During a recent break from school my family and I traveled to Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Virginia Beach is about a 5 hour drive from the Philadelphia Area depending on traffic and weather conditions.  Since we were in Virginia Beach in November it was neat to see how the town was decorated for the holidays. One of the neatest holiday events is McDonalds Holiday Lights at the Beach.  This is the one time a year that you can drive your car on the boardwalk to see a half million twinkling lights.

The town is very welcoming and so was everyone we interacted with.  Everyone was so helpful and wanted to make sure we discovered everything about this fun beach town.  It's also very easy to get around by car, bike, or even walking.

Recently, my family and I traveled to Atlantic City NJ, many people think that Atlantic City is just for adults, but there is a lot of family friendly activities!

Hotel
We stayed at Harrah's Atlantic City, we choose this because it had a kids pool. The pool is small and during spring break it was crowed so we didn't spend much time at the pool. They also have a game room that is adjacent to the pool area. The room we got was a bay view and the kids loved being so high up and checking the view of the water.


Restaurants
We found to 2 very family friendly restaurants while we stayed in Atlantic City. The first was Phillips Seafood located in Pier Shops at Caesars. Phillips Seafood has a kid friendly menu and if your kids are like mine they don't eat seafood but they had burgers and grilled cheese. A tip I can give you is go to Restaurant.com and get a gift certificate, to save a few dollars on the meal. Another plus to the restaurant is it is out in the open and the noise level is loud so the kids will not be bothering the tables around you.

The second restaurant that we loved was Rain Forest Cafe which is located in front of Trump Casino on the boardwalk. This rain forest themed restaurant kept the kids entertained with gorillas and other rain forest animals.



Activities
Pier Shops at Caesars
Since I have 2 girls, they love to shop, so when we went to the Pier Shops to look around there were no complaints. There are 3 floors in the shops with plenty of shops and restaurants for everyone. The second floor has blue lights on the ceiling which the girls thought was so magical and was a perfect setting to dance. They also have a fountain show throughout the day. On the third floor they have Adirondack chairs set up in sand looking out over the beach and the ocean. The Pier Shops also have a candy store called It's Sugar that would be any child's delight! The have a huge Lucy the elephant inside the store made of candy.



Ripley's Believe It Or Not
Ripley's Believe It or Not museum is located on the boardwalk in Atlantic City (at the corner of New York Ave.). We had a chance to visit this very unique museum. The museum has all the odd and unique artifacts that Ripley gathered on his travels around the world. I do have to note that there are a few displays that could frighten small children. My 4 year old and 7 year old were fine but it does depend on your child.



Atlantic City Aquarium
The Atlantic City Aquarium is located at the Historic Gardner's Basin. This is a smaller Aquarium, but that was the best part about it, we could get an up close view of all the aquatic life. Our favorite part was petting the Rays in the touch tank, they were like little puppy dogs that kept coming back for more attention!




Disclaimer: My family and I received complementary tickets to Ripley's and Aquarium in exchange for us visiting and writing a review.