Shopping in Atlantic City

Good morning from atop Atlantic City! And I do mean that literally -- I'm writing this blog post from the 44th floor of Caesar's in Atlantic City. I'll write more about my lovely stay tomorrow.

But until then, I'll write about a much more important topic: shopping.

I kid, I kid, but it is something people do when they're down the shore, especially in Atlantic City, which gives you plenty of chances to spend. Two big favorites are the Atlantic City Outlets (aka the Walk) and the Pier Shops at Caesars. You can walk between the two, which helps.

I know people go nuts for outlet shopping, especially now when everyone is not only looking for but needs a deal. Here's my tip: at this time of year, you could get better deals from the sales racks of non-outlet stores. I had that luck last summer at Banana Republic and Charles David, and I did it again this year.

I spent about an hour at the outlets on Wednesday and came home with running socks from the Adidas store. Yes, just running socks. I'm a pretty thrifty person, and they were the only thing that really jumped out at me (and the dryer has been eating my running socks, so I had a need).

Yesterday I headed into the Pier and found a gorgeous green knit dress that I'm calling my first Mad Men-inspired purchase of the year. It's a fall color at a summer clearance price:



It looks a little different on someone who's er, a little more hour glass-y :-)

I also made a fabulous purchase for the upcoming school year. Yes, I said school year: I'm teaching technical writing at Rutgers-Camden this fall. This is my 'school bag':



I'm a big fan of LeSportsac bags (and Russian nesting dolls -- I have one in my dining room), and I sometimes need to see a pattern in person to grab me instead of looking at it on a website. So it's nice to be able to come to an actual LeSportsac store. Thanks, Pier at Caesars.

With that, I'm going to pack up and head home. It looks like it'll be a beautiful beach day (though Saturday's going to be hard to top), but my pup's waiting for me, and I've got some things to do at home. Ciao!