This modern tale of two cities starts in Reno, so bear with me – there will be a Las Vegas segment. LOL, I admit that I have to be crazy to make two trips to Nevada within 2 weeks, but all the stars lined up properly – ie, tournaments, shows & friends made the second trip irresistible. Parts of the story might be a little cloudy or out of sequence since I stopped taking notes when I discovered I lost my flash drive along the way – I was really bummed since I had kept my trip report up to date daily and had tossed my notes as it was written.

The trip started on a good note when I drove out of the foggy valley air into beautiful blue skies on the road to Reno. It did seem strange that there was no snow on the ground in December, but it sure made for a pleasant drive. Check-in went smoothly at Harrah’s, and I landed on the 14th floor in the west tower – which gave me a nice view of the skating rink down by the river. I could only see about half of the ice, but it was fun to sit in a warm room, sipping hot & cold beverages and watching the skaters in the cold evenings.

It would be an understatement to say business was slow in Reno. Harrah’s coffee shop is still open 24 hours, 7 days a week, but the buffet closes down Tuesday through Thursday, as does the second floor bar close to it, and the gift shop in the east tower never did open either weekend I was there. I wanted prime rib the Friday night I arrived, but Harrah’s coffee shop only serves their special Monday-Thursday, so I walked across the (empty) street to the CalNeva and had dinner at the “At the Top” restaurant that has two prime rib specials every day. That meal gets a mixed review – the prime rib & bread were excellent, which made up for a so-so baked potato and basic frozen veggies. With coke and tip, I think the meal was a decent value for about $15, and I will probably eat there again.

Aside from playing in a video poker tournament (which I bombed out of), I was a woman on a mission in Reno – to gather enough brownie points to make Diamond at Harrah’s this year – so I really didn’t do much else beside gamble that first weekend. LOL, I didn’t even mind my miserable showing in the tournament since I hit deuces on DDB within 5 minutes of walking out of the tournament area. I picked up tickets for “the Monkey King” for the following weekend, had Saturday champagne brunch in the Harrah’s buffet and a Cobb salad in their coffee shop for dinner Saturday night. The weekend brunches are both decent and a decent value at $13, and the Cobb salad in the coffee shop rates at least a “very good,” and I think that meal also came in around $15 after adding on a coke and the tip.

I was up bright and early Sunday for my Southwest flight down to Las Vegas, and breakfast that morning was coffee & a blue berry muffin at the airport. The pay tables at the airport were so bad that my mom would have been really proud of me – I sat down at a nickel machine, put in a $1 bill and played one nickel at a time to use up a lot of my wait time. It was so nice to fly Southwest again – they do very well in comparison with Allegiant, with little things like on-time, smooth landings, no charge to check “big mama” suitcase and those free peanuts, which would come in very handy a day later.

I’m not sure if both trams were operating, but it was crowded on the tram to the baggage area, and there was quite a line for the rental car shuttle, but I really don’t know where all those folks disappeared because there weren’t any long lines when I got to the rental facility. My “wild card” turned into a PT Cruiser at a discounted base rate of $10.17 daily – which worked out to about $1/mile since I didn’t do a lot of traveling this time<g>.

First stop was check-in at the Flamingo, where I asked for a room with a coffee pot and ended up on the 28th floor with a great view of the garden area. I actually sat in the room for a while, sipping both water and coffee and catching up on e-mail before venturing downstairs to resume that Diamond hunt. Most of my recent trips have been 2-4 days, and I found I was much more relaxed about gambling on this trip(8 days altogether), almost to the point of boredom at times. I enjoyed my computer time and also had plenty of books with me - my second mission for the trip was to stay out of trouble, ie, not donate too much to the Nevada economy! LOL, I finally wandered downstairs because I was hungry – grabbed a slice of pizza and actually got served a diet coke at the Garden Bar. That was a nice change from the last couple of trips.

