We weren't planning on leaving until just before noon, so I had time to do my Saturday 6½ as usual. I had fully anticipated waking up to either a driving rain, stiff wind, or some combination of the two. What did I get? No rain, no breeze, and air so thick you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw. I was fairly disappointed, but I did it, hoping with each step I'd feel that first drop. It didn't come ... The Applebee's Quesadilla Burger sitting in my tummy didn't help.
I need to remember:
"Rule #17: 'Watch out for jalapeños;' right between 'Go to bed early' and 'No beer until 9:00' It's the oldest rule in the book."
"That's 'AFTER 9:00', dork! And, if it's the oldest rule in the book; shouldn't it be Rule #1?"
Apparently it DID rain overnight as there were some puddles. Rain filled pine trees make excellent outdoor showers, when you can't find a sprinkler.
After cooling down, getting some Gatorade and changing out of my soggy running gear, I found out that the "warm Nor'easter" I expected, was 500 miles away up I-95.
D'Girls were clearly in no hurry, so we took our time leaving. I had the opportunity to set a benchmark of the precip we'd get; after a couple weeks of drought, the pond behind our house was dried out.
What we got over the next 24 hours would show up here.
We finally left around 12; the first sprinkles showed up on my windshield around 12:02. Stopping at Wawa, I txt'd a friend of mine updating the weather situation. In a "What Not to Wear" moment, I was promptly reminded what sizes I should shop for, and to keep my hands on the wheel.
We parked at Caesar's and decided to have lunch first, then shop ... a wise choice, since I was STARVING!!!
Inside the restaurant was pretty dark, like a rainforest should be, and above us, on the ceiling, they had a moonlit sky painted, complete with little lights for stars … every now and then a stream of them would flicker very quickly … Does wishing on LEDs count as much as a real shooting star?
Anyway ...
D'Wife got:
Blue Mountain Chicken Sandwich
A tender grilled chicken breast Cajun seasoned, topped with bacon, Swiss cheese, roasted red peppers and leaf lettuce. Served on a toasted bun with zesty Safari sauce and cole slaw [In true "When Harry Met Sally" fashion, she got the peppers on the side]
I ordered:
Rumble in the Jungle Turkey Wrap
Shaved turkey breast, Roma tomatoes, crisp bacon and Romaine lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing, wrapped in a tasty flour tortilla and served with cole slaw.
and, because it was rainy ...
Jungle Safari Soup
A journey for your tastebuds! Zucchini, tomatoes, sausage, garbanzo beans, kidney beans and spinach lightly stewed in a zesty broth with pasta and topped with shaved Parmesan cheese.
D'Kid got Mac & Cheese ... oh, well.
We finshed our lunch and stepped out to the muggy and sprinkly [not downpourish] weather outside. The wind was pretty furious and was whipping the surf up ... naturally, the hardcore showed up ...
[there was a time, I'd had have been one of them]
We got downpoured on almost immediately after leaving the casino - who thought to bring an umbrella? Besides and umbrella is pretty useless with 25 knot winds; it would just get blown out anyway.
Okay, now we're wet ... we don't have to worry about getting wet anymore; kind of like that first scratch on the new car.
We went to Clarks, PacSun, Disney, Nike and Converse. D'Wife got a pair of shoes; D'Kid did some excellent shopping and got two shirts from the clearance rack at Disney [one $20 "Camp Rock" LS Tee marked down to $7.99 and a $15 "High School Musical" Tee marked down to $4.99]
I got to drive home in rain so hard it looked like snow - the last 10 miles from Hammonton were near "white-out" conditions.
Someone said, "Seems like it wasn't really worth the trip."
I disagree; I was all about the adventure of going down the shore, in a hurricane, just to shop. And in the end, not to get that much!
The ridiculousness of it, makes it so worthwhile.
When all was said and done, Sunday morning I woke to this:
1 comment:
Great post! The picture of the pond at the end is beautiful!
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