We started out this trip with a 2-night stay in Philadelphia. We both love the historical aspect of this fine city and coupled with the fact that our favorite restaurant on the planet, Morimoto’s resides here as well, made it a very easy decision. We left on Sunday, July 24 after dropping Kevin’s son off at baseball camp. No problems with the drive from CT to PA and before I knew it, we pulled into the Radisson Warwick on Locust Street in Philly.

We began our vacation with a visit to the Benjamin Franklin Science Museum in Philly Monday morning the 25th. After spending the day there (I love anything to do with science!!!) we capped off a nice day with a fabulous dinner at Morimoto’s. Morimoto himself was not present at his restaurant that evening – the first time in 7 visits we haven’t been able to talk to him but we found out he had just returned from Japan that morning so it made sense why he wasn’t there that evening. If anyone likes Japanese cuisine and is willing or able to travel to Philadelphia, I cannot stress enough how wonderful the experience is. His sashimi salad is one of the best dishes I’ve ever had. Not to mention his signature noodle soup or his spicy tuna rolls. And then there are the main courses…okay, I’m starting to drool. Anyways, Philly was great as usual and I am already looking forward to our September weekend for more of Morimoto’s cuisine. (Side note: we found out while dining that Morimoto will be opening a second restaurant late this year or early next year in New York City. We mentioned to the staff that we think he should open another in Las Vegas and were told that Vegas may be a future project. We hope so!!)

On Tuesday, July 26th, we got up extra early because we were flying out of Reagan National and we wanted to get a jump on any rush hour traffic we may encounter. Why didn’t we just fly out of Philly since we were there already? Because I happened to find a fare on Northwest out of DC for $127 R/T and I couldn’t pass it up. There weren’t any direct flights out of Philly that day for some reason and the prices anyway were close to $300 R/T so it was a no-brainer for us. It only took us about 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to DC and we didn’t have to use the A/C in the truck as it wasn’t too hot at that time yet so we only used about ¼ tank of gas. Parked the truck in the economy lot, jumped on the shuttle over to terminal A, checked in and had a mid-morning snack before boarding. The plane was completely full and we were stuck sitting with a mom and her 2 year old son….oh joy. Immediately she told us that little Zackary loves flying on planes and he’ll be a good boy. Mmm hmm. I’ll believe that when I see it. Little Zackary also had a runny nose. Little Zackary started screaming before take off. Kevin looked at me and I thought I would die laughing. Thankfully, however, Z-man’s mom told us she gave him some baby Tylenol and it should be kicking in any second. 5 minutes later, precious, wonderful and quiet Zackary was sound asleep and didn’t make a peep until we were beginning our descent into Vegas. We were able to get a little shuteye, which was a good thing, and our new 2-year-old friend was a pretty good neighbor. We chatted about Vegas and found out they live in the Mt. Charleston area and really like it. It’s always neat to hear about the other towns that surround Las Vegas. While we’re still interested in living in Henderson, I think I’d like to look into the Mt. Charleston area too.

Okay, so enough of relocating garble. Time to get down to business! We got into town around 3:30 pm local time and scooted over to baggage claim. While I waited for the bags, Kevin went to the Avis rental car desk and got that all taken care of. Bags took a very long time to arrive – actually, Kevin’s golf clubs were the last thing to show up. I was getting nervous after a while when the carousel kept going around empty but we were still waiting. Anyways, they finally show up and we get outside just as the Avis shuttle was pulling in. Off we go and 3 minutes after reaching Avis, we’re out the door and on our way to Sunset Station!