It’s a good thing I had that pizza because dinner wasn’t until 6 pm – with the Taters at TGIFridays at the Orleans, We met at Fuddruckers, which we had originally planned on, but switched over to TGI to get some service – one of those bad choices. We put in our orders and chatted away merrily as usual, so it wasn’t until about 7 pm that we missed getting any food. Tater got her ribs, and Toby got his salad shortly after 7 pm, but it was probably at least 10 minutes later that I finally got my complicated order of a Jack Daniels burger – which was good, and the sweet potato fries were darn good, even if I did have to rush a bit. LOL, that was the best free meal of the trip after Toby’s discussion with the manager, but I’m not sure I’ll go rushing back there.

We did make it to the showroom in plenty of time for Lee Greenwood’s Christmas Show at 8 p.m., and it was a very pleasant surprise. I’ve always enjoyed his singing, but I was expecting a lot of country and a little bit of Christmas – the show was a lot of Christmas and a little bit of country, and Laine said it best when she commented that she didn’t realize what a good voice the man has. He exceeded all our expectations.

We wandered around the casino for a bit after the show, and I cashed in some of my Boyd points – found out they were giving out denim shirts if you accumulated 700 points, so I left an hour or two later with my $80 free denim shirt. I thought maybe I should put it in the safe when I got back to my Flamingo room<g>.

To be continued …….

It's still one tram to the C gates. The other should open in a matter of days.

Sorry about the tournament in Reno but congrats on the Deuces! And glad you enjoyed Lee Greenwood!

LOL, I don't regret the tournaments at all - they were the inspiration for the trip. I enjoyed five great shows on this trip (stay tuned<g>), and I'll get to a discussion of deuces vs. Deuces in good time too.

I woke up and smelled the coffee in my room Monday morning and had a nice conversation with Bippy, who called to let me know that Kes’s plane was about an hour late – no problem, I had those Southwest peanuts to tide me over to brunch. LOL, I had no problem with the extra time either; I browsed the GoodWill store next to Sweet Tomatoes, and Kes got to admire my purchases of a beautiful antique frame and a two-foot wooden Santa Claus, exorbitant at $2.99 each.

We had a wonderful brunch at Sweet Tomatoes! I described it once before, but, just in case it slipped your mind, Sweet Tomatoes is a soup & salad heaven – a long row of 3-4 prepared green salads, probably a dozen assorted cold salads like my favorite “tuna tarragon” and lots of fixins to make your own humungous salad. When you finish your salad selections, you have a choice of 8-10 soups, 8-10 fresh breads and 2-3 hot pasta dishes. We ate & talked & waddled out over an hour later, but it was all HEALTHY food so calories don’t count, right? LOL, it didn’t hurt the wallet either since our meals and drinks were under $20.

I totally forgot to bring any music with me this trip, so I was delighted to get a CD from Kes – lots of variety on it, including some Elvis songs, so listening to the CD on the drive back to the Flamingo reminded me to waddle over to Bill’s Gambling Hall to listen to Big Elvis & Chuck Rawlings. I can’t get enough of this show! Pete Vallee plans a couple of songs to start things off, but then he works from audience requests so that each show is different, and I just can’t get over how much better he sounds now. I posted last time that Chuck does some Sam Cooke, and that was my mistake, but he does a great job on Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty songs. Chuck & Pete boomed out Pretty Woman at this show, and it was awesome! I wish they’d do more songs together.

I was wound up after the show and starting to get bored with gambling (it seemed like “work” on this trip), so I headed over to check out the Bellagio Conservatory. The fountains were going off to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner coming and going, and I didn’t get too far into the Bell before I realized a major blunder – I should have brought my camera! They had beautiful, poinsettia –filled white urns decorating the walkways, and the registration area was a gorgeous prelim to the Conservatory itself. I should get some pics posted eventually, but this was a lovely day in Las Vegas.

