In this post:
1. Part two of last weekend’s Jersey shore hijinks!
2. And a modest, but important nonetheless head’s up
Alright, so where were we? Oh yes, WILDWOOD!!! And for those who somehow missed it, be sure to check out part one first.
Here we have one of the many fine crafts one can acquire at the Jersey shore…
Though even better…
… “coconut turtles! we got one” sez Katie.
Again, tasty treats were abound, including the quite difficult to find variety…
… “i used to have candy cigarettes as a kid. guess what? they work.”
Time for another look at the fine apparel available at the boardwalk, where Bieber fever was in full effect. Along with other hunks that make the young girls swoon…
“wildwood math”…
This pic once again proves that french fries are more popular than God…
My only disappointment from the weekend was no Juggalo sightings. These freak show clowns simply cannot compare…
Both Katie and I were not sure what this was supposed to mean…
You also had “rooms” filled with couches and beds where one could relax and get worked over by Chinese people. Great idea on paper, but it seemed awfully unsanitary, among other things…
Along with the iPhone, virtually every activity promised an iPad. I’ve seen plenty of fakes of the former, but have yet to see the dinky Chinese knock-offs of the latter…
When the sun settles, the rides light up!
The Wildwood(s) convention center is conveniently located by the shore as well; what I would give for a comic show there…
On our way back to the camper, we noticed that ice cream shop across the street was finally open!
… It mostly does evening hours, for perhaps obvious reasons. We had some the very next night and my God it was like the greatest ice cream ever.
It was a long day for myself, but especially Katie, who had to do all the driving, so she passed out before myself. Mostly cuz I was still hungry, so I went back out to hunt for food. For the finest chicken sandwich ever to be precise, which led me to… you know where!
… Once more, love the 50′s vibe of everything there. And here’s the last pic of day one; on the way back I passed by a Blockbuster…
The sandwich btw was most excellent, as expected, and was chowed down while indulging on cable access via the teeny tiny bedside tv. Not the highlight but the lowlight was the E3 pre-show special on Spike TV, but less said the better.
We both got up super early the next day for breakfast at a lakefront diner called Duffy’s, which totally hit the spot. Then we drove around, checking out all the other hotels and their goofy, 50′s architecture, as well as the cute homes that also populate the area. The idea of actually living in Wildwood kinda blew our minds, and needless to say, we would love to ourselves. At least on my end, in which most of my work is done at home, it’s semi-plausible.
Eventually, ended up venturing out quite a bit, and stumbled across a huge garage sale. This dude was selling all sorts of junk, like a ballerina statue inside a bottle of booze, a mug that had tits on it, and this…
As noted, theme restaurants were EVERYWHERE and come in all shapes and sizes…
Soon it was time to hit the beach proper, at least for Katie. Since I’m no swimmer, I went exploring on my own. Guess now is the appropriate time for some follow-up; finally saw a proper dermatologist, who gave me the meds I needed to get better. After just two days, my skin made a miraculous turn for the better, and just in the nick of time; was seriously afraid that I wouldn’t be able to be under the sun all weekend, period. But get this: like I said, had a staph infection, but the sun poisoning was a misdiagnosis. Instead, what I was also suffering from was… wait for it… an allergic reaction to Neosporin! When I tried using it to deal with my pussy wounds, the problem seemed to only get worse and I didn’t know why. That led to me using even more Neosporin and the problem getting worse, which I blamed on other things, like the sun. Anyhow, the doctor said he had never seen anything like that before, but I wasn’t joking when I said that I was allergic to EVERYTHING.
Anyway, back to exploring, since the brochure to the hotel mentioned a game room, decided to check it out!
… Not pictured on the other side was a Ms. Pac-Man machine stuck in test mode and Sunset Riders! And here’s the “kitchen” where they serve the complimentary breakfast…
Katie didn’t last long at the beach I’m afraid…
… The lack of crowds should have been a clear-cut sign; the water was apparently way freezing, with the strong winds not helping matters, hence why she eventually took a dip in the hotel’s pool. While that was going on, I roamed the boardwalk by myself; at this point, Saturday, more stuff was open than the day before. Like this house of worship..
