Aquarium and Tapas Dinner

Only two more days of vacation to recap and then it’s back to regular posts! 

Thursday was another awesome day!  We had made plans with my sister-in-law and her family for them to come up to our beach in Brigantine to spend the day.  Unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t agree with our plans, we woke up to cloudy, chilly, rainy weather. 

So…we improvised and took a trip to the Atlantic City Aquarium.  We had taken the girls to the aquarium the first summer we vacationed in Brigantine but the rest of the group had never been before.

(Kay-Kay during our visit in 2008)

It’s a pretty tiny aquarium – only 2 floors and about 20 or so exhibits – but it’s a great thing to do with kids to get a break from the beach.

(Kay-Kay during our visit this year)

(The Hubs and Kay-Kay this year)

(The Hubs and Kay-Kay in 2008)

(Ry-Ry in 2008)

After our visit to the aquarium we headed back to the beach house for some lunch.  The weather was starting to clear up so we ended up going down to the beach for the remainder of the afternoon.

All of the kids played so well together at the beach, building sandcastles, digging holes in the sand and playing in the water.  It was a very relaxing afternoon!

Thursday night, the Hubs and I had plans to go out to dinner with my two brothers and their wives.  My brother, Craig, selected the restaurant for dinner – The Continental.  The Continental is a global tapas restaurant located in The Pier Shops at Caesars in Atlantic City.

Since there was six of us for dinner we each selected one dish to start and then passed them all around.  The menu was amazing…there were so many delicious sounding dishes.

The first round of tapas we selected:

Caesar Salad

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Szechuan Shoestring Fries

Kofta (Indian spiced beef kabobs w/ yogurt dipping sauce)

BBQ Chicken Quesadilla

French Onion Soup Dumplings

Un-pictured from the first round:

• Korean Pork Tacos
• Jasmine Rice
• Roasted Scallops

The food was so plentiful and I was so busy tasting everything that taking pictures of all the dishes quickly escaped me.  Plus there were so many selections, it was hard to keep up.

For the second round we ordered:

• Tuna Tartare Potato Skins
• Buffalo Chicken Meatballs (so good!!)
• Lobster Mac n’ Cheese
• Shanghai Vegetable Dumplings

Every single dish that I tried was absolutely amazing!!! There were a few dishes that I did not try (the scallops, the potato skins, and the French onion soup dumplings) but the rest of our party seemed to enjoy them enough for me ; ) 

I also enjoyed my first ever Mojito during dinner.

The Mojito was a great cocktail – perfect for a warm summer evening! 

If you find yourself in Atlantic City, I definitely recommend you check out The Continental at The Pier Shops at Caesars!  It was a great meal with a great group of people. Only regret – not getting a group picture : (

We were all stuffed from dinner so we took some time to walk around the shops before heading back to the beach house.  There are so many great shops at The Pier too!

Question:  Have you ever been to a tapas restaurant?  This was my first visit to one and I really enjoyed it, I would love to try one in the Harrisburg area!