Check in was a breeze – no one else in line and in less than 2 minutes we were in our 8th floor room. Not much of a view – well, you could see the Sunset Station sign and the mountains in the background but basically it overlooked the parking lot. But who cares – it’s not like I’m staying at the Bellagio and get a view of the air conditioners. By now it’s close to 5 pm and we’re getting hungry. Today is Kevin’s birthday and aside from all the other goodies he received (new shirts, cologne and his Club Glove golf club travel bag) I told him we could go anywhere and do whatever he wanted for his birthday dinner and whatever else. Totally thinking he would say “Red Square!” I was mentally prepared for really good martinis and some steak tartar (theirs is soooooo good) I was completely caught off guard when he said he just wanted to stay at Sunset and eat at Capri’s. No complaints, we had a great time. Kevin had their chicken with mushrooms in a garlic wine sauce and I had the mahi mahi tuna with capers in a light cream sauce. So yummy! We waddled out very full and content and made our way through the casino looking for the right machines to play. We were tired from the trip and didn’t want to have to think too hard so we settled on playing a new (for us) slot machine called Denver Duck. It was really cute – we loved the bonus round. It was really long and while neither of us were able to find the Golden Egg good old Denver was searching for, they were very entertaining. We were on the machines maybe 15 minutes when I noticed my player’s cardholder was blinking. All of the Station casinos, (not Main Street Station though – they aren’t affiliated) Green Valley Ranch and both Fiesta Henderson and Rancho are tied into what they call the Jumbo Jackpot. The jackpot starts out at either $50,000 or $100,000 (I can’t remember which) but it must hit before it reaches $150,000. However, even if you don’t hit the jackpot, as long as you are playing with your player’s card when it is hit you get $50 in free slot play immediately. Well, I read a little closer and indeed, someone somewhere had hit the jackpot and we both were credited with the $50. We ended up playing Denver Duck for hours on our original $20 a piece and the additional $50. By now it’s close to 10 pm and Kevin is starting to fade big time. Me, I can pull all nighters in Vegas and never feel too crappy the next day. So, Kevin left for bed and I left for some video poker. I felt this strong need to finally break the curse he and I have been under for the last what seems like 100 years of playing poker and never getting that coveted royal. I searched around and settled on a 50-cent double double bonus progressive. I don’t usually start out with 50 cent but the royal was over $4600 and I thought that was pretty high. I take out my first Benjamin of the trip and slide it in. Holding my own for a while up a little down a little then I get a few full houses and a few flushes. Finally, I get a four of a kind which put me way up and I was very happy. Forgetting where I was for a second, I put my change light on and then realize I wasn’t at Main Street Station and there is no “score with four” here. Laughing to myself, I keep playing for a while but the flushes and full houses and fours of a kinds haven’t been back to visit me, so I cash out doubling my initial Benjamin. Start roaming around and notice that it is completely freezing in this joint. What I would have done to get my hands on my zippered sweatshirt at the moment was a lot. I found a lot of newer video slot machines and tried a lot of them. Some stuck out more than others (probably because these are the ones I won on) All That Glitters, Jamaica Me Money, Twin Win and my favorite, Shake Your Booty. This one cracked me up with one of the funniest bonus rounds I’ve seen. Of course, that could be because I’m a little tapped, but when you get three bonus symbols on a pay line you get to pick three pirates who proceed to shake their booty to you and then turn around with their treasure chests and shake the money into a pit. One of them has a peg leg and one tooth and he just killed me. Definitely an entertaining machine and while that particular bonus didn’t come up too often, the others did along with good regular payouts long enough to keep me there for a while. I played Booty every day while we were there.

By now, I had several TITOs in my pocket and the time change was beginning to catch up to me. I decided to crash so up I went to bed. Kevin was playing golf the next morning and had to be up and out of the room no later than 6:10 am. I knew I would probably end up sleeping in a bit and wait until Kevin got back before going to the casino or to lunch. Kevin arrived back around noon and wanted to shower and chill for a while at the pool so we decided to have room service. The prices at Sunset Station are very reasonable and the food was very tasty. We ended up having room service two more times and were very happy with it. After lunch we went down to the pool for about 2 hours. We found a shady spot and relaxed. We both really liked their pool because it wasn’t crowded at all and they even had a very small version of a lazy river. It was a section of the pool in a circular shape that had a current so while we weren’t doing much but get dizzy, it was nice. The sun was very hot so we went back up to the room to shower and change. We both really wanted to go back to the casino now to play poker. We sat on two Triple Double poker machines and within a few hands I had my first four of a kind. Kevin got one soon after so he was pleased. We like to play a game where we can see who gets the first four of a kind and then who ends up with the most at the end of the session. (We ended up turning a version of that game into a drinking game further into the trip, but I’ll cover that later.) After I had converted my $20 buy-in to $80 and Kevin’s into $100 we wandered around and found some fun video slots. I played Tabasco and Kevin played Red, White & Blue. We played for a while but I never got the Chef bonus so I TITO’ed out and watched Kevin play. He got the bonus round many times and doubled his buy-in before cashing out. We then decided to go visit Fiesta Henderson as we like it there and we like the Baja Beach Club restaurant where the Feel Good Wonton Soup is. Yummy stuff. We were still stuffed from lunch, but both said hopefully we’ll get some decent play there and maybe it will last until dinnertime so we can eat there.

