We just got back from our semiannual trip downtown, spent seven nights (three at MSS, two at LV Club, two at Four Queens). Our good friends, Glen and Jennifer, came along with Linda (wife) and myself; they spent four nights at MSS and then decided to luxuriate up at Cosmo. It was a fun trip as always, although we lost a bundle. I lost about 4.9% of my coin-in, playing full-pay VP (mostly dollar 9/6 JoB, some quarter 10/7 DB, some deuces) and blackjack; Linda did a lot better, with only a 0.6% loss on mostly quarter JoB, slots and blackjack. This end of the bell curve sucks; I think we'll plan a vacation on the other tail for next year.
Anyway, here' s the rundown...
SATURDAY
We had a direct flight on Southwest, Tampa to Las Vegas. Easy trip, then we caught the Westcliff Airport Express (WAX) downtown and checked in at MSS. We both did well on Saturday, had a few winning sessions. The high point was some July free play that I had over at Four Queens. First hand on the 10/7 DB machines, I was dealt an unsuited AJ. Didn't satisfy the penalty card criteria, so I held the ace, and was dealt the other three for a free $200. Sweet. Unfortunately, that was the biggest hit of the week. But anyway, did I mention that it was sweet?
We had lunch at Market Street Cafe, the coffee shop at the Cal; had some really good teriyaki sliders (highly recommended) and sweet and sour pork. Jennifer had grilled mahimahi in black vinegar sauce, which was also excellent. After lunch, I decided to try some All American, I had never played it but had a strategy printed out. The Cal has some nickel triple-play machines with AA (the quad is shorted to 35, but it's still a good game). Real pain in the ass, the strategy is crazy complicated, you have to keep all sorts of three-card inside straights and two-card straight flushes. Probably played about 40 hands per hour, but did okay. I guess it was just something that I had to do once. Probably not twice, though. Anyway, I also played some DB over at the Cal, most of it has been downgraded except for some coindroppers over by the Main Street Bar. Also moseyed over to Fitzgerald's and cashed in some free play, also went over to Bad Habits to buy some cigars. They have some locally rolled Nicaraguan maduros that are really nice. More play at MSS, had a mixed plate over at Aloha Specialties (maybe my favorite downtown restaurant), and got some much-needed sleep.
SUNDAY
Woke up precisely at 7:11, was that a lucky omen? Anyway, had a good first session, and the first quad of the trip. We all decided to have brunch at the MSS buffet. Pleasant enough experience, nice selection, but honestly, the MSS buffet isn't what it used to be. Most of the food isn't nearly as good as it was a few years ago. The chicken-fried steak was a serious disappointment this time, almost choked me. We stayed local for the rest of the day, won a $5 matchplay at the Gold Spike (Bad Habits had a bunch of Gold Spike funbooks; I would have played their quarter 9/6 DDB for the bonus [don't remember how many coins, sorry] for quads, but I remembered how everything at the Spike is still a 10 or 20 minute hand-pay, so decided not to), also played the “Shaka Five-Way” bank of 7/5 BP machines at the Cal (five progressives, on the royal, SF, all the quads) for a while. I always wanted to play those machines, they look so Hawaiian. Anyway, I hit my first progressive ever, got $68 and change on the quad 4s.
Back to MSS, played some more JoB and some NSUD, stayed about even. Also played some TDW, which is a good game but hellavolatile; got three deuces once, turned it into a wild royal so I broke even. Could have been worse; nothing pisses me off more than turning three deuces into a quad. Anyway, we decided to eat at Redwood Grille for dinner, we had adequately digested the brunch. Had some respectable French onion soup and some very good prime rib. Glen decided to get the large cut, and it almost killed him;
I got the smaller cut, which fortunately didn't have an embarrassing name, like Queen Cut, or Girl's Cut, or Pussy Cut. I think it was just called the regular cut. But it was good, served with those garlic mashed potatoes wrapped in a spring roll skin and deep-fried. Tasty. Played some more after dinner, and that was that.
