Your Shore Weekend

I'm packing. Again. This makes weekend four of five away from home -- yes, in a row. Oy. The good news is that the big article that took me away from home most of those weekends is now done and sitting with my editor (I won't say completely done because it needs to be edited, and I'm sure there will be changes).

I'm also headed to Book Expo America on Friday for Jen's version of Disney World: hundreds of publishers lined up in a row for me to talk to and ask what they're publishing in the near future (I also review books when not down the shore -- or at the shore, but not writing about it). Then I'm off to AC via the ACES Train to AC. But more on that after the shore schedule.

FRIDAY
WXPN is hosting what looks like could be great concert at the Showboat's House of Blues: Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller sound good to me.

Over in Ocean City, the Lu Lu Shrine concert band is playing at the Music Pier at 8pm. FREE

Ocean City's Restaurant Week started on Thursday. I haven't posted about it because, to be honest, I'm not buying this claim that Ocean City is one of the best places in the country to open a restaurant. You can't even BYOB in town, and that's not exactly opening up the door to high class eateries. It's also pretty dead in the winter. I'm sure someone's going to yell at me in the comments, but it is what it is. Anyway, if you like eating in Ocean City, you should check it out. I like OC, but it's not my first choice for dining.

SATURDAY
Blue Magic's giving a free concert from noon to dusk at Gardner's Basin in Atlantic City. FREE

Start laughing: Jay Leno and Wanda Sykes are at the Borgata and Joan Rivers is at the Hilton. If I had to pick? Rivers, hands down.

The Ocean City Boardwalk Spring Family Fun Fest starts today on the boardwalk from 9 am to 6pm. It'll run on Sunday, too, at the same times.

Heritage and Sea Isle City hold their surf tournament on Saturday.

Vroom Vroom. The Spring Thunder on the Sand Motorcross Pro/Am is in Wildwood this weekend -- both Saturday and Sunday.

SUNDAY
Aside from driving home? Check out the Ocean City and Wildwood weekend events that extend into Sunday.

Now -- after I pick up way too many books than I can carry home from Book Expo America, I will be headed to Penn Station to catch the ACES train to Atlantic City. I'm not happy with having only two options for departure times: 2:28pm or 8:17pm. Those are the only two times offered on Fridays. I know it's a new train, but if this thing is going to work, that's got to change. The ACES folks still aren't releasing ridership numbers, spinning that "the train isn't supposed to be profitable" which leads to me believe it's not exactly packed (I'll be doing a head count -- TRUST ME). But it is convenient to get me from NYC to AC even though I have to leave my conference early or else not get into AC until 11pm.

The plan was for Bill to pick me up and we'd go to dinner at the Knife & Fork Inn then drive down to Sea Isle. That somehow morphed into staying overnight at the Chelsea (shocking cheap rates helped the cause). Then we added on a possible visit to C5, the Chelsea's new club, into the mix.

So maybe in a way the ACES train worked. If it wasn't there, I'd be heading back to Philly after my conference and then driving right down to Sea Isle. But those two departure times? ACES folks, lean on NJ Transit to change that, or else I don't know that this thing is going to work the way it could.

**UPDATE** A few friends insist I check this out. Apparently, he likes C5. If this is the scene I walk into on Friday night? Oy. I'll pass and head to Firewaters. I hope that it's an exaggeration, like everything else he seems to write about. It doesn't mash everything else I've experienced at the Chelsea. We'll see...