Saturdays in Vegas tend to be a sandwich day: we do something in the morning, lounge around the room for the remainder of the day and then hit the activity by evening.
An easy morning amusement is the Las Vegas Gun Store which we did last year and I totally failed to write about thanks to all the distractions I faced upon my return. Easy? Unlike many things in the city, this place opens around 9 AM and if you get there early, there’s not much of a wait. We did a pair of zombie-hunting packages again. I’ll go into the larger details with its own entry following this…I promise.
Once we had sated our taste for extreme violence against paper objects, it was lunch at New York New York; Somara digs the fish n’ chips place in the casino’s food court. Plus I received another drubbing at Video Poker despite our challenge being completed for this vacation.
Engaging in some of the asshattery I’ve read about.
On the way out, we noticed that New York New York offered craps lessons every morning around 11 AM so I scheduled a reminder for the following day. I wanted to attend to tighten up my etiquette and review what I actually knew about the game. Somara’s motivations were curiosity along with my inability (and her brother’s) to explain how craps works well enough for her retention.
The bulk of the afternoon involved relaxing, aka, falling asleep watching TV with me. Where there’s two different feeds for Cartoon Network, it’s easier to find something enjoyable and/or avoid the rather dull Johnny Test. With my nap completed, I pinned down possible routes from Tahiti Village to Boulder Station. I cannot say enough good things regarding the Clear USB 4G device we received for the trip. Having Internet access all over Las Vegas with my MacBook Pro, especially in the room beat the hell out of enduring the short-term connections the nearby Denny’s offered. I figured the whole I-15 system (entailing 15, 215 and 515) would be relatively easy and with Somara as my navigator through my iPhone 4, the drive was a piece of cake.
I have no idea why Google maps didn’t propose the Interstate to get to Boulder Station. Most combinations involved taking major streets intersecting the Strip. There are only a couple other intersections I’ve been on in my life which are worse than the Strip on a Saturday evening: I-40 to RTP every weekday and Congress Avenue during the hot rod weekend; talk about ‘mobile’ parking lots. It worked out until we were on Boulder Highway but we still arrived unscathed and early enough to check out this off-Strip location.
Normally we have never strayed too far from the Strip because we lacked a car, time and/or interest. The John Waite concert was a good impetus. When I first visited Vegas around 1997, I remembered the Station chain having a series of commercials starring Joe Piscopo. The residents also called this chain a place to attract ‘distant locals,’ slang for the people from neighboring states. Jose said he hit one for his birthday celebration too. I’ve never been against them, believe me I’m all for playing a $3 table game over a $5. Again, we kept getting our time gobbled up by the glitzier, fancier Strip locations.
Our experience at Boulder Station was so great (dinner, gambling and interaction with the staff) that we plan to make a stronger effort to hang out next time. I never felt they were unfriendly just not as impressive. Part of luring in ‘distant locals’ means making it more attractive to families by having movie theaters, playgrounds, bowling alleys (Orleans) and arcades. The Strip caters more on an adult-only crowd with fancy food, high-end shopping, sex and shows. The Station casinos and their cohorts cut through the crap by focusing on cheaper gambling, well-priced rooms, good yet simpler food and reasonably-priced entertainment. Hence, why we saw John Waite for under $40/ticket and sat in the third row while Paul McCartney at the MGM Grand was over $100/ticket to be in the nose-bleed sections. On the concert front, many acts these places book have been relegated to the Has Been/Oldies circuit but not always. Several upcoming shows were contemporary acts: Neon Trees, My Chemical Romance, Dave Koz, etc.
In short, I’ll go with a restaurant analogy to help explain what the casinos are like if the above paragraph isn’t making this clear enough. The Strip locations are equal to pricey restaurants: Wynn, Bellagio and Mirage = Trulucks; Treasure Island, Mandalay Bay and Venetian = Maggiano’s/Olive Garden; Excalibur, New York and Luxor = Outback Steakhouse. On the surface, Station gave me a vibe of being a Cici’s (think Chuck E. Cheese but 100 times dirtier and grosser). Outside the smoking, not really. Boulder Station was more like a Chuy’s which from Austin is a compliment. It still has the ‘mall’ elements since anyone under 21 isn’t allowed near the gambling facilities so they’re more sensitive to the family element.
Anyway, we arrived a couple hours early to scope out Boulder Station, squeeze in some gambling and have dinner before John Waite hit the stage at 8 PM. We figured we could make a decent assessment in this amount of time.
At the craps table, I had the great fortune to hit it while the minimum bet was $3! I prefer a cheaper game since I count on losing so I would like my money to last longer. With the iPhone set up to sound an alarm after an hour, away I went. How did I do? See the photo below.
Black = $100, Green = $25 and Blue-White = $1; thus $129. When playing craps, I always start with $100 so you do the math on what I won.
The social aspect of the table game definitely came through, the lady playing to my right was married to John Waite’s bassist. No luck getting to meet him, breaking the Vegas-Fame streak unless I could stretch it into the whole vacation thing via Simon Pegg.
Getting my chips converted back to cash led to my first non-gambling interaction with an employee, a wandering cashier. I thought he was a prankster when he said could “take my money for me.” Jim was pretty cool. I made sure I wrote down his name in my iPhone to bring him up in my recent e-mail to the Station people on how wonderful their employees were and how they influenced me to return.
Feeling giddy over my win, I was ready to have dinner before the show. Somara and I were curious about the food offers we saw while walking through the parking garage. Again, my expectations were exceeded. Somara’s? You will have to ask her. I know I’m more easily impressed, especially with a solid prime rib meal (meat with two sides) for the bargain price of $10 which results in two hippies losing their hacky sacks (gotta’ love Patton Oswalt references).
You already know how the John Waite show went. If not, click here.
After the concert, someone was handing out coupons for $5 of free play. I found a roulette table that accepted it. Bet on black, won. Kept the Lincoln and gave the free money to the dealer as a tip. Our evening was on a roll. I felt it was appropriate to share the luck.
Getting back was an annoyance. I decided to take a different path, namely I-15 (south) which runs parallel to the Strip; all the casinos being visible to your left helps you navigate. The current construction made it a bit of a Speed Racer contest sans the jumpjacks on our rental car. We made it ‘home’ unscathed though.
Gambling Report:
- Somara: -$38
- Steve: -$99 (But up $29 at craps putting this game in the black)