July 20
After last weeks trip with Lisa. This time it was for a friends 30th b-day. I was traveling up with my brother this time. We left early saturday morning about 7:15. We made good time for the most part and including a stop for breakfast at Quigley's in Barstow, we made it to the front door of the Golden Nugget by 11:15. There were no problems checking early, although they couldnt find my reservation. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, my name isnt Rob Lo Bue, it is Rob Bue, middle name Lo. After straighten that up, we were given a room on the 20th floor of the north tower. The view was facing Fremont Street though you really couldnt see much. The North Tower is quite a walk from the casino but the room was nicely done.
After quickly dumping our stuff, we set out to find the other 10 people that were in town, most of whom got in on friday. We checked the pool and found a few of them. We then went to the casino to find the birthday boy. He was parked at the same BJ table for over 4 hours when we found him and he was seriously liquored up already. He said that they were partying until 6AM and he was back downstairs by 8AM. Nothing like getting 2 hours sleep after a night of drinking only to start back up again! He wanted to keep playing so we headed out to find some games for ourselves. I settled in at an 8/5 BP machine and held my own for a little while. There was even a quad or two. After the previous week of getting killed while not getting any quads, this was starting out to be a decent run. Eventually I dumped $40 but not to bad considering. We played for about 2 hours then everyone headed out to the pool. It was only 105 which was nice compared to the 110+ we endured the week earlier. The GN pool is small for the size of the hotel but the drink service was speedy from a very cute waitress named Jessi. We lounged around for about 2 and half hours at the pool and it was great. After the pool, we decided to split up and then meet together at 9PM at the Triple 7 brew pub. We went back to our and hung out for a little while. We then showered and headed over to the Ellis Island for dinner. I finally got to try the infamous EI steak dinner. It lived up to the high expectations! The salad was drenched in Ranch, not just a few drops like other places. The rolls were fresh and hot and the steak was perfect. The root beer was the absolute best I have ever had. It was an incredible dinner and with the POV, it came to $12 including 4 root beers(no refills.) For a deal like that, we tipped nicely. The EI is now a must stop on every trip.
We drove back downtown to meet everyone over at the MSS. Shockingly, everyone was there on time. We took over the long table in front and had quite few good laughs over a few beers. I am not a big drinker, especially beer but the sampler of beers was pretty good, although I probably could have done without the Mango flavored beer! We were there for about 2 hours then we all stumbled over to the Plaza for $2 craps. I havent played in quite a few trips and now I know why. Even though I was only betting $2 pass with $5 odds, I blew through $60 in about 10 minutes. My brother is another keno player, so I sat down next to him and feed a $20 to the machine. About 5 hands later, I hit 4 of 4 for $91. I immediately cashed out, knowing full well I would have put it all back in before hitting another one. I went back to the GN to finish the evening with a little Bonus Poker. I got some good play including a few quads but eventually lost. It was time to call it an evening. I crashed about 2AM.
July 21
The next morning, I got up around 7 so I could get one last session in before we left. I decided to play some 5 play and after scoring some caffeine, I sat down and feed a hundred. I was doing pretty good for a while, I even hit the elusive four Aces. I was up over a hundred but ended up giving it all back in the end. I went back to the room, we packed up and were checked out by 8:30 to avoid the sunday rush back to So Cal. On the way out of town, we stopped at the Gold Coast for the breakfast buffet. Since it was sunday, they had "Brunch" which was eseentially the same buffet with Champagne for double the price. Even though it was $9, it was still quite enjoyable and we got our money's worth. After filling up the tank and scoring some cheap(er) smokes we were on the road by 10 and with just a bit of traffic, we were back in Orange County by 2:30.
Some Random Musings...
After 33 trips to Vegas, I finally stayed downtown for the first time. I wish I stayed more than one night to get a better feel of staying down there. The Golden Nugget is quite nice. It very much reminds me of the Mirage.
I cant believe that I hadnt got to the EI for the steak dinner before this trip. It definitely lived up to the hype.
Stay away from Paradise Blvd between Desert Inn Dr. and Flamingo due to the monorail construction. The traffic was a complete mess.