OK, I finally went back to work, ie, the “mission” to make Harrah’s Diamond, and I made some progress, mainly playing $BP. LOL, I was holding my own until Kes wandered down from IP. She sucked in all the luck and gave me a nice gambling lesson. Oh well, that’s the nice thing about the longer trip – I had no problem losing a battle and coming back to fight again the next day. We made plans to meet the next day, and I headed off to slumberland.

I slept in Tuesday since that was moving day, and I had no set plans until Kes & I were going to meet later in the afternoon. I sipped coffee and lounged around the room until 11a m check-out time, and then I headed out on another mission – one that had eluded me on two previous trips. LOL, I finally found the Souper Salad restaurant tucked into a strip mall on Maryland, and I headed in for a comparison with Sweet Tomatoes. Darn, I should have done this on Wednesday since they have a $5 special that day, but the meal & drink came in at $8.60 – and I got my moneys worth here too. I give Souper Salad a slight edge in the fresh salad fixins and desserts, but Sweet Tomatoes has an edge in the prepared salads and breads – and a big win with the soup selection. I love both of them, and Souper Salad has an advantage with a good tourist location at Flamingo & Maryland while Sweet Tomatoes is close to Sunset Station. They both have a second, northern location in the same block waaaay out on Rainbow.

I went back to “work” at the Flamingo and then wandered down to Bill’s to invest some of my profits in a couple of CDs – volume 2 of Big Elvis, a Legendary Performer, and I also got A Tribute to Conway Twitty by Chuck Rawlings. (all three trip CDs are playing in the background as I’m typing :)) I grabbed an empty table but kept losing chairs to the rowdy bunch of cowboys, but they allowed me to keep one extra chair for my invisible friend – Kes was hiking down from the Mirage, and she made it just before the show started. There was a bit more whooping & hollering than normal going on at this show, but Pete’s pretty good at crowd control, and Chuck blew the cowboys away with his rendition of Hello Darlin.

To be continued …….

After the show, Kes & I headed for the Bellagio, and we both took plently of photos on this stroll<g>. We had pretty good timing since we had just enough time to dash out front and catch a classical version of the fountain show – one that I hadn’t seen before. The mad dash continued back to the Flamingo garage and over to Manadaly Bay, and again, we just made it in time to walk into the buffet with the Senator and his lady at the scheduled time.

LOL, I explored a bit more of the buffet this time. I was blown away by all the seafood last time, but I discovered they had ribs and a few other meats this time<g>. The salad bar is a bit weak, but that didn’t bother me in the least after my brunches this week. This was another leisurely meal with good food and good friends – it really doesn’t get much better than that. We hung around the casino for a short time before Kes headed out to party, and Jeff, Patti & I headed back to our hotels for some sleep.

Darn, my late check-in didn’t result in a B suite at Sam’s, but I got a nice 7th floor room with a great view of their Christmas laser show in the atrium. LOL, I figured there was no point in trying to get to sleep before the 10 p.m. show, so that was a great excuse to go downstairs and test the gambling waters, which were still nice and warm. I hit Aces and Deuces on the same machine down by Dunkin Donuts. (note to Mike – I only capitalize Deuces when I hit them playing a Deuces game<g>) I headed upstairs to discover that Lee’s Treasure Chest machines were missing – bummer! Oh well, at least I caught the laser show from the second floor balcony, so the trip up the escalator was worthwhile. After the light show, I headed directly to bed. Hmmm, I wrote a note to myself here – get a King room with a soft mattress next time! Those queen beds have a much firmer mattress, but I still managed to conk out.

It was kind of strange waking up on Wednesday – and realizing that was the only day of the trip where I had no set schedule. Obviously, I needed to get some coffee in the Atrium and ponder the possibilities, right after breakfast. Sam’s breakfast buffet doesn’t quite do it for me, and their alleged 24-hour coffee shop in the Atrium was closed, so it was with some trepidation that I made my way into a TGIFridays for the second time on this trip. I’m happy to report the service was fine, but I have a mixed review on their $3.99 breakfast special. The eggs were fine, and the “silver dollar” hash browns were pretty good (much better than they looked), but their special applewood bacon resembled the Orleans buffet tasteless stuff. On the plus side, the toast was some of the best whole wheat bread I’ve eaten recently. Overall, I’d eat breakfast there again, but I’d skip the special.