MONDAY
Had a quad during the first morning session, so coffee was still under $100 per cup. But there would only be two more quads for me for the rest of the trip. So, things started going downhill. Interesting how you start to notice patterns. For example, almost every time I drew to a high inside straight, it got filled with a seven. Very odd. The real bitch for the trip was the number of fours-to-a-royal, I must have had forty or fifty of them, either dealt or after the draw. Once I had to break a flush, had AKQJ3 of hearts. Guess what I got. Right, the 8 of spades. Anyway, a tough day today. Also tried to win that free steak at Fitzgerald's, but to no avail.
Today was steak and show day; the four of us have been doing that. This year was N9ne and Penn & Teller. We took the bus up to Rio and Gold Coast, I picked up the tickets and we all played at Gold Coast for a while. I won a matchplay at BJ, then decided to play Super Times Pay; I've only played it once before (at Gold Coast), but a lot of people seem addicted to it, so I figured it would be as much fun as crack to try for a little while. Exciting game; got beaten up pretty bad, dropped from $100 to $30 real quick, then got a 3x full house and a 5x straight, cashed out $190. I gotta do this more often!
After a while we went over to Palms, and I played some hundred-play JoB, which was okay but pretty boring (the multiple lines leach the variance out of the game, so you lose a lot of the excitement of big hands; at least that's how it was for me).
We've been in the habit of hitting at least one good steakhouse per trip with Glen and Jennifer; last year it was CUT (outstanding!), the year before was Golden Steer (a real favorite). So, we decided to try N9ne. We'd seen some good comments, and most of the negative involved it being too loud, the service being to casual and chummy, etc. Well, it was loud, but the service was fine. Very young, but attentive and reasonably knowledgeable for a kid that age. The food was a major disappointment, though. The steaks, the seafood, the raw ingredients in general were of good quality and the steak was nicely cooked. The chef has a lot of learning to do, though; much of the food was cloying or overseasoned and nothing was all that memorable. The bread basket (I have a thing for good bread) was highly forgettable, a real shame for a restaurant of this sort. Well, better luck next time. We'll probably do Craftsteak next time.
Penn & Teller was a great show, lots of fun and some really remarkable magic. We had great seats, sixth row, center. There are plenty of shows that we still want to see, but I'm really glad that we made it to this one.
Took a cab back to MSS after the show and made it an early night (well, not exactly early). Moving day tomorrow.
TUESDAY
Linda and I moved over to the Las Vegas Club today. The renovation at the Plaza is coming along well, and everyone at the LV Club is pretty enthusiastic about it. The big buzz this week was the steakhouse and martini bar that Oscar Goodman will be opening at the hotel (this is four months after he was saying that it was an eyesore and should be imploded to make a corridor over to Symphony Park). They're also going to put in a Hash House a Go-Go and a sushi bar with a poke bar (I like poke). Exciting times. Anyway, we played a little more at MSS, had my usual $140 cup of coffee, then we moved. Had a couple of pretty good tacos de carnitas over at Tinoco Express, and spent most of the afternoon playing JoB, without much luck. They did have a few old Double Deuces coindroppers and I played them for a while; they were really, really loud; one was the loudest machine I've ever played, it chirped with each card dealt or held, and each chirp felt like getting hit in the skull with a hammer and chisel. I asked some lady next to me if she thought the machines were particularly loud, and she said, “What? Oh, not particularly.” Anyway, played some of that, and Linda and I passed some time playing the virtual blackjack machine.
It was El Cortez Day, too; we always enjoy our time at the El, really need to stay there some time (although we're never going to get a comp room just playing blackjack).
The good news is that they have Downtown Deuces machines again; I saw two coindroppers in the area down past the hotel desk. Very slow machines, deal about one card per second, maybe slower. Great machines, though, pay 100.92%. Anyway, I pretty much broke even on those and on blackjack. Also took a quick run up to the Western, just to say that I've been to the Western. They have penny coindroppers again; looks like they got them from the old Copper Mine at the Spike. These machines are usually very busy, with a crowd waiting and people ready to break your hand if you try to horn in. I found an open machine, put in a penny (yeah, a real penny), pulled the handle (yeah, a real handle) and hit a bonanza, five cents. Loads of fun.
