Atlantic City

A while back I signed up for a promotion that gave me free Hertz Gold status and 500 Hertz points, enough for a free weekend rental.  I looked for all the cool places I could go within driving distance of DC.  At first, I was going to go to Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright house, but found out that tours of the house aren't offered in January and February.  From there, I pulled up a map and saw that Atlantic City was only 3.5 hour drive.  So, Atlantic City it was.

We headed to the airport at around 9:30 am to pick up our rental car from Hertz.  We had ordered a Buick Lacrosse, but they said they didn't have any available so we got a Nissan Altima instead

Nissan Altima

The drive was actually really nice.  We went through a bunch of little towns and got to see all the wonders of Wilmington, Delaware!

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Some Other Bridge

Along the way, we stopped at an outlet mall and stumbled across a Pepperidge Farm store, which I found very strange and awesome.

Pepperidge Farm Store

After about four long hours of driving, we arrived in Atlantic City.  We started off by wandering around and looking at some of the hotels.  

After losing $1 on the slot machines, we decided to head over to the Borgata Hotel, which was supposed to have the best buffet in Atlantic City.  The Borgata is a lot nicer than the most of the other hotels in Atlantic City.  It's much newer, compared with the rest of the outdated hotels like Trump.  The buffet, at $31/person, was expensive, but well worth it for the opportunity to shove vast quantities of food into my face at high velocities.  The quality of the food was pretty good, and they had a wide array of options from sushi to fried chicken to gelato.

Iced Tea

Dessert

Seating Area

Gelato

By the end, I was extremely stuffed to the point of needing to be wheeled out in a wheelchair.  That's the problem with buffets.  You always go in with high hopes, but just leave feeling sick.  

We had to return the car back to the Hertz in DC by 2 am since we only had it for one day.  After the buffet, we had a few more hours to kill so we looked around the hotel some more.

Lobby

Lobby

Lemmings Gambling their Life Savings Away

Horse Racing

Lobby

View from the Hotel

Before leaving, I decided to give gambling one last try.  I put $5 into the machine and instantly won $2.  I decided to call it quits while I was ahead and cashed out.  

So in the end, I left Atlantic City with a profit of $1.  The drive back home went by fairly fast.  I doubt I'll visit Atlantic City again any time soon, but if I do, I'll be sure to bring some tupperware to take home some of the buffet with me (yes, I'm a fat ass).  Overall though, it was an interesting day trip, and I hope to maybe stay overnight next time.

Trip to Palm Springs

DEN-PSP-IAH-DCA

I recently took a short trip to Palm Springs to visit some family.  We got up early Saturday morning to drive to the airport.  After arriving at the airport and parking, we boarded our Frontier flight.

Frontier plane at the gate

Horrible leg room

TV

Leaving Denver

Denver skyline

Rocky Mountains

The flight went by very quickly, in part due to my new laptop.  My Dell laptop died on me, so I got an Acer Aspire Timeline X.  The best part about the Acer is its battery life which they claim lasts around 9 hours, more than enough to watch movies on the plane.  I've tested the battery and I can get about 9 to 11 hours just doing minimal tasks like browsing the internet, and I get about 4 to 6 hours watching movies.

We were soon flying over Palm Springs and there was a lot of nice scenery on our descent.

Flying over Palm Springs

I had a nice few days in Palm Springs relaxing and catching up with family.  We went to a few restaurants including Jackalope Ranch and Hog's Breath. 

Jackalope Ranch

Chicken and ribs 

Hog's Breath Inn

Steak and fries

Chocolate mousse

After a nice weekend, we headed back to Palm Springs Airport where I boarded a flight back to DC via Houston.  One thing to note is how nice Palm Spring's airport is.  Last time I was here, they were still doing renovations on the airport, but it's really nice now with plenty of outdoor areas to sit and watch planes take off with the mountains in the backdrop.

Outdoor walkway to the terminal

Boarding flight to Houston

Economy Plus leg room - much better than Frontier

Leaving Palm Springs

Upon arriving in Houston, I grabbed some dinner.

Heat lamp pizza

My flight back to DC was extremely crowded.  I sat next to a guy who said he was Global Services, and he said he was third on the upgrade list -- much better than me, I was last on the list.  Overall, it was a great trip and I hope to visit Palm Springs again soon.