We left to pick up our car from valet and as we were driving we noticed how dark the sky was. There were huge thunderheads looming all around us and I said maybe we’d be lucky enough to see a decent lightning show later. We arrived at Fiesta and noticed right away that it didn’t feel nearly as cool inside as it did at Sunset. We roamed around and found some Bonus Poker machines with a decent payout and started to play. Before long, Kevin looked like he did when he got back from playing golf. He said he was dying of the heat and sweated enough that morning outside and didn’t want to deal with that indoors. We tried a couple other areas of the casino hoping to find a cooler spot but decided that it was too uncomfortable for Kevin in there so we left. The sky was even darker than it was before we arrived and it certainly looked like it was going to pour at any second. We decided to visit Green Valley Ranch figuring all the play goes on the Stations players card and we would have a chance to be jumbo jackpot winners. As soon as we arrived at Green Valley and felt that their air conditioners were running full blast and very frosty, a big smile came over Kevin and he said, “Now this is more like it!” We played a lot of poker here with no decent wins to speak of and I went off in search of one my all time favorite slots, Twilight Zone. Having come across none at any casino we visited, I asked a floor person if they still had any and he told me that they just got rid of the last of them a couple of weeks earlier. I was bummed out. I found a new slot machine that I never played before called Carnival of Mystery and it was weird to say the least. But it kept me entertained for a while until the old stomach started growling. I tracked down Kevin and told him we have a 2 for 1 coupon in the POV for their buffet if he was interested. The line was relatively short so we hopped in and were seated about 10 minutes later. Mostly tasty eats here, although I found their crab legs dry and tasteless. I think if any buffet leaves out the crab legs too long they’ll get dry so I didn’t hold it against them, especially when I found their desserts. Lots of good stuff there including cannoli, éclairs, brownies and coconut macaroons. Once again, we’re stuffed to the gills and waddle to our car to go back to Sunset. Get outside and notice lots of lightning off in the distance. That was a very cool sight to behold. Sure, we get our share of decent storms here in the northeast but where we live, there are so many trees you never get a good view of stuff. In Vegas, everything seems so open that it was just a neat display of Mother Nature from the front row instead of somewhere in the back balcony.

Kevin is golfing again the next morning and has another very early tee time so he turned in around 9:30 pm which left me on my own again. I know I was also very tired and I can’t remember anything exciting happening. I know I played the new Star Wars slots for a while with 2 other guys and a nice lady. The two guys were cracking us up because they were quoting from the movie Space Balls after every spin. (Space Balls is the spoof movie by Mel Brooks poking fun at the Star Wars series). They only had 4 of these machines in all of Sunset Station and none of us were breaking the bank on them so I decided to cash in my TITOs from the night before and earlier that day. In total they came to just under $565 so not a bad haul. Unfortunately, that would be the best and only day we cashed in anything over $100.

Thursday comes and I wake up as Kevin is leaving. I know I need more sleep but he said that the sun was just coming up over the mountains and it looks really cool. So, I fumble out of bed, find my glasses and camera and manage to take a picture. I’ll post my pictures from this trip on Webshots as soon as I can. I say goodbye and crawl back to bed with my glasses still on. Wake up a couple of hours later with a pain in my back to find that my glasses are under me. Freaked out, I jump up thinking I just busted my expensive frames but thankfully they were fine. Well, now that I’m awake I might as well get ready for the day. I do the normal morning routine, grab my purse and my player’s cards and down I go. I played the same Triple Double poker machine from the day before and am holding my own when I notice Kevin walking back in from golf. He said he wanted to jump into the shower and would meet me in the casino in about a half hour. He arrives and I TITO with $15 left from my initial $20 buy-in. We decide that we want to spend the afternoon and evening downtown. We also wanted to swing by the Nugget to say hello to Wanda and also say hi to Dee Dee at the California but Wanda was unavailable and Dee Dee wasn’t working that day. Oh well. We started off at Main Street Station of course and the first machine I see after checking to see if Ipo and Cynthia were working that day (Ipo’s day off and Cyn hadn’t