Well, despite the warnings, we took a chance and made a side trip to the Beach on Saturday. I'm a little crazy for trains, so I think I was hooked as soon as people started mentioning Tan's.
We had a great time. We weren't looking for a full-on tourist destination, just some new scenery on our way north. The brunch at Rod & Reel was excellent, and not even as expensive as I thought it would be. And the 2 kids (my daughter and me) loved the trains at Tan's. We spent 1/2 hour seeing everything, and when I asked if she was ready to leave, she started to cry.
So we did another lap and watched everything again.
Finished the morning by walking down the boardwalk, and found a nice little bakery to get some fresh cookies and tea.
Thanks for the input, everybody, even the nay-sayers.