Banal Leakage » slot machine

Las Vegas For 21st

martymankins — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:14:50 +0000

Las Vegas Strip – filled with people

Last week, my wife and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate her niece’s 21st birthday. Vegas is a town I’ve spent a lot of time in over the years, mostly to attend trade shows like Comdex and CES. But I’ve also done my share of partying there, too.

Papa Smurf

Walking the strip, there was a ton of people, including those dressed up in various costumes. We saw Batman, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, Michael Jackson and this awesome Papa Smurf.

Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip

Of course, a visit to the Hard Rock is always in order. I don’t hold a candle to Dave2 from Blogography for number of visits, but I still consider each location an important stop in my travels.

Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

One of the newer hotel/casinos on the Strip is the Cosmopolitan. I was very impressed with this place. So elegant inside. Definitely a place I would like to stay at for a few days.

I hit the jackpot

Of course it helped that I won a jackpot on one of their slot machines. It’s wasn’t huge, but for $103 on a 75 cents bet, I was happy that I won for a change. [not to mention major buzzed from lots of drinks]

Blue Martini

After walking the strip, we met up with others for dinner at a local mexican eatery. Then all of us headed to the Blue Martini to REALLY celebrate Tonia turning 21.

The official Blue Martini

The signature martini was blue and glowing. It was a bit sweet, even for this liquor maven. I switched to dirty martinis after just one of these.

Jaide, Tonia’s sister, smiling with drink in hand

This bar was large and actually very spread out. It is located in the Town Square shopping area just off the west end of the Strip. The cover band that played was a bit loud, but we made up for it with our own good time of drinking and chatting together.

My wife and I at Blue Martini

After a few half priced happy hour drinks, we were buzzed and happy.

Tonia doing birthday shot with waitress

Tonia did a birthday shot with the waitress and manager [they actually bought her shot AND did a shot with her... unheard of in Utah] – the shot was a Washington Apple, which is Crown Royal and cranberry juice – Yummy!

Excalibur Hotel and Casino

After drinking, we got a ride back to the Excalibur. This was Tonia’s first time gambling, which was so much fun watching someone play the slots for the first time. My wife, who is an expert at the slot machines, taught her niece how to play.

Tonia putting money into the machine

Being slot instructed by Reba

Pressing the button, placing her bet

“Did I win or lose?”

After a fun night in Vegas, we got up the next morning to head into California to visit LEGOLand. Stay tuned for the next post, which covers my first visit to this LEGO-themed theme park.

Floating Into Reno

martymankins — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 22:34:38 +0000

My wife and I were on vacation this last week. Most of it was surrounding our drive to the Redwoods in California [which I will blog about once I get my gazillion photos and videos organized.. yeah, it may be a while longer], but leading up to our 2nd anniversary. We got married in Lake Tahoe and thought it would be nice to spend our day at least somewhat close to that city, choosing Reno, NV for a couple of days.

Our Room

We had two nights free, thanks to signing up for mailings at the Peppermill in Wendover, NV. Our room was better than we expected. Here’s proof:

Welcome message on the giant LCD flat screen TV

Our bed and the rest of the suite

There’s even a TV in the bathroom

Our room’s view of the pool

Pretty damn suite… he he. Needless to say, we enjoyed a nice room.

Lunch With A Princess

Our anniversary was on Monday, June 21st [the first day of summer] and we enjoyed each and every minute of it. – including meeting up for lunch with Lisa of Floating Princess at the Peppermill. We talked, ate and took pictures – including a cameo appearance by Cooper Trooper.

Lisa adjusting Cooper on my shoulder

Marty and Lisa

I met Lisa for the first time at Avitaween, but didn’t spend much time chatting since I was the social penguin that was getting his drink on. So this was a nice chance to chat and eat lunch and finally get to know how cool a person Lisa is.

After time out at the pool, a visit to the day spa, a nice dinner and some gambling, we ended our first full day in Reno. All in all, a great day filled with lots of fun, a visit with a blogger friend and great food.

Having “Slots-A-Fun”

martymankins — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:50:05 +0000

Since Friday night, we have been on the road. We will end up in Vegas before heading back home, but we wanted to check out Lake Tahoe, as that is where my fiance and I will be getting married this summer.

Our first stop was Wendover, NV to sleep and gamble, not necessarily in that order. From there, we headed west on I-80 towards our destination of Lake Tahoe, CA. Along the way, we stopped in Elko and Winnemucca to have lunch.

After passing through Reno and traveling south on US-395, we arrived in Lake Tahoe and spent the next 18 hours there looking around and getting familiar with a place that I had never been.

On Sunday, we left and drove along with eastern edge of California to Victorville and Apple Valley, to visit my sister and my mom’s grave.

Monday afternoon, we made the short drive into Las Vegas to check in at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club on the Las Vegas Strip for three nights.

And as most people do while they are here in Sin City, they gamble. I’m not a big gambler, and neither is my fiance, but we do like to entertain ourselves at the slot machines. So we took a walk out on the strip, passed through Circus Circus (which is rumored to be demolished in the future) then ended up at Slots-A-Fun.

With $30 still in my pocket, I made my way through the isles of slot machines, looking for one that could not only take my money, but give me a few hours of fun, while getting a nice buzz from the free drinks.

After playing a few that were not all that great, I was thinking that I wasn’t going to find anything fun…. until….

My love of Star Wars is big. And to find a slot machine theme based on Star Wars was pretty exciting. And it did not disappoint. It was not only fun, with it’s Jedi Training mode, various movie clips that played within the reels and bonus spin modes, it was not only cool, but it also paid out really well. And I had no shortage of drinks, which helped add to the fun time I was having.

So how do you top a Star Wars slot machine? One word: Indy.

Talk about geekdom in the gambling world. Major kudos to George Lucas for not being shy about licensing his creations to all parts of the entertainment world. I had another hour of fun on the slots, with bonus spins and video clips from the Radiers movies. And I made another $10 in the process, too.

By this time, we were getting hungry for something other than Coronas, gin and tonics and white russians. So we ~~stumbled across the strip~~ made our way to a casino cafe and called it a night.