Someone Turned 28!!

Well Happy Birthday to Ellen! July 30th landed on a Monday this year so to really make the first NYC birthday memorable it became a weekend event. Starting off with presents is always a great way to go. Note the fish face of the Birthday Girl - just practicing up for one of the coolest presents ever - Scuba Diving Lessons!! They start up on August 15th so someone send the underwater camera quick!

What is scarier then Ellen diving with sharks?? Ellen driving in New York City! That's right, the next step in the birthday weekend - renting a car to head out of the city. The car we originally ordered wasn't ready so we got an upgrade to a Red Mustang Convertible - Yeah Baby!! The mean streets of NYC didn't stand a chance and soon we had navigated out to the New Jersey Turnpike (aka I95, which is the sister road to I90). We knew this was a "toll road" but we didn't know how many tolls (or how ridiculous the toll costs) there were. About ever 10 to 20 miles there was a new toll and the costs were so strange. Some were normal, about $1 - $5 dollars. But others were 70 cents, 30 cents. Honestly, who carries exact change for 70 cents? Looking at the change we brought we weren't sure if we would have enough to make it to the "surprise destinations" but we just made it. First stop...Princeton!!
Here we were, touring one of the oldest campuses in the world! While it was founded in 1746 it has only been in this location since 1896. It is one of the Ivy League schools and it really looks exactly what you would picture an Ivy League to be. The buildings are all like little castles and build around the land. So rather then leveling the ground to build the campus they build the campus buildings around the characteristics of the land. It is really unique and beautiful.
For lunch we wandered out of the campus in search of an authentic "Princeton Hangout". We found a fabulous little pub with great food and a very friendly bar tender named Mike. He gave us some tips on what to do and were to go on our trek down to our next stop...Atlantic City!
So with the educational part of the journey behind us we struck out to strike it rich - AC here we come. This picture was a feat of photography genius being that we were traveling at around 70 mph and the camera had fallen under the seat. Atlantic City is really a much smaller Vegas without all the glitz, "glamour", and size. The best part was the people watching on the boardwalk - even though it was so hot and humid that it was hard to stay outside for very long. We would have to duck into the casinos about every 15 minutes just to cool/dry off! We went to Jazz City to get an appetizer and were treated with grilled shrimp served on cornbread with this amazing smokey rosemary sauce. What AC lacked in dazzle it made up for with those shrimp!
So after ducking in and out of casinos, people watching, shrimp eating, and boardwalk sun soaking we decided it was time to head back to the city that never sleeps to get some sleep. It was still so warm that we drove most of the way back with the top down. The tolls were still as numerous and as ridiculous as on the ride down! We only got a little turned around - missed the exit for the Holland Tunnel but re-routed ourselves to take the Lincoln Tunnel instead. We are now officially expert navigators and we're thinking of becoming taxi drivers in our spare time. The car was not due back until the next day so we had to deal with parking in NYC. Well, we timed it perfectly as the street parking had just opened up (midnight) so we found a place right away just a block from our place! It was easier then parking in Seattle for sure!!

The next morning before taking the car back we drove up to and through Central Park. It is fun to say that not only have we walked all over the Park but we now have seen it on wheels. There is a pretty main road that cuts through the park about mid way so we got to drive all around and through, top down and everything. After that we navigated back to Midtown to return the car. And the best part of our driving experience - we didn't even need the extra insurance policy we took out - talk about the best birthday present of all!!!