December 24th – 26th: We got up around 9:00 and headed to Orange County to spend Christmas with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. We had a great time. We went to the Christmas Eve service at her church. She attends a church called Saddleback. They have an amazing choir and a great preacher. I found the service very up lifting. We then had our Christmas Eve dinner. We spent Christmas day opening presents and playing board games. I got my sister hooked on a game called Settlers of Catan. We played it until 2 in the morning Christmas day, then started back up and played until we left around 7:00 in the evening in the 26th. It was a great time together and I was thrilled we got to spend some time together.
December 26th: We left southern California about 7 in the evening and started up the 15 towards Las Vegas. However, we made the big right hand turn when we hit I-40 and we were actually heading to Laughlin for two nights. This was a Friday and Saturday night stay. We were going to stay at the Aquarius for both nights. The first night was going to cost us $5 on an offer I got and the 2nd night $10 on an offer Kim got. We to a room on the 7th floor that faces the mountains. However these rooms have a slight edge to them that also gives you a limited view of the river.
We figured we would be tired after arriving however the bug to play had bit us even though it was almost midnight. We went down and put a $20 each into a couple of nickel single line machines. Kim's machine was hot and she was hitting quad after quad. We both started out playing 7-5 bonus. I suggested she switch over do double bonus. She did and the quads disappeared. I couldn’t hit a quad to save my life. I did notice lots of 7’s coming up, I decided to switch over to a 7’s wild game they had that didn’t have that bad of a pay table that compared to not so ugly deuces. Sure enough shortly in, I hit a natural set of quad aces. Little did I know this would be the trend for the rest of the trip. Kim lost her original $20 about the same time I did. She decided to venture off to some slots, I decided to try something else myself.
I went to the triple play dream card machine for nickels. I had done great on this machine during the summer. I hit a royal flush when I kept four to the royal on hearts for $200 during the summer. During that same session it seemed like I was getting lots of quads, so I decided to switch over to a rarely played version of double-double bonus. Shortly in I was dealt A-A-A-4 when the dream card activated for the fourth ace for a dealt quad aces with a kicker for another $300. Well this time it started out with a quick quad jacks then nothing, and I mean nothing else came close to a big winner. I quickly lost my buy in and was ready to call it a night. Kim hadn’t faired any better and lost her 2nd $20 on slots. We decided to head to bed when we saw a new Rolling Stones slot machine. Kim begged me to play. I told her to let me show her how quick I can blow money on a slot machine. About ten minutes later, I had donated $11 to the cause and told Mick Jagger that he was getting no more. We headed up $91 lighter wishing we had just gone to bed.
December 26th: We left southern California about 7 in the evening and started up the 15 towards Las Vegas. However, we made the big right hand turn when we hit I-40 and we were actually heading to Laughlin for two nights. This was a Friday and Saturday night stay. We were going to stay at the Aquarius for both nights. The first night was going to cost us $5 on an offer I got and the 2nd night $10 on an offer Kim got. We to a room on the 7th floor that faces the mountains. However these rooms have a slight edge to them that also gives you a limited view of the river.
We figured we would be tired after arriving however the bug to play had bit us even though it was almost midnight. We went down and put a $20 each into a couple of nickel single line machines. Kim's machine was hot and she was hitting quad after quad. We both started out playing 7-5 bonus. I suggested she switch over do double bonus. She did and the quads disappeared. I couldn’t hit a quad to save my life. I did notice lots of 7’s coming up, I decided to switch over to a 7’s wild game they had that didn’t have that bad of a pay table that compared to not so ugly deuces. Sure enough shortly in, I hit a natural set of quad aces. Little did I know this would be the trend for the rest of the trip. Kim lost her original $20 about the same time I did. She decided to venture off to some slots, I decided to try something else myself.
I went to the triple play dream card machine for nickels. I had done great on this machine during the summer. I hit a royal flush when I kept four to the royal on hearts for $200 during the summer. During that same session it seemed like I was getting lots of quads, so I decided to switch over to a rarely played version of double-double bonus. Shortly in I was dealt A-A-A-4 when the dream card activated for the fourth ace for a dealt quad aces with a kicker for another $300. Well this time it started out with a quick quad jacks then nothing, and I mean nothing else came close to a big winner. I quickly lost my buy in and was ready to call it a night. Kim hadn’t faired any better and lost her 2nd $20 on slots. We decided to head to bed when we saw a new Rolling Stones slot machine. Kim begged me to play. I told her to let me show her how quick I can blow money on a slot machine. About ten minutes later, I had donated $11 to the cause and told Mick Jagger that he was getting no more. We headed up $91 lighter wishing we had just gone to bed.