Back to the El, and we ate at Roberta's (yeah, it's called The Flame now, but it will always be Roberta's to me; I consider it blasphemy to have changed the name). They have a “classic menu” during the week now, with some old cliches, like oysters rockefeller, tournedos rossini, chicken kiev, etc. We tried the oysters, and they were excellent. Nice small, sweet Puget Sound oysters (we don't get them here), very nicely done. Next was a very good Caesar salad, honestly one of the best I've had in a restaurant (no fear of either garlic or anchovies here), and some really great walleye pike. Linda had king crab legs, excellent as always. People have also raved about their creamed corn, and I have to agree, it's sweet, rich, and really memorable.
Someone had sold us some Cuban Montecristos (yeah, they were the real deal), and they were the perfect dessert for the walk back to MSS and the LV Club. Interesting story, there's that condo that's only about 20% occupied, just west of the El Cortez (part of the so-called rebirth of downtown). There's some guy that lives in an apartment with a balcony on the east end of the building, and he's out on the balcony yelling, “F**k you!” at everyone who walks by (the asterisks signify u and c, by the way). I asked him what he's pissed at me about, since we hadn't been formally introduced, but he didn't answer. Just then, a security guard from the El comes out to the port cochere, and I tell him about it. He says that he knows all about it, that the guy does this all the time and also throws his garbage off the balcony and into their parking spaces, and that they're trying to get him evicted. I asked him if he thought he could hit the guy with his handgun, but he said that he'd get in trouble (now, isn't that ironic?).
WEDNESDAY
No more Glen and Jennifer; they moved up to Cosmo today. They had a great time from what they told us (and from what they remember), had a balcony on the 38th or 39th floor, overlooking the Bellagio fountains, spectacular view. They really loved the place, also hit just about every casino on the south strip. Linda and I were still at the Las Vegas Club, played a bunch of VP, a few slots here and there and some virtual BJ. We mostly laid low today, although I played a little at Fitzgerald's (no steak again) and a few other places. I did see some woman playing a penny JoB machine at Fitz, though, and I've never seen anyone play that fast, probably at least 1800 hands per hour. She was playing 38 coins, God knows why 38, and it was 6/5 crap, of course. Fast, but really, really inaccurate; she was hard to follow, but I know I saw her miss a lot of second pairs, of four-flushes, etc. Too fast to watch for straights and SF's. Go figure. I also saw some guy shove a security guard at Golden Gate and get backroomed, but by the time I got back they had already disposed of the body (I suppose).
Linda and I decided to go up to Jerry's Nugget in North Las Vegas this evening. Really good decision, we had lots of fun. Played some NSUD, but mostly played blackjack. They have a good double-deck game, very friendly, all locals. There were a bunch of young Mexican guys at our table, and they were an absolute scream, we all had lots of fun. After playing, we went to the coffee shop for dinner; I had heard good things about it, and wasn't disappointed at all.
If you like diner-type, coffee-shop food, this is a great bet. Good homemade soups, and their specialty, the prime rib (the menu says it's slow-roasted at 200 degrees for 12 hours) was wonderful, maybe the best I've had in Vegas (although I haven't been to any of the really high-end prime rib places, like Lawry's).
After Jerry's, we came back downtown and played a little more; I also went over to Lappert's, the Hawaiian ice cream franchise over at the Cal; I had a coconut macadamia fudge cone, and it was great. Nice day.
THURSDAY
Moving day again. Played a little more over at the LV Club, then went over to GG for 99 cent shrimp cocktails (with the FSE coupon, of course). Tastes like Vegas. Anyway, we checked in to the Four Queens, had a nice room on the 19th floor of the prestigious south tower. The room was pretty much identical to our north tower room back in February but noticeably less shabby. I spent most of the afternoon between $1 JoB and the quarter DB progressive machines, and didn't do well on either. Oddly enough, while playing the DB machines, I glanced up and saw that it had reset to $1000.21; I pointed it out to the people next to me, but nobody could figure out who had hit the royal. Very odd, I can't really conceive of someone hitting a royal and not screaming. Anyway, it wasn't me. We had dinner at Magnolia's (I had the okay prime rib special, Linda had an okay patty melt), played some more and that was that.