I played a while on the DDB progressive down by Dunkin Donuts – and kept mulling over what I wanted to do that day. My original plan had been to explore Eastside Cannery, but the scuttlebutt had kind of turned me off that idea, and I figured that visit could wait until they got their act straightened out. My choices dwindled down to taking the shuttle downtown or down to the strip – have you figured out where I’m heading with this? Yup, I hopped on the shuttle to Harrah’s, played briefly there and at the Flamingo and got to the Big Elvis locale in time to get my CDs autographed before the show. LOL, I thought about catching two shows, but I settled for one last time and then headed back to Sam’s to earn some brownie points.

No one hit that DDB progressive during my stay, but I found one machine in that bank that was very generous with quads and let me build up lots of points before I went in for my free dinner buffet – nothing to write home about, but I can be happy with ribs & salad, and I don’t believe this myself, but I had only my second piece of pecan pie for the trip that night. LOL, somehow that reminds me that I left out my dinner at the Flamingo buffet on Monday – no pecan pie there, but I did enjoy the ribs and a fine salad I made myself. There are two unusual things I enjoy about Flamingo’s buffet - the view of the gardens from the VIP (Platinum & above) section and a selection of cheeses to try – not the usual cheddar & jack but cheeses like gouda & brie that I might not otherwise experience. Nothing like that cheese selection back at Sam’s, but I did have a nice view of the Atrium, and the price was right.

I decided to walk off the meal by exploring the new areas at Sam’s, including a nice Keno lounge and relocated poker parlor and sports book. I also found three of Lee’s Treasure Chest machines against one of the northwest walls. I wandered around, slowly donating until it was time to get some sleep for my morning flight back to Reno.

Breakfast was at Sbarros at the airport Thursday morning, and that pepperoni-sausage pizza was as good as it looked. There were only about 90 people on the plane, so I had room to stretch out & snooze – I don’t even remember scoring any peanuts. My luggage beat me to the carousel on both flights, so I hopped on the shuttle and was checked back into Harrah’s before 11 a.m.

The progressive on my new favorite dollar machines had been up to $4700 when I left Reno, and it was up to $5300 when I returned – and it would be over $5800 when I finally left town. I settled in at BP, and the machines just kept me playing until I made Diamond – then treated me really nice with a couple of quick quads, so I decided to play a little DDB – and almost immediately was dealt four threes and a kicker four. YEE HAW! The bank of machines I was playing is on the second floor walkway, with a view of the relatively new National Bowling Center, so I decided I needed to take a break and stroll over and check it out. Besides, at this point, I knew I was going home ahead, I had made Diamond, and I had been gambling off & on for 6 days – so I just wasn’t sure why I was still playing.

I took the long route over to the Bowling Center, and it is awesome. You enter at street level and hop on the escalator up to the fourth floor to watch tournaments. There are some offices in the lower floors and an upper grandstand area, but I just wandered along the bowling level without spotting any familiar faces, got a little exercise and headed back to Harrah’s for dinner.

Another bad choice for dinner – I decided I had to try that Monday-to-Thursday prime rib special in the coffee shop, for comparison with the CalNeva dinner 6 days earlier. LOL, Harrah’s gets full marks for fresh veggies, half marks for another so-so baked potato – and no marks at all for the skinniest piece of prime rib I’ve ever seen! I was pretty sure I could have gotten a nicer slice in the buffet. Ah well, the idea was to compare the two coffee shops, so I’ll be walking over to the Cal Neva the next time I crave prime rib.