arrived for work yet) was the one I was searching for, The Twilight Zone. I played for about 2 hours on my $20 and cashed out with $30 because Mother Nature was calling me. Found Kevin playing Double Double Bonus with a disgusted look on his face so I asked him if he was having a lousy session and he said that he was dealt 4 to the royal three times within 10 hands (which has to be odd in it of itself) but couldn’t connect with the last card. We both have this curse stopping us from getting the royal. Maybe it is because we’re Red Sox fans, I don’t know. But we have the curse of the Bambino and have had it for a long time. Neither of us has gotten a natural royal. I’ve had lots of dirty royals both on Joker Poker and NSUD but they don’t count. I left to go play Joker Poker only to have a lousy session myself. Only one four of a kind in over an hour and that one was with the joker. No scratch tickets for me. Kevin only had one. Oh well. We left MSS and went to the Cal as they have strikes I still don’t have. Played a while, got a couple of new ones to add to my collection. Went to the Fremont to have a couple of their .99 margaritas. Not bad for .99. Two of them did the trick for me! Played Dick Clark’s Rockin New Years Eve and cashed out $50 on a $20. Every trip downtown we always get slushy ½ yard drinks from Mermaids and this trip was no exception. Get our drinks and before we get across the street to the Nugget, I’m already half loopy. Played Young Frankenstein machines for a while (love Gene Wilder) and moved to poker. Played on the Game Makers back near the buffet for a long time. Got loopier and made many, many trips to the loo. Thinking back, leaving the machine that much really stretched out my money, LOL. Wandered over to the Four Queens as they too have a strike machine and several I don’t have. Little Miss Loopy played $20 into the strike machine and got 4. I noticed that they have a Las Vegas Centennial strike and I really wanted that one. But, that came inside a red case instead of the plain clear case and the cage wouldn’t allow me to either buy one or trade for one. That was a bummer especially since every other place that we played for strikes did NOT have that centennial edition. Oh well. Hopefully they’ll still be there in December when I go back. That slushy drink by now is almost gone and so am I. I played on my second $20 on 3 different machines and still was able to cash out the original $20. By now we’re both hungry and Kevin started mentioning how he really wanted a prime rib. I knew Hugo’s Cellar at the Queens was supposed to be really good, but Kevin had heard about the Steak House at Binion’s. Someone he works with has been raving about the Steak House since he got back from his trip so we ended up going there. We didn’t have reservations so I was thrilled when they not only took us as soon as we got up there (oh that was a fun glass-elevator-looking-out-at-downtown-and-seeing-how-small-it’s-getting-the-higher-up-we-go-after-I’ve-had-a-large-slushy-drink kind of ride, let me tell you) and they seated us right at the windows with a wicked view. Sometimes, the smoking section is way better than the non. We were in for a show, both with the food and Mother Nature once again. It was lightning all over the place and all of us seated by the windows were saying Fourth of July-ish “ooohs” and “aaahs”. And that was before the meal came. I had lobster bisque to start and it was by far the best I’ve ever had. Kevin had 6 huge crab stuffed mushrooms that were so good. Then I had a huge New York strip steak and Kevin got a Cajun rubbed prime rib that was to die for. I normally do not eat a big piece of steak. When we go out for a steak dinner, 9 times out of 10 I’ll get the surf side of the menu where Kevin gets the turf and I’ll have a couple of bites of his and I’m good. This time, I couldn’t eat enough. Of course, the half-yard slushy drink may have had something to do with it but thinking about how good that meat was right now is making me hungry and I just ate lunch. Binion’s Steakhouse is now one of our core places to visit on each trip. I know I’m planning on making reservations for my December trip. Once again, we waddle out back onto Fremont Street and go back to the Cal to play the 5-cent Blazing Seven progressives. We both hit lots of the mixed sevens, including several where we would get 2 out of the 3 blazing sevens only to match it with the plain red seven. Neither of us hit the progressives however and once we were done playing all the credits (these machines were not TITO and I did not want to have to cash in a ton of dirty nickels) we ended back where we started the day at Main Street Station. I didn’t feel the vibe I usually feel from them though and I maintained my poor poker sessions. We were both feeling a little bummed out and very tired so we decided to call it an early evening. Back at Sunset we both crashed hard and early.

