I’m back! And I didn’t even get a sun burn. Well, not much of one. Just a tiny bit on my back. I even got a tan. Kinda sorta.

“Wow, we thought you’d be all tan from the beach” my co-workers said.

“This is it” I replied. My freckles have gotten larger and more numerous. That’s got to count for something.

We stayed in a different house this year – not the same one where we’d been the last two years. This house was just as nice and it had a pool and was a block closer to the ocean. The pool was really great for the kids who are just learning how to swim. I really enjoy the beach, and I went for a walk along the shore line every night that I was there, except for the last night when it was raining.

The town “slogan” of Avalon is “cooler by a mile” and it was a lot cooler there than it was at home. I found myself wearing my little terry cloth jacket in the evenings. The town wasn’t crowded. I heard that people come and stay during the week there more in August, since the ocean water is allegedly still cold. Of course, I didn’t find it cold since a) I can’t swim anyway, so I only go out to my knee caps and b) it’s not nearly as cold as the water in New England.

On Wednesday, I went to Atlantic City with my brother, sister-in-law, and a friend of the family. We went to the Tropicana, mostly because it was easy to park there. Atlantic City always gives me mixed emotions. There’s certainly no way I could claim to be against gambling, heck, I came away from the place with $50 more than I went in with. But it always strikes me that if casinos are supposed to be so good for the economy, providing jobs etc, you sure can’t tell it from looking around there. But maybe the place would be in even worse shape if the casinos weren’t there.

Anyway, I’m not exactly a high roller. I played penny and nickel slots and a roulette type game called “money wheel”. I have a highly unscientific way of playing slot machines: I play the ones that have graphics or sounds that I like. But I usually stop playing a machine once I win, even if I only win a little bit. This strategy doesn’t usually make me a winner, it just keeps me from losing money too fast, and keeps me moving around, so I feel like I’ve been entertained.

I won $30.00 on a penny slot machine. I felt a little bad about it, because the only reason I was playing the machine was to kill time while we were waiting for the floor attendant to assist my brother: the machine he was playing had eaten his play voucher and jammed. But he was a good sport about it.

We had lunch at an Irish restaurant in the hotel. It was a little weird that that hotel had an Irish Pub, since the whole “theme” of the place is that it’s supposed to be like old Havana. But the food there was really, really good and they served excellent tea by the pot (no problem with the heat – I promise there is no place with a more comfortable air temperature than a casino!)

After lunch we played the money wheel. I’m usually pretty good at roulette type games and I won back everything I had lost at the slots and then some. In fact all of us won, except for my brother. He wasn’t having such good luck that day. However, our friend won about $300, mostly at that game. I think that one might be sort of like a “loss leader” for the casino, to draw people in to other table games

So, it was a lot of fun. But I’m still glad to be back home with my flock. Or my pack. Or maybe I have a “flack”. Either way, I’m glad to be back!