Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City

You know that expression that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? Well FYI, and I won't go into any details, that is not true at all in Atlantic City, NJ. But when it comes to casinos, golf, live entertainment, restaurants, and fantastic timeshare resorts, "America's Favorite Playground" is second only to Las Vegas. Plus in "AC" (as the locals call it), you've got the Atlantic Ocean, white sandy beaches, and the world's most famous boardwalk. Fuggedaboutit!

Atlantic City is a classic American reinvention story. What was once a sleepy little barrier island boomed to become a Guilded Age playground for the rich and famous. By the 1930s, AC boasted hundreds of resorts, hotels, inns, and rooming houses, with convenient train service from both Philadelphia and New York. During this period it gave the world saltwater taffy, the Miss America pageant, and was the inspiration for the Monopoly game board. Hey, did you know they even had a diving horse show here? Yep, a horse and rider would dive from as high as fifty feet up into small pool of water below. Turns out the horses didn't so much "dive" as much as they were tripped, pushed, and prodded into falling into the pool. Did I mention they don't do this anymore?

Anyway, the years after WWII saw AC fall into a steep decline, and by the 1960s it was teetering on the brink of obscurity and decay. But in 1976, New Jersey voters pass the Casino Gambling Referendum, establishing the first legal gambling casinos in the east. A new resort town was born, and Bally's, Caesars, Harrah's, the Tropicana, and the Borgata all sprung up. And of course the world was introduced to "The Donald" and his Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, Trump Marina, and his very peculiar hair.

I am renting a great timeshare at Atlantic Palace, right on the famous boardwalk, with stunning ocean views. Looks like you can get a rental here starting as low as $107/night. And if you think you might like to own, you can get in for as little as $1500. RedWeek members give this place 4 stars with lots of great reviews, so maybe you should sign up for a posting alert to be notified when new listings become available.

Well, I am off Tony Boloney's Pizza Slaughter Fest where contestants have to eat their way through one slice of each of the 30 varieties of pizza offered. I don't normally go for competitive eating (a.k.a. organized gluttony) but it's to raise money to help kids with cancer, and I gotta try this Casino Carnivore. It's 10 heaping layers of meat, ravaged by mozzarella. Are you kidding me!? They had me at "heaping layers of meat".