For those of you who have never been to historic Wildwood, New Jersey, let me say this - go once, but DON'T go again. As they say, it's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. In our case, we don't plan on staying there ever again. The food isn't great, the place is filled with obnoxious teenagers, the events are unorganized (more on that below), and the boardwalk is purgatory. BUT we will say that there is no shortage of cool architechture, and Wildwood is home to the most 50's style buildings in the world (I think), all original. So what we have for you is a collection of pictures of what we came there for - damn cool neon signs and stylish buildings. Hopefully you enjoy, and if you're ever near Wildwood, at least drive through and take some pictures.
And in regards to the "unorganized" thing, Crummy and I went there to attend this big Doo-Wop music festival, and on the day the festival was supposed to start (as advertised), we searched and drove for hours, and finally, our hotel neighbors told us it had been cancelled! Supposedly, someone ran it outside for free the one year, and then in 1999, some woman took over the plans and decided to have it in a parking lot and charge $20 admission, because she knew how many people always came and, like the greedy bitch she was, wanted to get a quick buck. So, in response to her crappy attitude, no one showed up. She was in charge of running it again in the summer of 2000, and blew it off, screwing us all.
Enough Bitching. Here are the pictures....

 

Here we have our hotel - The Satellite. What better place to start? I will say, it was quick kitschy, and the owners were very nice people.
As you can see, it was pretty sweet looking, and the first people we met were and older couple and their kids, who asked us if we were into Rockabilly! A nice start to the whole trip, if you ask me.

Turn out, the couple was into classic cars, and in their spare time, drove around to all the custom and hot rod shows around New Jersey. Them's were good peoples.

And now the good stuff...all the other hotels and their awesome neon signs. Enjoy!

And this is our beautiful room. You can see how the windows are triangle-shaped, which is pretty awesome. Luckily, we didn't have any bugs in our room, which I was afraid of. The weather strip under our door left a gap there, so every night we shoved a pillow underneath the door to stop the bugs.

You can even see our stash of soda - Mountain Dew for Crummy, Mug Rootbeer for me. And you know what else? We didn't get to use the pool once! Everytime we went to get in, it was locked. The owners must have locked it every evening at 5pm. Now that is just plain wrong. Oh well...maybe next time. NOT!

The Ala Moana
... one of our personal favorite signs.

The Aqua Beach Resort
(in case you can't see)

The Attache`
Pretty swanky, huh?

The Aztec
(Couldn't get close enough to this one.)

The Bel Air
(These were all in the same block, believe it or not!)

Ebb Tide Motel
By the end of the week, the sign was totally burned out.

Bristol Plaza
by day...

Bristol Plaza's outside pool...
...where the plastic palm trees grow.

The Caribbean
This was Crummy's favorite hotel in Wildwood.

Caribbean's main pool area.
Much cooler when you see it for yourself.

Blue Jay and Eden Roc

Big Ernie's Diner
We ate here one night. Funny story: it's a 50's themed diner, and everyone in there was looking at Crummy and I like we were freaks! This was probably because it was, to them, like looking at characters in Disneyland or something. It was odd.

Fleur de Lis

Imperial 500
The hotel down the street from the Satellite.

Lau Ray Motel
This was a pretty cool sign. I enjoy the font.

Maureen's Restaurant
We didn't eat here because it was too expensive, but I betcha it was pretty cool on the inside as well.

Ocean Holiday
During the day...

...and in the night

Olympic
Next door to the Bristol, as you can see there to the right.

PA (?)
The globe on the top of this place spun around.
Ooooooh.

The Panoramic Hotel

Park Lane

The Pink Champagne
My personal favorite hotel.

Dig this sign! Is that not awesome?

Sea Gull

Hehe...bad idea if you ask us.

Sea Scape Inn
Another by day...

...and by night combo.

Sea Shell Motel
Guess what?

Yep.
It gives you a good idea of the cool effects of neon.

Stardust Motel
Their neon sign and enterance.

...and Crummy, taking a picture

Waikiki Hotel
This hotel was awesome. Crummy and I chose it as the coolest in all of Wildwood. We each had our other favorites, but this one stole the cake.

Waikiki neon sign.

Tangiers

Okay, so now you've seen the pictures of the signs, and all that's left are some pictures we took that really didn't fit in anywhere. But we took them for a resason, so we might as well share 'em with ya sleazy grease balls!

Who doesn't love plastic (and displaced) palm trees? Wildwood sure does! These plastic palms were everywhere. Hey, you can't have cheezy decor with out them.

This particular tree is real, I think.

Here's a nice plastic one for ya.

Another beautiful piece of plastic art.

Look! Here we even have some pink plastic flamingos to boot. Absolute perfection.

A far off shot of the Ferris Wheel on the Wildwood boardwalk. Crummy and I took a ride on that monstrous sucker, and let us tell you...if you're afraid of heights, this will probably kill you.

Some cool railings from two different motels.

In Wildwood, I will give them this - they covered everything in terms of design to make the buildings look cool. The rails, the lights, the shape of the pool...it was all interesting.


So folks, that's our journey.  If you ever want to see this all for yourself, go right ahead, and bring lots of film.  But remember: Wildwood, New Jersey is a nice place to visit, but we sure as hell would never live there!

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