Friday morning we’re both up at 7. I’m glad since we went to bed so early last night. Today we decided to give Fiesta Henderson another shot and hopefully we’ll be able to stay long enough to eat their Feel Good Wonton Soup. We began the day at the Guadalajara Café in Sunset which had a makeshift breakfast buffet set up since the Feast Buffet is currently under construction. They aren’t scheduled to have it completed until December, so I assume that they are doing major renovations to the entire space as well as the menu. Breakfast was good – really tasty hash – and we went out onto the floor to play. Played for about 3 hours on mainly Spin Poker. Not a bad machine we had (we had to share one since the very end machine was not a Spin Poker but a Multi-Game machine instead) cashed out double what we put in and left for Fiesta. The sky looked the same today as it has every other day and figured we’d get another light show later that evening. Today, Fiesta was an icebox so we were both glad as we like playing there. Played a while, nothing too exciting but figured at that time it was around 2 pm we were getting hungry so went to the Baja. Kevin had an open-faced turkey sandwich and I of course had my soup. The bowl is enormous and very tasty. Topped off lunch by sharing a 7-layer piece of carrot cake that was delicious. Decided to head up to the strip to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening uptown. First stop, park the car at Bellagio. Tried to add some more strikes to my collection but could only find one strike machine and it was being played. Went to Tiffany’s to buy myself the heart toggle bracelet I’ve had my eye on for months. I loved so many things in there but I think I would be a nervous wreck wearing a $20,000 diamond tennis bracelet. Left the Bellagio and made a visit to Caesars. Took a long time to find the only strike machine that they had left but was able to get the one I needed after only the 2nd pull. Put in a $20, TITO’ed $18.50 and the last strike from them I needed. I love hitting strikes like that. Wandered all through their casino as we hadn’t been there in a while and spotted Rocky The Contender machines. I wasn’t too thrilled with my machine so I TITO’ed and watched Kevin play for a long time. He got a lot of bonus rounds which were pretty fun. Made a withdrawal from the ATM machine (hey! I finally hit on something!!) and wandered down to Mirage. Love it here. I love the smell in the casino. And I love the tigers – they are so cute. Played on a machine that we found when we were in town April ’04 for our wedding called Quick Silver. It’s a progressive nickel machine that was over $39,000. We both played here for a while but we were getting hungry again. Kevin wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory back at Caesars so that’s where we went. Got seated right away (again, their smoking section is better than the non as you can see the big fish tank out there – we even got to watch the scuba diver feed the fish, hungry little grubbers) and I ordered the Shepherd’s pie and Kevin had some enormous burrito. Loved both dinners but made sure to eat little bites very slowly so we could fit in dessert. Kevin had the turtle sundae cheesecake and I had the brownie sundae cheesecake. Both were soooooooooooooo yummy. Couldn’t finish them though. Oh well. Once again, waddle out of Caesars (we do a lot of waddling, don’t we?) and originally thought we’d go back to the Bell or to Paris but then, something caught our eye. It was big, purple, heavy when full, and damn tasty. Harrah’s Carnival Court sells the full yard long drinks and they will put any drink you want in there for a flat fee of $27. We belly up to the bar and order a Long Island Ice Tea. The bartenders start the whole whistling thing and everyone starts cheering. They put on a big production making these yard longs and they are fun. Our bartender is pouring what seems like 30 gallons of 8 different kinds of liquor and the more he poured, the more people cheered. He finishes the drink, puts the lanyard holder on it, garnished it with a cherry and a small plastic straw. We laughed. Then, he stood over me on the bar top, put the lanyard around my neck and made the announcement loudly in front of everyone that I had to earn the right to drink his drink. He then placed the drink and the straw between his legs and since I can take it as much as I can dish it out, I continued the joke and had 15 seconds of fame long enough to get a round of high fives and cheers from everyone on that side of the bar. Kevin was dying – especially because he said I was beet red. (that was before the alcohol too, mind you). We got lots of funny looks and stares carrying that thing around outside of the carnival court but it’s good PR for Harrah’s because a lot of other people wanted to know where they could get one. First we went over to the Flamingo to see if they had a strike machine again. They had one, took it out, put it back and now took it out again. We always seem to be in town when it’s gone, oh well. Then we went to Barbary Coast for a while because 1) it was getting heavy carrying that drink around, 2) it doesn’t take long to start having a glow from a drink that strong and 3) we hadn’t been inside the BC for a long time. As soon as we walked in we both found machines no one else had – Gilligan’s Island and Laverne & Shirley. Kevin played Gilligan and I played L&S. Kevin never got a bonus round but it was here where we started the game of taking a large swig from the yard long anytime we hit a decent payout of 200 coins or more on the slots. (These were penny machines so 200 coin payouts and up were frequent). After our initial buy-ins were depleted, out we go and we walk over to the pedestrian bridge between BC and Bally’s. A decent storm out in the distance was brewing and we just stood there for a while with our drink watching the lightning and giving our feet a break. Then we cut through Bally’s into Paris. Ah, Paris. My favorite of all the casinos in all of Las Vegas. Not because we’ve won anything huge. Just the décor and the atmosphere and the fact that we got married here is enough for me. There are a few double double bonus poker machines with bad pay tables that we like to play here. We sat next to each other, our yard long drink in between. Kevin then makes the wise/unwise decision that every time we get at least a 3 of a kind or better, we have to drink. O-kay. We played for a while taking shots every couple of minutes and getting sillier and sillier, however, I noticed that both of us were still being careful to play as close to 100% which is ironic considering I wasn’t sure I’d be able to walk a straight line once I stood up. We had to do double shots for 4OAKs and Kevin had 3 of those to my 1. In any event, we were having a wonderful time and played for a long time. We stopped playing once we realized our yard long was empty. We couldn’t believe it. I knew I felt very nice but I could tell Kevin was over the top. So, 3 bottles of water for Kevin and a couple of escorted trips to the bathroom then it was outside to watch the Bellagio fountain show. We never tire of the shows although if you ask Kevin if he remembers watching them Friday night, I’d bet he has no recollection. Back inside the Bell, it’s clear that Kevin will not be doing anything that requires operating heavy machinery or a vehicle, so I tell him to relax and park his keester at a machine as I too am in no hurry to go anywhere. We spent the next 4 hours at the Bell me playing lots more Quick Silver machines, Kevin visiting most of the restrooms. Kevin announced around 1 am that he was exhausted and had a headache and by then I was sort of Bellagio’ed out and after having had countless bottles of water myself I was really getting tired. So we left to get the car out of valet. It never ceases to amaze me that even with the kind of traffic that rolls through these huge resorts’ valet, we don’t usually have to wait more than 5-10 minutes to get our car. Foxwoods, even when there’s no one in valet still takes over a half hour. Anyways, traffic was a complete nightmare (it took 35 minutes to get from the Bell to the highway) but I kept reminding myself that it was a Friday night after all. We finally get on I15 and head back to Sunset Station. It was at the moment driving back that I realized that while I really like playing at Sunset Station, it is just too far away from the action of the strip. So, we talked about it and we think from now on we’re just going to stick to staying downtown like we normally do. Main Street Station has always had the comfy, homey feel to us and we just love it there. Everything downtown is close by and the same with the strip. I’m sure we’ll keep playing at Sunset but I think our 2nd stay is our last stay in Henderson (until we become permanent residents that is).