Hmmm, this must have been a wild evening – I didn’t even write one note about any activities after dinner. I know I watched part of the Thursday night football game, but I think this was another time to catch up on e-mail and relax with a book because I wanted to be up fairly early the next morning. WOOHOO – Diamond members have a special seating area in the buffet. I guess it’s to block the view of the free champagne served with breakfast in there<g>. I had the usual cholesterol that is totally absent from my real life breakfasts at home and then wandered back to the National Bowling Center to watch the PBA practice from 8-10 a.m. and to share my extra Monkey King tickets.

I was playing in a WSOP qualifier tournament at noon, so I made time to get a $50 introduction to no-limit Texas Hold’em from some nice gents that were thrilled to have a live poker pidgin flutter into their vicinity. They were a good-natured group that helped me understand poker etiquette while fleecing me. I actually did better than I expected in the tournament. We started with $2000 and $25/50 blinds, and I lasted an hour or up to the $200/$400 blinds. It was fun and a good learning experience, and I will probably take in more of these tournaments, but those friendly gents downstairs will have to find a new pidgin cuz I already knew live poker wasn’t my game – I just like the perks that come with the tournaments.

Different strokes for different folks – I can play video poker for hours, but I was exhausted after just that one hour of play in the tournament. I had some free time before the first round of the PBA tournament started, so I followed my usual route to the sports bar and sat down for some relaxing quarter DDB. I really had to laugh when I tried to hold two pair – threes and fours. I have a light touch, and I didn’t quite hold the second three – and was calling myself some names when I looked down to see that I had drawn another pair of fours to go with the first pair and the remaining three. That play pretty much tells the story of my luck on this trip – the gambling gods were looking out for me.

I made one last trip over to the Bowling Center and enjoyed watching a couple of my PBA West favorites in their first three games, so that kept me out of trouble until dinner. I glanced in the Diamond Lounge, saw some nice looking appetizers but kept right on going for the Steak & Seafood buffet. ROTFL – yes, they really do serve thicker slices of prime rib there. I wasn’t that hungry, so I think I just had some salad and mashed potatoes with the prime rib –and my third piece of pecan pie. Harrah’s serve free wine or champagne with dinner in the Diamond seating area – that might be very nice some other evening, but I wanted to stay awake for the Monkey King show this time.

I had missed the Monkey King in Reno last year; it’s adapted from a legendary Chinese novel “Journey to the West” – and is described as a Kungfu-style show, combined with Chinese dance, acrobatics and magic. That might be a bit of hyperbole, but they should have thrown in the word cute somewhere. I can’t say that I was absolutely amazed as they claimed I would be, but it was enjoyable, graceful and just doggone cute. I really wish I could just head up to the room after a good show, but I’m always wound up, and I managed to give back some Nevada $$ before I decided I was sleepy. I guess those gambling gods will only put up with a limited amount of stupidity.

I was up bright & early Saturday – not only ready to go home after 8 days of vacation but also wanting to beat most of the incoming storm home. I grabbed breakfast & coffee at Boomtown’s gas station and was headed home with minimal chain requirements up over the summit –and a LOT of stupidity on icy roads. I saw my first accident before I even had that coffee at Boomtown, and traffic was pretty light and well-behaved until we got to the downhill section of the summit. The Suby doesn’t require chains, but the chain signs were up –meaning the speed limit is down to 30 maximum – and there were all kinds of idjits zooming by me going 45 to 50 mph downhill on a layer of ice. I just stayed in the right hand lane and beat the main part of the storm home by hours.

MISSIONS ACCOMPLISHED:
I made Diamond at Harrah’s for the first time.
I ate well but got enough walking exercise to actually lose a pound.
I finally compared Sweet Tomatoes and Souper Salad.
I left no charge tags (other than rental car/gas) in either Las Vegas or Reno.
I came home with more money in my pocket than I had when I started.