FRIDAY
We decided to hit the buffet at the Golden Nugget this morning; Linda wanted breakfast and I wanted lunch, so we went around 10:00. Normally I wouldn't patronize the GN on prinicple (7/5 JoB downtown, my ass), but what the hell. Well, it was overall a pretty forgettable buffet. Crappy chicken fried steak again, I think they're buying it the same place as Boyd. Nothing was all that memorable, and the selection was pretty meager. We had wanted to try the buffet at Cosmo, but Linda didn't want to go to the Strip again, and Glen and Jennifer were kind of burned out on eating, so we'll save that for the next trip. Anyway, played more at the Queens, still mostly JoB and DB, didn't do all that well. I did finally get one of my two remaining quads since Monday, quad 3s on the DB machine for $100 (and it was my last $1.25 in the machine, too). Played some slots that afternoon, too. We decided to try Mamita's for dinner, the Mexican and Cuban restaurant across the street from the El Cortez. Friendly little place, but very slow service and the food wasn't anything to write home about. The carnitas were very good, but the food that Linda had (hard ground beef taco, chili relleno) was ordinary and my masitas de puerco (thought I'd try their Cuban food) was nicely cooked but seriously underseasoned. We stopped in at the El after dinner and played a little blackjack; Linda did well but I didn't. I decided to play a little Multistrike JoB and ran into bigfus from LVA. Small world, although it does seem like the El is an LVA magnet. Anyway, it was really nice to meet her and to put a face with the screen name and posts.
SATURDAY
Time to leave. Had one more quad that morning, but that was about it; also decided to run $100 through the dollar 10/7 DB progressive machines, had a little bit of a run with a full house and a couple of flushes, but that was about it. Got packed, went back to Aloha Specialties for my Last Meal; I had the Aloha Bento, which was a perfect choice for travel day, since you don't have much opportunity to eat again on the way back to the east coast. This was a hell of a lunch: pan-fried mahimahi, teriyaki ribeye, Korean chicken (one of their tastiest items) and a grilled hot dog, served over rice with kamaboko, pickled daikon and pickled ginger. Sure hit the spot.
Linda went over to Binion's and enjoyed her grilled ham and cheese sandwich; she didn't bother with the BoD (Bean of the Day).
Packed, took the WAX back to the airport where we met up with Glen and Jennifer again, looked at a lot of their pictures (some really spectacular ones), had an uneventful flight home, got a little sleep and wrote a trip report. And that's that.
Next trip will probably be in February, probably with linda2244. That other tail of the bell curve is waiting. Thanks for reading!
Anyway, here' s the rundown...
SATURDAY
We had a direct flight on Southwest, Tampa to Las Vegas. Easy trip, then we caught the Westcliff Airport Express (WAX) downtown and checked in at MSS. We both did well on Saturday, had a few winning sessions. The high point was some July free play that I had over at Four Queens. First hand on the 10/7 DB machines, I was dealt an unsuited AJ. Didn't satisfy the penalty card criteria, so I held the ace, and was dealt the other three for a free $200. Sweet. Unfortunately, that was the biggest hit of the week. But anyway, did I mention that it was sweet?
We had lunch at Market Street Cafe, the coffee shop at the Cal; had some really good teriyaki sliders (highly recommended) and sweet and sour pork. Jennifer had grilled mahimahi in black vinegar sauce, which was also excellent. After lunch, I decided to try some All American, I had never played it but had a strategy printed out. The Cal has some nickel triple-play machines with AA (the quad is shorted to 35, but it's still a good game). Real pain in the ass, the strategy is crazy complicated, you have to keep all sorts of three-card inside straights and two-card straight flushes. Probably played about 40 hands per hour, but did okay. I guess it was just something that I had to do once. Probably not twice, though. Anyway, I also played some DB over at the Cal, most of it has been downgraded except for some coindroppers over by the Main Street Bar. Also moseyed over to Fitzgerald's and cashed in some free play, also went over to Bad Habits to buy some cigars. They have some locally rolled Nicaraguan maduros that are really nice. More play at MSS, had a mixed plate over at Aloha Specialties (maybe my favorite downtown restaurant), and got some much-needed sleep.