We arrive at Sunset and it’s close to 1:30 am. My feet are killing me because my flip-flops gave me a blister and all I wanted to do was to take off my shoes. I suddenly catch a second wind and after changing shoes and dropping Kevin off at the room I decide to go downstairs for an hour or so. Ended up playing Spin Poker for about 1-½ hours on my initial $20. It was entertaining, especially when I was dealt a straight flush. That was pretty neat. It was freezing again in the casino so I moved to another area over in their carnival section and it was warmer. Played Enchanted Unicorn pennies for another hour and cashed out $60. By now it was almost four and I am all done. Shuffle back upstairs and am asleep in less than 5 minutes.

Saturday Kevin and I wake up around 11 and realize this is it. Our last full day in town. I hate that end of vacation feeling. Especially when you look forward to it for so long. Oh well, all good things must come to an end. We order room service again and while waiting for it to arrive I get ready. We eat, Kevin gets ready and we decided to first find a Sonic drive thru so I can get a cherry lime-ade. We don’t have Sonics in CT even though our cable provider (Cox Communications) constantly shows commercials for it and it makes me crazy. So, we know there’s a Sonic on Craig Road but our waitress at breakfast yesterday told us there was another one off of Eastern Avenue. We found it but either the employees were disgruntled or just plain lazy as no one came to take our order. We waited like 15 minutes and kept pushing the call button but no one came so we left and went to the one on Craig. Kevin had a junior banana split and I tried their new Cookie Dough Blast. Very tasty. I wish they would make their way to the northeast. Anyways, even though we had the room at Sunset tonight also (because our flight was at 1:10 am our host comped the room for the full day so we didn’t have to check out if we didn’t want to) we ended up checking out because we knew we’d be uptown all day and it’s closer to the airport. Today’s game plan included a stop over to check out Wynn, dinner at Paris’ buffet and hopefully a ride up the Eiffel tower. Last time in town back in March we were in line to go up the tower and right as it was our turn, they closed it down because of high winds. We self parked in Wynn as I had heard that the valet was still having some problems. I thought the décor was a little over the top in certain areas but I really liked the parasol lights. I took a few photos of them. We wandered around the casino just to see what they had as neither of us planned on playing here due to their weird slot club but we ended up finding a poker machine that we had never seen before. It was 5-card draw/5-card stud/7- card stud all mixed into one. So I figured I might as well at least get a card even though I knew there would be no way we would reach the 500 point limit to get a card with our names on it. It was a 15-quarter machine which was not what we expected so we started playing 5 at a time instead. We got several 4OAKs over the course of the time we were there and we noticed that when you have a player’s card in the machine a random bingo game will appear in the display. You have to fill your bingo card with one of the three patterns to win the prizes and while we didn’t do that, the game popped up randomly 4 times. That was different and unique. Cashed out doubling our money and we wandered around some more, took a few more photos and concluded that it seemed like a nice place but probably out of our league. Hopped in the car and went through the valet at Paris. Played the same poker machines as the night before (sans alcoholic beverages) and watched another couple sitting next to us trying to play poker. They would hold the oddest things and it was driving Kevin crazy. I just kept cracking up because one hand the girl got dealt was a J of spades, a 9 of hearts, a 3 of clubs, a 6 of clubs and a 4 of hearts. Now the machines were all Jacks or Better. She held the 9 and the 4 (????) and on the draw got another jack. Then she questioned her boyfriend as to why she didn’t get a payout as she did get a jack. I thought I was going to pee my pants laughing. I wanted to explain to her where she went wrong but her boyfriend said to her, “Maybe the machine is malfunctioning. We should go play somewhere else.” So they left. One of Kevin’s biggest pet peeves is if you don’t know how to play poker, don’t. Anyways I couldn’t stop giggling at them even after they had been long gone. Kevin again was getting fours of a kind frequently and I hadn’t had any. So, I decided enough is enough and maybe we should go get our tickets for the Eiffel tower. We wanted to go up when it was dark out so we could see the lights and the Bellagio’s fountain show from up there. Just as I was about to TITO, I was dealt two 2s and caught the other 2s so I finally got a 4OAK. Figured I’d try that technique when we got back from the tower. Maybe the machine will respond the same way if I tell it I’m leaving!