FUTURE MISSION:
Someday, I will make it over to the Ethel M gardens during the Christmas season. I thought about it Wednesday night, but I just wandered down to the Atrium and enjoyed the lights there at Sam's Town.

Daisy - GREAT trip report! Thank you! Sounds like you had a lot of fun and glad you accomplished your goal of making Diamond status AND coming home with a profit!!

Two questions for you:

- With your new Diamond status, how long does that last - through 2009?

- How many shows does Big Elvis do during the day and what times are they at? I've always wanted to see him and the one time I went, he wasn't performing that day.

Glad you made it home safely through all that snow!

When I looked at my new Diamond card, it said it expired in March 2009 - so I hotfooted it back to the Rewards Desk, and they said my Diamond status was good through March 2010 and that I could pick up a new card next year. LOL, I could get spoiled really fast with this card! It's not the Diamond Lounge snacks but the fast valet service, fast check-ins, special meal & show lines and the free show tickets with automatic preferred seating. It ups my gift shop discount to 30% (altho I'm not a big shopper) and gives me free access to the health clubs - which I might use. The Diamond Lounge in Reno has nice ambience, but the hours are limited to 5-9 Monday and Friday and 1-9 on the weekends. Lee & Sharon will have to clue me in to what's available in Las Vegas - I never had reason to check that out before<vbg>.

Big Elvis and Chuck do three shows daily, normally at 3pm, 5 pm and 6:30 pm Monday through Friday. Their holiday schedule moves everything 2 hours earlier. Now that Pete Vallee's health is so much better, they may be doing some touring next year.

I didn't have much snow on the way home, just some leftover ice from the night before for a few miles around the summit - I was ahead of the "Thunder Snow" that is currently pounding your area.

daisy-ah yes every day is sunday!great to be retired.we have been blasted here in wash.for the past 4 days but getting around nicely in our ford explorer,v-8,all wheel drive,with all weather tires.the problem always is the people that don't but think they do!!. so does the suby have 4 wheel or all wheel drive.around here they seem to get around pretty good in the snow and are not the jerks that are stuck 1/4 the way up the hill and in the middle of the road.nice trip report i am jealous of your retirement status,so much more than your diamond status.so who won the salad bowl? i am a big cobb salad fan when i am not eating prime rib with jmt.i know the good luck will continue and i will see ya down the road shortly.gotta a place for me to park my motorhome in you drive? and yes the prime will do nicely for dinner<G>

the wife just came in to tell me about 6-8 more inches of snow and the killer,70mph winds,coming tomorrow afternoon.that means no power folks.so i am off to line up the candles,get out the camp stove,and battery up the flashlights,the larder is full for christmas so we will survive on prime rib, ham,salmon and a box of goodies from my son in atlanta.SEND HELP AND TEQUILA QUICK!!i have got the limes<G>

Yikes, I read that Seattle got some snow, but those winds sound vicious. Hope you have a couple of sleeping bags to go with that camp stove - no marshmallows toasted with the prime rib!

The Suby is fulltime all-wheel drive, nice in the snow, rain or every time I turn a corner. It is NOT an invincible SUV, and I'm not a driver that thinks all-wheel drive means I can skate on ice either<g>.

If I'm up north on Rainbow where Souper Salad and Sweet Tomatoes are across the street from each other, Sweet Tomatoes wins the Salad Bowl. If I'm at the Flamingo or Orleans, I only have to drive a few blocks to Souper Salad, and it's pretty darn good too. The Peppermill Cobb Salad still reigns IMHO, but the Flamingo coffee shop serves a pretty good imitation.

Your motorhome might be cramped in my drive, but I can arrange space in mom's yard - hurry up and retire so you can drive through on your way to Las Vegas via Reno!

Stay warm!

ok i'm ready-the busiest store i was in today was the liquor store.we do have our priorities straight.malls and grocery stores jammed today,parking out to the side streets,that looks good for our local economy.hard to believe the whole northern half of the country getting slammed with bad weather.merry white christmas to all.