SUNDAY
Woke up precisely at 7:11, was that a lucky omen? Anyway, had a good first session, and the first quad of the trip. We all decided to have brunch at the MSS buffet. Pleasant enough experience, nice selection, but honestly, the MSS buffet isn't what it used to be. Most of the food isn't nearly as good as it was a few years ago. The chicken-fried steak was a serious disappointment this time, almost choked me. We stayed local for the rest of the day, won a $5 matchplay at the Gold Spike (Bad Habits had a bunch of Gold Spike funbooks; I would have played their quarter 9/6 DDB for the bonus [don't remember how many coins, sorry] for quads, but I remembered how everything at the Spike is still a 10 or 20 minute hand-pay, so decided not to), also played the “Shaka Five-Way” bank of 7/5 BP machines at the Cal (five progressives, on the royal, SF, all the quads) for a while. I always wanted to play those machines, they look so Hawaiian. Anyway, I hit my first progressive ever, got $68 and change on the quad 4s.
Back to MSS, played some more JoB and some NSUD, stayed about even. Also played some TDW, which is a good game but hellavolatile; got three deuces once, turned it into a wild royal so I broke even. Could have been worse; nothing pisses me off more than turning three deuces into a quad. Anyway, we decided to eat at Redwood Grille for dinner, we had adequately digested the brunch. Had some respectable French onion soup and some very good prime rib. Glen decided to get the large cut, and it almost killed him;
I got the smaller cut, which fortunately didn't have an embarrassing name, like Queen Cut, or Girl's Cut, or Pussy Cut. I think it was just called the regular cut. But it was good, served with those garlic mashed potatoes wrapped in a spring roll skin and deep-fried. Tasty. Played some more after dinner, and that was that.
MONDAY
Had a quad during the first morning session, so coffee was still under $100 per cup. But there would only be two more quads for me for the rest of the trip. So, things started going downhill. Interesting how you start to notice patterns. For example, almost every time I drew to a high inside straight, it got filled with a seven. Very odd. The real bitch for the trip was the number of fours-to-a-royal, I must have had forty or fifty of them, either dealt or after the draw. Once I had to break a flush, had AKQJ3 of hearts. Guess what I got. Right, the 8 of spades. Anyway, a tough day today. Also tried to win that free steak at Fitzgerald's, but to no avail.
Today was steak and show day; the four of us have been doing that. This year was N9ne and Penn & Teller. We took the bus up to Rio and Gold Coast, I picked up the tickets and we all played at Gold Coast for a while. I won a matchplay at BJ, then decided to play Super Times Pay; I've only played it once before (at Gold Coast), but a lot of people seem addicted to it, so I figured it would be as much fun as crack to try for a little while. Exciting game; got beaten up pretty bad, dropped from $100 to $30 real quick, then got a 3x full house and a 5x straight, cashed out $190. I gotta do this more often!
After a while we went over to Palms, and I played some hundred-play JoB, which was okay but pretty boring (the multiple lines leach the variance out of the game, so you lose a lot of the excitement of big hands; at least that's how it was for me).
We've been in the habit of hitting at least one good steakhouse per trip with Glen and Jennifer; last year it was CUT (outstanding!), the year before was Golden Steer (a real favorite). So, we decided to try N9ne. We'd seen some good comments, and most of the negative involved it being too loud, the service being to casual and chummy, etc. Well, it was loud, but the service was fine. Very young, but attentive and reasonably knowledgeable for a kid that age. The food was a major disappointment, though. The steaks, the seafood, the raw ingredients in general were of good quality and the steak was nicely cooked. The chef has a lot of learning to do, though; much of the food was cloying or overseasoned and nothing was all that memorable. The bread basket (I have a thing for good bread) was highly forgettable, a real shame for a restaurant of this sort. Well, better luck next time. We'll probably do Craftsteak next time.
Penn & Teller was a great show, lots of fun and some really remarkable magic. We had great seats, sixth row, center. There are plenty of shows that we still want to see, but I'm really glad that we made it to this one.
Took a cab back to MSS after the show and made it an early night (well, not exactly early). Moving day tomorrow.
