So I'd better write about my birthday weekend extravaganza before it gets to be too far in the past. Thursday night we arrived late at my parents house, where my sis and bro-in-law already were. We had lasagne and Carvel ice cream cake - we always, always had a Carvel ice cream cake for our birthday growing up; usually we'd give the Carvel person some picture of Garfield or Snoopy torn out of the Sunday comics for them to draw (with icing) on the top. This time the top was this thick fudge. While pulling the candles off of it, we coined the phrase "Fudge Suction," a future band. After their first self-titled album, they'll release "Forkful of Fudge." But it just won't have the buzz of the first one and will quickly end up in the remainder bins.
I got the aforementioned digital camera, which was exciting; sis got a Game Cube, which I will never own because I have enough trouble staying away from the television. And then Mom pulled out these huge photo albums she had made for us, all photos of us and our family from birth to now. Most of the shots I had never seen before, because my dad used to only shoot slides because the color was better. So they got prints made from the slides, and the prints look brand-new, unlike the old photos. It's one of the best presents I've ever gotten.
Friday we picked up friends A and SR and convoy-ed down to Long Beach Island. It was cloudy and a little chilly. LBI is less charming than I remembered, but it was still pretty neat; it's very skinny and the little beach houses (way too many) are cute and strange. Some of the best store names we passed: Hands (a department store), Sunglass Menagerie, and Capt. Jackson's Mr. Breakfast.
We got into the Green Gables and were shown our rooms. They were pretty shabby, and P and I got the worst one of the three; but they all had some problems, with bubbling paint, old linens, dirty windows, etc. It was "shabby chic" without the "chic." Plus, I had been expecting some sort of common room or lobby we could hang out in, but there was nothing. Really, Green Gables' main gig is the restaurant, which is very expensive and well-regarded (glowing reviews coated the walls). The "Inn" part of it was a total afterthought. It seemed like they had this old Victorian house with a restaurant on the first floor, and they had these old rooms on the second and third floors, and hell, let's put some "antique" furniture in it and charge $130 a night for 'em. And the free breakfast, the one where they tell you the chef bakes special pastry treats for? It's bullshit. The first morning we caught them buying bagels and muffins from the place next door.
Anyway. I'm not going to do a recap of everything because that would be boring. So I'll do an US Weekly-style bulleted list.
- We should have swam in the cold our first day, when we had a chance (pre-rain). The water was very warm.
- It is very hard to find food that isn't fried in LBI.
- Lobsters over one pound are easy to overcook.
- Lots and lots of immature yet hilarious jokes can be made when visiting the Fudge Factory, where you can See It Made and buy Fudge Patrol t-shirts.
- Chowder Hut may have been recommended by someone on Chowhound.com, but their clam chowder pretty much sucks.
- Crazy Taxi is a very fun game.
- I rule the Skill Cranes. I got a stuffed Grover and a talking Towelie (South Park character I've never seen).
- A funny real LBI band name is the Swingin Johnsons.
- The nature trail at Barnegat Light is very nice. I wanted to climb up the stairs to the top of the lighthouse but noone would come with me. Instead P and I walked out on the huge jetty and got buffeted by strong winds and rain and spray and had a ball.
- The protected wildlife refuge apparently doesn't count fish, since they were letting SUVs drive on the beach to reach the prime surf-casting areas. We did see incredible waves churned up by wind and dolphins frolicking in the surf. The wind was so strong the sand stung our bare legs.
- There's really only so long you can play video games before you start feeling dizzy and bored.
So on Sunday it was pouring, really raining, and we decided to go to Brooklyn. We had to pay for the third night anyway, which really sucked, since we didn't really like giving the place any more money than they had earned. The whole island seemed to be done for the summer. Everyone seemed worn out and like they didn't care anymore. I don't blame them, but a vacation like this is extremely rare for me, so yeah, I was disappointed.
We hit Brooklyn around 6 p.m. and read the rest of the blah-blah in the entry below for 9/2.
I actually had a lot of fun. I got some kick-ass gifts and hung out with very funny sarcastic people and ate fudge and I slept very well. So do not feel sad for Debbie.