Where were we?

Ok!  So to top our zoo day we decided to take James down to Wildwood, to the boardwalk, for an exciting morning of watching him ride the tiny kid rides, and maybe winning for him one of those gross, awkwardly manufactured stuffed neon dogs or something.  However: alas!  We had looked up the times that the rides open before we left, and Google told us 9:30am.  But that, apparently, is when the pier opens, not the rides. So the whole thing was a big 'ol waste of time.  We thus wandered among the shuttered rides of the pier in the hot sun, like the Scooby gang amid the creepy ruins of an abandoned amusement park.  The grounded flying elephants and motionless merry-go-round figurines clearly piqued the boy’s interest, but he was to be disappointed on this day. 

No, not.

The cruelty of Morey's Piers' management at play on the pathetic face my child

Pink Elephants, not on parade

As an aside, Wildwood advertises itself as the “world’s largest beach.”  Now, it is giant, comically so, in fact.  The southerly current along the Shore washes down the sand from the beaches of Seven-Mile Island (where Stone Harbor is) and deposits it in Wildwood, building a beach there that is so wide that shuttles have to ferry beachgoers 3 blocks from the boardwalk to the water’s edge.  Not a great beach on which to have forgotten your sunscreen back at the hotel room. Nevertheless, this claim is, geographically speaking, dumb.  There are obviously much wider tidal flats all over the world.  For example, have a gander at the Wadden Sea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadden_Sea), whose beaches (of sorts) just go on basically forever.  But also, do you really even want to be the largest beach?  Is that a thing to be desired?  Because it kind of sounds like exactly the hassle it actually is.
  

Anyway, while I waited for Erica to change James' diaper in the public toilet under the boardwalk, Justin and I wondered around some of the nearby arcades, which we mostly empty.  In one, I stumbled across this harrowing scene (below).  

Bruce searched his whole life for existential consummation on the Shore, but apparently missed this bodega in Wildwood

We tramped back to our car, hot and bummed, but salvaged the rest of the day hanging out at the beach and drinking down those Yuenglings.  In the evening, I lost in consecutive games of Hearts (which I enjoy playing despite my lack of history with the game.  As its been the official Walter family card game since time immemorial, I'm more or less helpless against Tom and Justin, and even Erica, who plays despite not liking to.)