a store called Earth. Sea. Sky. (I was almost tempted to buy wind chimes there lol) Then I got a throw and catch game at a toy store...then I went upstairs and bought a Panic! At the Disco shirt and a Green Day shirt. I didn't buy a poster this time...since I already bought so many at Spencer's Gifts back at the Livingston Mall. Then we went back to the Motel at about 10:30. On Sunday my sister and I went to a waterslide park by Fantasy Island for 2 hours. For 45 minutes we climbed about the huge amount of steps to get to the slides...then we took a break and went on the Lazy River 3 times...then for the rest of the time we went back on the slides. After the slides we went back to the beach but couldn't go into the ocean b/c of stinging jellyfish. On Sunday night I had a delicious lobster dinner with manhattan clam chowder...we had a really nice, chipper waitress lol. We had to rush to eat dinner since we had to make an 8:00 play at the only theatre on the whole island. It was called the Surflight theatre. There we saw The Man of La Mancha (we generally see a play on the 4th night since we only stay 5 nights.) At 9:25..it was intermission. During intermission I got like a quart of ice cream. It had the name of a play: The Phantom of The Opera...it was the most expensive thing on the menu. In it..it had 5 scoops of chocolate ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, walnuts and a cherry on top. I ate it too slow b/c we missed some of the second half of the play. But it took a long time to get since it was so huge haha. The play ended at 10:30. It was a pretty good play. After the play my dad got the autograph from the main character b/c he was famous. Then we went back to the Motel and watched TV until 12:30. Monday we woke up early for the free complimentary breakfast. Then we went onto the beach at 10:00. It rained three times that day on and off...it was very annoying. The sun finally was noticeable at 5:00. A man hired to play cover songs on his guitar by the pool said "Hey it's pretty nice weather outside." Then after we were done getting ready my sister and I took a walk around the block. We walked past a place my sister told me about called the Chocolate Bar..and then when we passed the Show Place a cute guy who worked there followed us and rounded the corner....i think he was staring at us lol. On Monday night I had lobster for dinner again at our Motel's restaurant and sure enough we had the same chipper waitress haha. When she saw us again she said "It's nice to see you again!" When we ordered the Lobster Special again she said "You guys are so predictable." After our second lobster dinner, we went to the Candy store again at Schooner's Wharf. I got a candy necklace, another jawbreaker and chocolate twizzlers. Then we sat down on a bench and ate some candy. Afterwards, we went back to Fantasy Island. I went on the Sea Dragon, a ride called Dragon, Scrambler again, Tilt-A-Whirl, and The Giant Wheel again. After going on the Giant Wheel, I challenged my sister to a DDR match and won. Then we got ice cream again. This time I got a flavor burst that was half vanilla and half green apple. My dad got a big sundae and my sister got a flavor burst of vanilla and classic cherry. We stayed til 11:00 (closing time) they closed down the park, closed the front gates and roped off the middle of the park. My sister kept saying "Lets get out of here..it's really creepy." We had to wait for my dad to finish his sundae. After the sundae we walked out the back entrance. Then my sister and I had a dancing contest on the sidewalk on the way back to the van. Then we went back to our Motel and watched TV until 12:30..then went to sleep in the Sea Shell Motel for the last time. We woke up at 9:30 yesterday...but we were too tired and we weren't hungry enough for breakfast. So we got up at about 10:30 or 11..my dad had a panic attack b/c he couldn't find his car keys.."Where are my keys?" My sister said "You got your wish...we're staying on this island forever if dad doesn't find his car keys." It turns out his car keys fell behind the dresser. We had to move the entire dresser to get them. Then when he got the keys....we moved all of luggage out of the room. Then the room phone rang and the woman at the front desk urged us to check out so the maid could clean the room. After we packed up the car, we read our books by the Motel pool. Then we got lunch by the beach and oddly enough we had the same chipper waitress from Sunday and Monday night..lol. She said "Hello again!" My sister ordered fried coconut shrimp, I forget what my dad ordered, and I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with 2 strips of bacon and melted cheese and on the side it had spicy macaroni hehe. After lunch we sat down by the pool again and read our books some more. At about 2:15 we left and said goodbye to the Seashell Motel. Then as we drove past the Surflight theatre we said "Goodbye Surflight Theatre!" Then we stopped at a place called The Silver Sun Mall. It used to have a food court but they got rid of it. My dad had to buy a new beach chair because he broke his chair haha. My sister got a nice picture fame and a long sleeved shirt that said Long Beach Island on it. I got a light blue north face type fleece that said LBI on it there for 20 bucks, a baseball type shirt that had red sleeves and said Long Beach Island on it and wind chimes lol. The wind chimes were pretty cool...they were metal poles that were painted orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue. After we left the Silver Sun Mall...we got back into the van and started to drive off the island. As we drove further down off the island we saw many water towers that marked each town. After we passed the Ship Bottom water tower we were off the island. We only stopped for gasoline on the way home since we had lunch at the hotel. When we got home...we started to unpack the van in the rain. After settling in I cried and said "I miss Long Beach Island!" Then I watched TV and calmed down after I took my anti-depresant (I've been on them ever since my mom passed away in April :( ) I unpacked today and I still miss Long Beach Island and I thought it was hard to believe that we were just there yesterday. But I'm glad b/c I had a nice time there and hope to go back there next August.