Fun trip report, Daisy. You must now be the world's expert on Big Elvis et al, as well as a reigning expert on Sweet Tomatoes/Souper Salad. Yummmmm!
You mentioned seeing the laser show at Sam's, but you didn't really venture an opinion on the Christmas decorations there. Did you like them? Did they move the coffee shop from where it used to be? Does it still have the little buffet? We haven't been out there for a long time.
Glad you had fun during your tournaments and really glad you made it home over the hill before the big storm hit. Not fun driving there.
Watching the Seattle/Jets game on tv, and picturing Dag with his ham, turkey, and booze!!! One thing nice about having a motor home is that you always have a little house with power if you lose the power in the big house. We keep freeze dried stuff in ours, "just in case".
When we had our cabin in the mountains, it seemed that everyone either had a big 4WD truck or a Subaru....good vehicles for lousy weather.
Thanks for your trip report........don't know how you remembered everything for two cities. three different time sections......
L.

I enjoyed the laser show enough to watch parts of it 2-3 times. They were projecting all sorts of Christmas images on the rock background behind the water. I always like the Christmas decor at Sam's, this year was no exception - I strolled through once just to look and then returned with my camera. The best view as from my room, but I just couldn't get good photos up there.

LOL, I wish I could answer most of your questions about the coffee shop, but I can only tell you that TGIFridays is in the old coffee shop location, and the coffee shop appears to permanently reside in the old Fellini's spot in the atrium. I wanted to eat breakfast there Wednesday morning, but they were closed so I have no idea if they kept the salad bar intact in their new location. My fondest memories of that salad bar go back to when it was tiny but high quality back in the days of Smokey Joes, about 1990-1995, when it was part of the best $7.95 prime rib special that I remember.

I'm also watching the Seattle game - and hoping DAG & Linda have power to watch it too. LOL, even watching that and even knowing the travel is pretty sloppy, I wouldn't mind heading up over the summit again right now!

Daisy,
You covered a lot of ground on this trip!
Welcome to the world of Diamond club harrahs. Now don't forget the free room offers that will follow. Also, keep a check on your offers at Harrahs.com too. We make all our reservations on the internet. We pick our room type, and can normally get up to 7 nights free! Then we run the risk of a upgrade at check in too! LOL

Thanks for taking the time to type it all out for us, that must stay home and work! LOL

Next trip?????

yeah,go seahawks,uh go where?? tough season for the hawks,quarterback with a bulging disc in the back i think is probably career over.at least we don't live in detroit!!best game of the year and since i am still a bear fan always nice to beat favre from the old bear- greenbay days.we have been slammed with cold and snow and airport jammed with travelers sleeping on the floor.power has been on and that is huge for the comfort level and the happy hour is still on at the local pub n grub.merry christmas,happy hannucka or whatever you celebrate and let's all have a healthy new year.wealth might be a little tough this year so i am just going with health,that's worth a bunch.

You and Sharon will have to clue me in on all the Diamond perks, but some of those perks already got me spoiled in Reno - skipping to the short line for the show, an excellent booth seat, and the great valet service was very nice too. My paper room offers don't look that much better, but on-line is somewhat better with more free days at Paris and Rio - however, Caesars still doesn't have much use for guppies, not even a Diamond guppy<g>.

Funny you should mention my next trip ... I'm sitting here mulling over another WSOP tournament offer from Reno for January and thinking "why not?" I've also got two offers from Sam's for February - one is good all month and includes two dinners at Billy Bob's, and the other is for a VP tournament just before the Valentine Day/Presidents Day madness. Decisions, decisions!

Daisy
Have you played much at Caesars?
I've found that you get more Internet site offers where you play.

Good point, Lee .... I played a few hours at Caesars on my November trip, but that's about it.

OTOH, I'm not sure I even set foot in the Rio in 2008, and I know I didn't gamble much there - but I have free night offers all over the calendar for Rio.