We loved the view from the Eiffel tower. I had no idea it was as high up as it is. It didn’t look 42 stories tall from on the ground. It was breezy up there too, I’d say at least 20 degrees cooler up there than down below. The sights were amazing. I took some decent pictures up there also. Watched the Bellagio’s water show and loved it from up there. Great lightning again way off in the distance and I really didn’t want to leave but it was getting crowded up there and we were getting hungry. It was already after 9 pm and our flight was at 1:10 am. We still had to eat, and drop the car off at Avis. I went back to the Park Place Connection booth just in the hopes of being able to get a line pass for the buffet but was told that we had enough comp for the buffet and that they player’s club employees no longer have the ability to issue line passes. When I asked them who does, I was told the pit bosses. Weird. So, I went over to a blackjack table, caught the eye of the pit boss and asked for one. No problem getting it, just weird. Get over to Paris’ buffet and there’s a huge line so I’m really happy we have the line pass. Get right in in less than 3 minutes, get seated and in line for really good, really big crab legs 2 minutes after. Everything we had was very tasty and fresh. Good coffee too. While we’re eating the “last supper” as Kevin referred to it, I mentioned that if I had one wish, it would be to get to the airport, get over to the Northwest gate to find out that they are oversold, they’re looking for volunteers to get bumped and that we do and get $300 vouchers a piece, first class seats on the return flight and a few more hours in town. Kevin responded with, “Keep dreaming,”. Yea, I know. I just hate leaving. So, it’s now a bit after 10 and we still need to drop off the car. We go over to valet to pick up the car and notice that there is major traffic coming out of Paris. It was bumper to bumper and even when the light turned green, no one was able to move. Kevin looked at me and said if we don’t get out of here quick, we’ll never get to the airport. We finally get our car and some nice person let us cut through their lane to cross over to exit the property via the backside instead of driving the strip. We end up going the back way to McCarran which was faster than dealing with the strip traffic but it too was pretty busy. Drop the car off, shuttle over to the airport and head for the Northwest counter. No one is in line. Bummer. So much for my wish coming true. Meanwhile, next door at America West, it looked like they were giving away free toasters or something there were so many people over there. Drop off the luggage and head over to D terminal, gate 14. Walked slowly through security and noticed all the happy, shiny people down in baggage claim champing at the bit with excitement of starting their vacation while all the tired, broke folks clamber through security. We get over to our gate and what’s going on here? There were like 400 people waiting at D14. Whoa. I step over to the counter and the man behind it, John, looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I asked him, “Are you guys oversold?” and his response was, “Are we ever!” Schwing! So of course I ask him if he needs volunteers and he seemed so happy we asked. “So what do we get in return?” I ask him. He starts banging on his computer and a minute later said, “I can get you out on a 6:55 am flight through Minneapolis into DC via First Class, I have $300 vouchers apiece, a hotel room for the few hours at the Hampton Inn with free shuttle service back here, and $20 for food.” Score!!! Woo hoo!!! I slap our boarding passes on the counter and tell him he has a deal! Kevin’s expression was priceless, as he couldn’t believe that my wish from dinner a few hours earlier actually came true. I was so excited!! Not only do we get a few more hours in town, our airfare for the March Nascar race is now paid. John calls the Hampton Inn shuttle driver and tells him he’s sending down 2 people to be picked up. John said by the time you get back downstairs, the shuttle should be there or at least be there in short order. We get downstairs, a couple of minutes later the shuttle arrived, and we hop on and get over to the Inn. Present them with our hotel voucher, drop our carry on stuff in the room, freshen up a bit and head back downstairs. We were just about to call a cab when the shuttle driver asked us if he could take us anywhere. We asked him if he could drop us off at New York New York and he did and then gave us his business card and told us to give him a call on his cell phone when we needed to be picked back up. Another score! We tipped Robert every time he transported us everywhere but it was still cheaper than using the cabs. We get to NYNY and found a couple of their strike machines and won strikes from each one we played. We also played penny Millioniser slots and hit the Millioniser bonus round on the second spin. Won the mini jackpot of $19.50 and was able to cash out doubling our money. Played Enchanted Unicorn here too for a while but the one we played was near the NYNY piano bar and it was really loud. We walked over to Monte Carlo and played here for a while. Found their strike machines but I didn’t like them. They were advertising their steak houses. I like strikes that either have a series of ones to collect like the Four Queens – they have the Queen of Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs, or ones that have a nice casino/hotel logo on them. So we passed on those and just ended up playing progressive nickel machines and getting cokes. Kevin was fading fast and I knew once he got on that plane he would be out. Before I knew it, it was close to 5 am and we headed back to NYNY to call Robert. He arrived about 5 minutes later and brought us back to the hotel. We freshened up a bit, grabbed our stuff and checked out. Robert was still there and said that there was a bunch of people going to the airport so we had to wait for all of them to arrive. A few minutes later we were back at McCarran. With no luggage to check we headed directly to security. I couldn’t believe how busy the airport was at this early hour. The line for security was enormous until I saw a sign that said “First Class”. Hey, wait a sec, we have first class boarding passes. There’s no line over there. I said to Kevin, we can go in that line and pointed. With a grin we step over and within 3 minutes we are through it and on the monorail over to D terminal. Back at gate D 14 it wasn’t long after we sat down that they called pre-boarding for First Class. We board, sit down in row 2, buckle ourselves in and get offered a mimosa. Yes, thank you. Have a nice beverage, large comfy seats and loads of legroom. I could get used to this. I thought about what else we’ll be getting sitting in first class. Maybe something for breakfast as I’m getting hungry. I have no idea. Kevin doesn’t either. We both fell asleep before the plane took off. I have no recollection of anything until I heard the captain come on the P.A. saying we were almost in Minneapolis. That was a fast 3 hours. Get to MN and have a 40 minutes wait for our connecting flight to DC. Board the flight home, sit down, buckle in and zzzzzzzzzzzzz. I don’t remember take off this time either. Oh well. Kevin said he remembered leaving the ground but that was it. The all-nighter really caught up to us, obviously. And the stewardess said we were both sawing wood. How embarrassing.