TUESDAY
Linda and I moved over to the Las Vegas Club today. The renovation at the Plaza is coming along well, and everyone at the LV Club is pretty enthusiastic about it. The big buzz this week was the steakhouse and martini bar that Oscar Goodman will be opening at the hotel (this is four months after he was saying that it was an eyesore and should be imploded to make a corridor over to Symphony Park). They're also going to put in a Hash House a Go-Go and a sushi bar with a poke bar (I like poke). Exciting times. Anyway, we played a little more at MSS, had my usual $140 cup of coffee, then we moved. Had a couple of pretty good tacos de carnitas over at Tinoco Express, and spent most of the afternoon playing JoB, without much luck. They did have a few old Double Deuces coindroppers and I played them for a while; they were really, really loud; one was the loudest machine I've ever played, it chirped with each card dealt or held, and each chirp felt like getting hit in the skull with a hammer and chisel. I asked some lady next to me if she thought the machines were particularly loud, and she said, “What? Oh, not particularly.” Anyway, played some of that, and Linda and I passed some time playing the virtual blackjack machine.
It was El Cortez Day, too; we always enjoy our time at the El, really need to stay there some time (although we're never going to get a comp room just playing blackjack).
The good news is that they have Downtown Deuces machines again; I saw two coindroppers in the area down past the hotel desk. Very slow machines, deal about one card per second, maybe slower. Great machines, though, pay 100.92%. Anyway, I pretty much broke even on those and on blackjack. Also took a quick run up to the Western, just to say that I've been to the Western. They have penny coindroppers again; looks like they got them from the old Copper Mine at the Spike. These machines are usually very busy, with a crowd waiting and people ready to break your hand if you try to horn in. I found an open machine, put in a penny (yeah, a real penny), pulled the handle (yeah, a real handle) and hit a bonanza, five cents. Loads of fun.
Back to the El, and we ate at Roberta's (yeah, it's called The Flame now, but it will always be Roberta's to me; I consider it blasphemy to have changed the name). They have a “classic menu” during the week now, with some old cliches, like oysters rockefeller, tournedos rossini, chicken kiev, etc. We tried the oysters, and they were excellent. Nice small, sweet Puget Sound oysters (we don't get them here), very nicely done. Next was a very good Caesar salad, honestly one of the best I've had in a restaurant (no fear of either garlic or anchovies here), and some really great walleye pike. Linda had king crab legs, excellent as always. People have also raved about their creamed corn, and I have to agree, it's sweet, rich, and really memorable.
Someone had sold us some Cuban Montecristos (yeah, they were the real deal), and they were the perfect dessert for the walk back to MSS and the LV Club. Interesting story, there's that condo that's only about 20% occupied, just west of the El Cortez (part of the so-called rebirth of downtown). There's some guy that lives in an apartment with a balcony on the east end of the building, and he's out on the balcony yelling, “F**k you!” at everyone who walks by (the asterisks signify u and c, by the way). I asked him what he's pissed at me about, since we hadn't been formally introduced, but he didn't answer. Just then, a security guard from the El comes out to the port cochere, and I tell him about it. He says that he knows all about it, that the guy does this all the time and also throws his garbage off the balcony and into their parking spaces, and that they're trying to get him evicted. I asked him if he thought he could hit the guy with his handgun, but he said that he'd get in trouble (now, isn't that ironic?).
WEDNESDAY
No more Glen and Jennifer; they moved up to Cosmo today. They had a great time from what they told us (and from what they remember), had a balcony on the 38th or 39th floor, overlooking the Bellagio fountains, spectacular view. They really loved the place, also hit just about every casino on the south strip. Linda and I were still at the Las Vegas Club, played a bunch of VP, a few slots here and there and some virtual BJ. We mostly laid low today, although I played a little at Fitzgerald's (no steak again) and a few other places. I did see some woman playing a penny JoB machine at Fitz, though, and I've never seen anyone play that fast, probably at least 1800 hands per hour. She was playing 38 coins, God knows why 38, and it was 6/5 crap, of course. Fast, but really, really inaccurate; she was hard to follow, but I know I saw her miss a lot of second pairs, of four-flushes, etc. Too fast to watch for straights and SF's. Go figure. I also saw some guy shove a security guard at Golden Gate and get backroomed, but by the time I got back they had already disposed of the body (I suppose).