There were seagull warnings all over the place (though my favorite, which I neglected to take a picture of, stated: IF YOU FEED ME, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU ALONE)…
“the only documentation of this historic achievement”…
Day two was when I finally dug deep into the arcades. As expected, actual video games were far and few between. It’s all about ticket spewing activities. Though you also had the classic crane game, even ones imported directly from Japan!
Some operators felt the need to plaster absolutely everything with whatever’s hot, like this Wii slot machine…
Again, the vast majority of games found at the arcades were the aforementioned redemption machines. Even recent “standards” like Dance Dance Revolution were absent, and not once did I spot a single Street Fighter or any fighting title, which was definitely odd. There was just one Ms. Pac-Man machine throughout the entire boardwalk, and not a combo unit with Galaga no less! Which I played of course, and no didn’t reach the high score. Was super fast too, just how I like it too, but the sun’s glare simply got in the way. Excuses, excuses, I know. Though it’s worth noting that practically EVERY game center did have Terminator Salvation, that new light-gun game with the gigantic rifles and huge HD display.
At least there was plenty of skee ball, and the old fashioned, vastly superior to that neon bullshit that tries to pass itself off as such. The arcade near Morey’s Pier had the largest assortment, which is where Katie and I played the most…
… Her high score was 280 while mind was 320, a personal best! We had enough tickets in the end to win a stuffed blue frog. It was also where I spotted this sight of all sights…
… Yup, an actual Sega Racing Classic get-up, aka Daytona HD. And guess what? If f’n blows. Christ, Sega REALLY screwed this one. For those who haven’t heard, it’s the greatest arcade racer of all time in “glorious” HD. It totally didn’t need it; the supposedly low-res graphics still looks drop-dead gorgeous due the high-end arcade monitor it usually sports, with colors sharp and details vivid (provided the display is in decent enough shape and isn’t all blurry/riddled with burn in).
Oh boy, the monitor is 1080p (or maybe even 720p, don’t know/don’t care), but it’s a moot point since Sega neglected to update the graphics, so everything looks crappy now. Wonderful. As for the audio, well, it’s another remix of the seminal Daytona soundtrack, but I guess almost fifteen years later, you’re gonna have to try a bit harder to knock my socks off with yet another remix of King Of Speed, sorry. And no, I didn’t play the second track to see if the word Daytona was removed; one play was enough for me. What an abortion, Sega should be really ashamed of themselves. Moving on, hey, fried butter anyone?
… So on every corner of boardwalk you had deep fried this, deep fried that, and I’ve always been curious about deep fried Oreos. But I’ve also been afraid that it’ll give me explosive diarrhea. Plus diabetes, can’t forget that (my dad had like size once at the local state fair in Washington and was finally diagnosed with the big D, though it was a long-time coming, bizarre carney food aside).
A loving tribute, flat-out racist, or both?
By mid/late afternoon, the entire place was packed, especially Morey’s Pier, a strong contrast to the day before. Yet it wasn’t a total madhouse, so the wait for rides were not insanely long; Katie and I were always next in line. I remember a good deal of my lone visit to Disneyland being spent just standing around, waiting for our turn. Finally got to go on a few roller-coasters, but since those are kinda hard to photograph, here’s the water slide, which was one of the busier attractions due to being quite warm and sunny…
This haunted ride was absolutely awesome, easily blowing away the day before’s laughable Ghost Ship. Reason? Teenage Asian dudes in black robes that go “Boo!”
