Lake Tahoe Weekend

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So here we are in Winter Wonderland.  It is absolutely beautiful up here with all the snow covered mountains.  David Wally’s Resort (which we lovingly call “Wally World”) is located in the Valley and usually does not have much snow, but there is plenty of snow everywhere right now.  Temperatures during the day are around 40 and night is about 20.  Needless to say I am loving it.

We ventured out yesterday to buy the coffee we forgot to bring with us and did some exploring of the surrounding towns.  Minden and Garnerville are cute little towns and we found a Thrift Store where we purchased some books cheaply.  I found two Better Homes and Gardens sewing books along with a lap quilt book and Max picked up a Swat video game for a buck.  We found it very interesting that all the people we encountered were extremely polite and friendly – not just the service people but other customers and everyone in general.  Not sure if it is small town mentality (which is a really nice thing) or all of Nevada is just friendly.

I have to relay an interesting and somewhat humorous happening from the Thrift Store.  When Max found the video game there was no price on it.  She asked the woman in the store how much it was and her response was, “Have price if you are over 55”.  Since Max isn’t but I am – we thought that was humorous and perhaps she assumed Max was with me.  We got to the checkout and when I asked for the discount – I got carded!  Made me feel pretty good, but didn’t do a lot for Max’s ego.

After exploring the area surrounding Wally World, we decided to go into Carson City and check out the new casino, Fandango.  It is a really nice Casino with lots of tables, slots and eating opportunities. Because it was a slow afternoon (probably everyone was on the ski slopes), we had the opportunity to learn how to play the Craps Table.  I have always known how to shoot craps, but I have never understood all the side betting.  They were very slow, very nice and you could bet $1.  So we decided to give it a try (I started with $40 and Max started with $20).  It was great fun to learn all the different ways to bet while more and more people showed up.  It does tend to get pretty exciting when lots of people are playing.  Stayed at the table for a couple hours and ended up walking away winners.  I won $800 on my $40 and Max won $200 on her $20.  Yes, we love craps now!  When I started betting more and winning more, one of the house people told me to take my green chips ($25) and put them in my pocket and “don’t take them back out until you are ready to cash out and leave” – that turned out to be good advice.  At one point I was racking up the red chips ($5) and the Pit Boss came over and watched me for a while and told them to start giving me green chips.  I actually did not have any idea how much money I had won until we finished.  I knew I had put away $100 and the $40 I started with – so essentially I was playing with their money and not really paying that close of attention.  However, I did know that I was winning!  Max was very excited because this was her first time to be given a black chip ($100).

We had a nice dinner and decided to gamble a bit more and I hit a straight flush playing three card poker and won $125 on a $3 bet.  Since I was overall about $900 ahead, we headed back to Wally World to call it a night.

Even without the winnings, this has been a very nice relaxing weekend and we are still here until Monday afternoon.  

Later . . .