Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Back from a quick vacation in Lake Tahoe




Yes, we are back from a relaxing and restful vacation. The Mexico trip was fantastic, but sometimes the sheer gravity of such a big vacation can be overwhelming and you end up back in the United States tired and, in some ways, even more stressed than you were before you left. This vacation was long on relaxation and short on any structured activities.

As you can see from the first picture, we had some fun at the casinos. Darla and I enjoy gambling, but we are really pretty tame when it comes to spending money gambling. I've said before, that we play nickle machines and almost exclusively video poker. We had a decent run at the machines on Saturday night, but still gave up $80 to the billionaire owners of the casino. Darla and I enjoy the Lakeside Inn in Tahoe. It is a small casino away from the main strip of Harveys, Harrahs and the new Mont Bleu casino. The Lakeside Inn is favored by the locals and has the best $8.95 Prime Rib in Nevada (I had 3 of the Prime Rib specials in four days in Nevada). Sunday we stayed away from the casinos and just relaxed at the resort, reading books and relaxing at the pool in the 80 degree temperatures. Darla was nice enough to sit with me and watch the Dallas-Washington NFL game Sunday night. We started out at a small local pizza joint and then moved back to the big screen in the game room at the resort. Monday we returned to the Lakeside for dinner and some gambling. We lost our shirts gambling and were down about $200 by midnight when we decided to have breakfast and decide if we wanted to call it a night. We went back up to the casino from the downstairs restaurant and played some 5 cent Wheel of Fortune. Darla won over $100 and got us going again. I quickly lost $20 and went back to video poker. Within ten minutes I hit on four aces and a two for a $100 jackpot. The funny thing is, the combination was dealt to me! Not a bad payout for a 25 cent bet. Darla finally gave up on the Wheel and came over to join me about 1 AM. I was getting tired, but stayed on for a bit and had a Ten, Jack, King and Ace of clubs dealt to me. I held those and the Queen of clubs came up for a 4000 coint payout on a 25 cent bet. All told, we finished the night with $495 in our pockets and two smiles on our faces. It was my fourth Royal Flush and as nice as it was, one of the Progressive nickle machines paid out over $600 for a Royal Flush earlier that night, so my luck was good, but my timing not so much.

The resort was very nice and we had a studio in the building on the beach and located next to the main pool. Our building has the fitness center in it and the game room with the large screen television. The game room sits empty most of the week, but was jammed on Sunday afternoon for a free wine and cheese gathering. The blue haired brigade showed up in force for the freebies. It was an ongoing joke with Darla and I as the senior crowd was mostly invisible at the resort until something was free. We never saw these people unless there was a free barbecue at the beach or the wine and cheese event and then they were like ants on maple syrup. I mostly stayed out of the way at these free events for fear of breaking a hip (mine or theirs). They had free apples at the front desk and if you saw a senior outside of the freefests, it was usually walking with an apple from the office.

The resort was noisy this time. We awoke Saturday morning to a group of hispanic maids (Darla and I termed them "Lupe and Maria") arguing about something loudly in Spanish. They finally finished that argument and Lupe decided to vacuum the hallway rug outside our door, banging the vacuum against the door several times to make sure we knew it was 8:00 AM and the world was awaiting us. Finally, Lupe broke out into full throated singing, a Spanish serenade something about her "corazon". We finally decided to get up and join the world. Saturday night found Darla awake at two AM to some inebriated neighbors arguing in the hall about who had "paid for the room" and "get out of my face" and other boozy proclamations. I slept through the whole thing. Tuesday morning we both awoke to hammering on our roof as a roofing crew was there to do a tear off and rebuild. We both really like the facility and would like to stay there one week a year, but we will trade in as opposed to buying. The resort is about thirty years old and the maintenance costs are escalating. We did sit through a time share presentation, but took the $75 Visa gift card and weren't tempted to buy in, especially after the money spent in Mexico.

Jennifer's boyfriend, John, did get his transfer to California and arrived back in the state on Sunday morning. He had packed up his apartment in New York on Thursday and drove cross country in his Tacoma hauling a UHaul trailer with his possessions. It is now sitting on the side of our house as he is trying to get an apartment in the Bay Area, near his work in Concord. Jennifer is happy to have him back. I played a little joke on Jen. She'd called us in Tahoe and asked if it was okay for John to leave his trailer at the house. When we got back, there was the trailer on the side of the house. I called Jen and asker her why the trailer wasn't there, did they bring it to Concord with them? She started to freak out, but I let her off the hook. Very funny, Dad.

Well, work awaits like a dull ache in a bad tooth, so I'd better hitch up my britches and get on with my day. I hope your day is a Royal Flush. Ciao.

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