Linda and I decided to go up to Jerry's Nugget in North Las Vegas this evening. Really good decision, we had lots of fun. Played some NSUD, but mostly played blackjack. They have a good double-deck game, very friendly, all locals. There were a bunch of young Mexican guys at our table, and they were an absolute scream, we all had lots of fun. After playing, we went to the coffee shop for dinner; I had heard good things about it, and wasn't disappointed at all.
If you like diner-type, coffee-shop food, this is a great bet. Good homemade soups, and their specialty, the prime rib (the menu says it's slow-roasted at 200 degrees for 12 hours) was wonderful, maybe the best I've had in Vegas (although I haven't been to any of the really high-end prime rib places, like Lawry's).
After Jerry's, we came back downtown and played a little more; I also went over to Lappert's, the Hawaiian ice cream franchise over at the Cal; I had a coconut macadamia fudge cone, and it was great. Nice day.
THURSDAY
Moving day again. Played a little more over at the LV Club, then went over to GG for 99 cent shrimp cocktails (with the FSE coupon, of course). Tastes like Vegas. Anyway, we checked in to the Four Queens, had a nice room on the 19th floor of the prestigious south tower. The room was pretty much identical to our north tower room back in February but noticeably less shabby. I spent most of the afternoon between $1 JoB and the quarter DB progressive machines, and didn't do well on either. Oddly enough, while playing the DB machines, I glanced up and saw that it had reset to $1000.21; I pointed it out to the people next to me, but nobody could figure out who had hit the royal. Very odd, I can't really conceive of someone hitting a royal and not screaming. Anyway, it wasn't me. We had dinner at Magnolia's (I had the okay prime rib special, Linda had an okay patty melt), played some more and that was that.
FRIDAY
We decided to hit the buffet at the Golden Nugget this morning; Linda wanted breakfast and I wanted lunch, so we went around 10:00. Normally I wouldn't patronize the GN on prinicple (7/5 JoB downtown, my ass), but what the hell. Well, it was overall a pretty forgettable buffet. Crappy chicken fried steak again, I think they're buying it the same place as Boyd. Nothing was all that memorable, and the selection was pretty meager. We had wanted to try the buffet at Cosmo, but Linda didn't want to go to the Strip again, and Glen and Jennifer were kind of burned out on eating, so we'll save that for the next trip. Anyway, played more at the Queens, still mostly JoB and DB, didn't do all that well. I did finally get one of my two remaining quads since Monday, quad 3s on the DB machine for $100 (and it was my last $1.25 in the machine, too). Played some slots that afternoon, too. We decided to try Mamita's for dinner, the Mexican and Cuban restaurant across the street from the El Cortez. Friendly little place, but very slow service and the food wasn't anything to write home about. The carnitas were very good, but the food that Linda had (hard ground beef taco, chili relleno) was ordinary and my masitas de puerco (thought I'd try their Cuban food) was nicely cooked but seriously underseasoned. We stopped in at the El after dinner and played a little blackjack; Linda did well but I didn't. I decided to play a little Multistrike JoB and ran into bigfus from LVA. Small world, although it does seem like the El is an LVA magnet. Anyway, it was really nice to meet her and to put a face with the screen name and posts.
SATURDAY
Time to leave. Had one more quad that morning, but that was about it; also decided to run $100 through the dollar 10/7 DB progressive machines, had a little bit of a run with a full house and a couple of flushes, but that was about it. Got packed, went back to Aloha Specialties for my Last Meal; I had the Aloha Bento, which was a perfect choice for travel day, since you don't have much opportunity to eat again on the way back to the east coast. This was a hell of a lunch: pan-fried mahimahi, teriyaki ribeye, Korean chicken (one of their tastiest items) and a grilled hot dog, served over rice with kamaboko, pickled daikon and pickled ginger. Sure hit the spot.
Linda went over to Binion's and enjoyed her grilled ham and cheese sandwich; she didn't bother with the BoD (Bean of the Day).
Packed, took the WAX back to the airport where we met up with Glen and Jennifer again, looked at a lot of their pictures (some really spectacular ones), had an uneventful flight home, got a little sleep and wrote a trip report. And that's that.
Next trip will probably be in February, probably with linda2244. That other tail of the bell curve is waiting. Thanks for reading!