Land in DC, trek over to Northwest’s unclaimed luggage area, find our stuff (golf clubs made it too without a scratch, phew!!!!) and grab the economy lot shuttle to our car. After going around in circles a couple of times, we finally arrived at area 16, section D9 and loaded up.

Rather than make the really long drive from DC to CT, we had decided to spend one night in Atlantic City to break up the drive. (I know, more gambling) I get free rooms from Harrah’s every month so we knew that all we had to do was get up there and we’d be able to shower and sleep. Since Kevin was driving I needed to be navigator and I held my position well for the first hour or so of the drive. Then I fell asleep again and Kevin ended up getting lost. Oops. I wake up and the sun is setting. I said, shouldn’t we be there by now? The answer was yes, but I got lost. Now we’re both tired and cranky. Oh well. We finally come into AC and check in was easy. Up to our 4th floor room in the Marina Tower and did that bed look nice. I couldn’t wait to clean up and Kevin pretty much fell asleep as soon as he lay down so I took my time. Kevin did the same and the shower had woken me up a bit so I figured, what the heck, I’ll run downstairs for a little while. Kevin said no way; he was exhausted so he crashed. My “little while” turned into 5 hours but I have to say the amount of play for the amount of money that Harrah’s gave me was very, very good. I played a Mr. Cashman machine on $20 for almost 3 ½ hours! Every time I’d dip below 500 credits, (penny machine) I’d either get the Mr. Cashman game or a large hit. Even the people around me were saying how decent my machine was being to me as I must have gotten the Mr. Cashman bonus game at least 30 times. There was one point where I got it back to back to back. That was really weird. Harrah’s was completely freezing just like Sunset Station and I was sitting directly under a vent so by the time my session was finished I was glad at that point. My fingers were numb. I played the Double Diamond penny machine where you can win 12 free games if you get the Free Bonus symbols on reels one, three and five. I did get the bonus a couple of times but my most memorable hit was getting double diamond, double diamond, double diamond, double diamond, double bar on the top line. I had never spun more than a couple of the double diamond symbols in a row before and it was neat to let the machine just rack up the credits on that hit. I saw a couple of other machines I haven’t seen lately at Foxwoods or Mohegan and made a $50 profit off one of the Jeopardy slots. Still not having any luck with poker. All the machines I tried just ate my money and did not even give me any sort of playtime. That is very discouraging. At least the slots and their RNG let me play.

Crashed around 4 am. I know, I’m crazy. Woke up at 11. Showered and checked out by noon. Went over to the Borgata for lunch and a little play as Kevin and I both received a mailer for $25 in free slot play. Checked to make sure my favorite Joker Poker machines were still in their usual place and they were. Got in line for the lunch buffet. Not a bad buffet – very tasty blackened cod. Real mashed potatoes with lumps. Nice desserts. Pleasantly stuffed, we went back to my Joker Poker machines. Last time I had played at the Borgata on “my” machine, I had a great session. For my $20, I had caught 15 4OAK and one straight flush. My machine kept me playing for almost 4 hours. Love love love those kinds of sessions. Not this time. Even with my bonus $25 slot dollars, I was in and out with only 1 4OAK in 10’s. Not even decent little hits. Just crappy cards every deal. Kevin had no luck either. We both said we should have just stayed at Harrah’s – especially since I told him I had decent play over there for the money. We found the new Garfield slots at Borgata and played a $20 through apiece but never hit anything good so we figured that was it. If it were going to happen, it would have already happened to us so we just cut our losses and gave up. Got back on the road at 2:30 pm and rolled into our home in northern CT at 7:56 pm after a couple of pit stops, a major 18 mile back up on I95, and a run to our local grinder joint for dinner. Got home just in time to watch the season finale of Hell’s Kitchen!

In summary, combining our trip to Vegas with a side trip to Philly and AC was neat. It was like we had 3 vacations wrapped into one. We had a great time in Philly and Vegas and AC was okay but by then we were so tired and sick of traveling we just wanted to get home and into our own bed. Our first night in Vegas was our most winning-est and we are both still waiting to break our royal drought. I just hope once we finally get the first one, the second and third and all the rest make frequent appearances! We love Vegas in the summer and didn’t find the temps any of the days we were out driving or walking around that hot. Of course, had we been in town the previous week when the temps were breaking all kinds of records (116, 117) I might not feel the same.

We did things this trip that we hadn’t done before which was great like Binion’s Steakhouse and the Eiffel tower and Wynn but I missed going to Red Square. So, I’ll just have to go twice in December when me and my mom and our friend Karen go to celebrate my mom’s birthday! My mom is like my husband – a lightweight, so Karen and I will have to keep a better eye on her than I did on Kevin

Posted by frozenoze on LVTalk