I totally loved this kiddie ride featuring bootleg Speed Racer and pals…
Next time we’re gonna try to rent this trailer…
While waiting for one ride, Katie spotted this hairless pair…
… So glad he didn’t catch me sneaking pics and beat the shit out of me. Anyway, here’s Katie on a ride I would get on, cuz it’s one of those deals that spins a lot, and my stomach can’t handle those…
… It was one she never got the chance to ride as a kid for whatever reason. At long last, a dream fulfilled. Later, back indoors, I stumbled across this boss looking Iron Man pinball machine!
We ended up stumbling into a toy store on the boardwalk and this astromech made me once again feel very jealous toward Joel (who has the biggest collection that I know off). Wait, this guy was a spy? Zack, please tell me which episode this all goes down in; does R2 beat the crap out of him?
A staple of any beachside cuisine…
Along with HOT GERMAN WEINERS…
The plan was to take pics as I rode shotgun and Katie was behind the wheel during bumper cars, but I only got this pic before the calamity ensued…
… Shortly after we started moving, the lady in charge yelled “Hey, you, with the camera! Put it away!” The woman would also become extremely flustered that everyone was running into each other, which last I checked, was the point of bumper cars. You could tell that running the thing was punishment for poorly performing employees or something.
Because of one particularly fast & furious coaster, which raddled our brains a bit too much, all desires to go on anything similar had been severely diminished. So the very last ride was this magical boat that slowly ran the outside parameter of the park, which more on the slow and scenic side…
“just 2 hipsters riding in a magical ship, yawll.”
Yeah, as you can see, I was wearing a hipster hat, acquired as a preventative measure when I thought I had sun poisoning, but Katie insists that I don’t look like a total idiot with it. But girlfriends are supposed to say friendly lies like that, right?
Eventually it was dinnertime, and we settled on a joint called Duffer’s. Yes… in the morning we ate at Duffy’s, at night it was Duffer’s. Well, what made this place so special is how it had an arcade inside!
Along with mini golf to the side…
The food btw was, not surprisingly, amazing. My burger and Katie’s steak sandwich were both top notch. Best part was how there was a model train that ran on a track affixed near the ceiling the entire time! The major draw of the place is actually the desert menu; this family behind us each ordered a waffle, one that looked about four times bigger than the average one, with, no joke, almost half a foot high of ice cream and whipped on-top! Though Katie and I waited decided to hold off on after dinner sweets cuz we really wanted to try that parlor across our camper, for ice cream in bed (which as noted, did not disappoint). It’s also where I took this last pic of the day inside…
The next day it was finally time to say goodbye to Wildwood, which was a major bummer. Last pic of the entire trip; just as you roll into town there’s this overgrown, abandoned mini golf and arcade. Like Katie sez: “SILENT HILL 8″…
That’s pretty much it! Like I said, the time of our lives, a get-away we both desperately needed. I just love the irony that immediately followed back home; cuz we had some time on our hands before turning the Zipcar in, I suggested we go to Trader Joe’s to stock up not only groceries, but (relatively) healthy food, since we both indulged in the junkiest food imaginable. So imagine my shock when… after three days straight of greasy hot dogs, french fries, and assorted sugary treats… that I had a severe allergic reaction to a bag of pre-cut apples that evening! A longtime fave snack of mine from TJ no less. Fun-fact: in addition to Neosporin, I’m pretty much allergic to everything, including many fruits, but the reaction is so minor that at most my throat just gets all tingly. I should have stopped after the first few pieces, when its was stronger than normal, but figured it was no big deal. Fast-forward half and hour, in which my throat was almost shut tight and Katie was seriously worried that I was going to die on the spot. Oy vey.
Alright, enough pics for now. Next up will be highlights from Joe‘s ultra fab book release party, plus my much anticipated (lol) two-cents regarding E3! I actually can’t afford to waste anytime since this week is gonna be a busy one; got a Microsoft event for us poor journalists who couldn’t make it out to LA last week and, not sure if you’ve all heard by now, but the New York Asian Film Fest 2010 kicks off very soon! Plus some other fun stuff, so as always, stay alert.
