Reno, Carson City, Lake Tahoe vacation.

[Dead Money]

Just back from 6 day trip to Reno for my God-daughters Big Greek Wedding .

Thought I would share the casino-sight-seeing-Museum experience in this thread. (I will keep it short as I can)
It was my first visit to this area, I would guess many of you have never been up this way.

The total population of Nevada is 2.8 million.
Vegas-Henderson Area is roughly 900,000
Reno-Sparks Area is roughly 440,000

Carson City (population 55,000) is the state capitol formed during Large Silver strike,named after Frontiersman "Kit" Carson.
Claim to fame Comstock Lode Silver Strike 1859. A United State Branch Coin Mint was placed there in 1870.
The Carson city mint produced gold and silver coins there till it closed in 1893.

Nevada became a state 1864. (Nevada's nickname to this day is the Silver State.)
Gambling legalized in Nevada 1931.

Lake Tahoe area is Indian named and has the 6th largest lake in the USA after the 5 great Lakes.
Its maximum depth is 1645 feet at Crystal Bay, Lake Tahoe area elevation is 6200-11,000 ft.



Our airline experience was a major disaster...NEVER EVER fly UNITED AIR LINES, details later.

 

[Dead Money]

Casinos Reno area...

Most of the casino-hotels in Reno are clustered in the downtown area along or near Virginia Street.

Reminded kinda like downtown Vegas, easy to Casino hop, could have sworn I saw pan-handlers I had seen in Vegas.

Many pawn shops with their select customers were open on a Sunday. I saw a lady use 4 credit cards to make partial payments on a $389.00 gold necklace.

I noted Harrah's, Sands Regency, Cal-Neva, Siena, Silver Legacy, Eldorado, Circus Circus, Eldorado thats about it.

The Indian Casinos near Sacramento and San Francisco have dealt Reno a mortal wound, that was their bread and butter.
Several casinos have closed or been sold fairly recently.

We gambled at Eldorado, and Silver Legacy.
They were connected properties in the very same building divided I think, by a huge indoor mining operation mock-up.

I tried cashing a vid poker ticket that said Silver Legacy and found I had wandered into The Eldorado, who would not cash it.
I noted many $5.00 table games available on a Sunday.
Downtown Reno looks to me like a "Low-rollers" Heaven on Earth.

Great restaurant "La Strada" one of top 10 Italian restaurants in USA was in Eldorado had Veal Osso Buco that fell off the bone with Mushroom Risotto chased down with a wonderful Red Cabernet. (Boys, you would have approved)


In South Reno you have the newest and glitziest Peppermill, Atlantis, Grand Sierra Resort...I did not have time to take these in.

We stayed in Sparks Nevada (15 minutes from downtown) at a Peppermill property, the Western Village. (It, as many of the restaurants in Reno had casino-gambling devices of all kinds, much like Vegas.)
Outside our Hotel-Casino we had a park with a huge marina lake with sail boats, kayakers, a beach and volleyball area, surrounded by a jogging-walk path.


We spent 5 happy carefree days at the Western Village, and one day at the Eldorado as "compted involuntary guests" of United Airlines....
Cont"d

 

[MadJack]

opcorn2

 

[Old School]

opcorn2

 

[MadJack]

opcorn2

opcorn2

Wow!

 

[Old School]

joined at the hip 1,500 miles apart..:0003

 

[MadJack]

joined at the hip 1,500 miles apart..:0003

No kidding.

 

[kneifl]

Sounds like a great trip, would really like to visit Reno myself one of these days!!!

kneifl

 

[Dead Money]

Reno Ramblings

Reno Ramblings

Arriving almost a full day late due to UNITED AIRLINES, we spent a day recovering, basically doing next to nothing.

We got a rent car went to a TV "Diners and Dives" Guy Fierro recommended restaurant..."Gold and Silver Diner" established 1956, on fourth street.

OMG was it good, I had the house breakfast specialty, 3-egg Tri-tip sirloin omelet, onions, peppers, cheddar cheese, quartered fried yukon gold potatoes, house made sour-dough bread it was 7.95
It was so good, we went back 2 days later with several of the wedding party, and had the same thing again.

Following day, we headed out to Carson City, Lake Tahoe.

It was an easy 20 mile ride to Carson City.

The Nevada State museum is in the old Carson City Mint building....it is worth every penny of the $8.00 admission.

Great exhibits, photos, memorabilia, a massive vault of gold and silver coins struck at Carson City, they produced dimes, quarters, halves, dollars in silver, and gold five, ten and twenty dollar coins 1870-1893.

They even had the old mint printing press and a bunch of discarded original coin dies found in an old landfill not so long ago.
The basement was an old mine tour complete with mine cart tracks you followed.

The museum was a complete showcase of the areas very deep ranching and mining history.

I wandered into 2 local casinos in Carson City for poker chips, my brother-in-law collects dollar poker chips.

Cactus Jacks, yep didn't make that up http://nevada.casinocity.com/carson-city/cactus-jacks-casino/

and the carson city nugget.

The poker room at Cactus Jack there were 6 REALLY old local poker players salivating at the sight of a possible poker-playing tourist....I said "Sorry Guys, I'm not your next meal. "




I got an extra Cactus Jack dollar chip or 2, Jack shoot me a mailing address and its yours...


cont'd

 

[freelancc]

Going to Lake Tahoe next month. with a stop in Virginia City.:0corn

 

[PAChicky]

We stayed at the Eldorado when we went to Nationals. Can't wait to go back next year. Would like to do some sight seeing while we are there but we usually go in March and that's a tad Chilly.

 

[Dead Money]

Going to Lake Tahoe next month. with a stop in Virginia City.:0corn

Old time Steam Locomotive Train ride to the old gold fields available there....did not have time, wanted to do it....

 

[THE KOD]

great reads



thanks

 

[Skulnik]

 

[Dead Money]

Tahoe tidbits...

Tahoe tidbits...

Lake Tahoe portion we saw was 30 miles from Carson CIty
(abt 60 from Reno) South Lake Tahoe.

Casinos there were Harveys, Harrahs, Hard Rock, Lakeside Inn, MontBleu.

The MontBleu is offering free $30.00 slot play, must be pretty competitive area for slot business.

While we were driving thru, we saw beautiful alpine lake views,yachts everywhere.
There was no where to park and enjoy, signs everywhere "No Parking" "Parking Area Full" etc..

There was a big golf tournament in town and it was wall to wall people and NBC media.

It's a very small area that balloons with seasonal tourist money.

We opted for Harrahs, parked in back, walked around the area for an hour, snapped some photos, decided on Harrahs Buffet after several recommendations from competing casino employees.

The 18th floor Harrah's buffet offers great sweeping views of the area, it is absolutely gorgeous, and I had the best prime rib buffet in a long time for $21.00

The weather was gorgeous, and at night the golfers were wandering the casinos....we saw many golfers with drop dead, dressed to kill knock-out girl friends-wives.

Drove back to Reno, be careful, those twisty mountain roads thru Lake Tahoe at night are killers, about an hour drive.

Saw nothing less at the casinos then $15.00 minimum tables, very understandable for the area.

When we got back to the room, the late news showed Aaron Rodgers throwing footballs to people on the yachts in the Lake.

 

[Lumi]

I was in Reno July 8-14
Next time you go up there check out Donner Lake and the city of Truckee

 

[ldabdou]

Reno is a dump. Atlantis and Peppermill are the only ones worth going to. Although Reno does offer better dining deals and lower table rates with better payoffs than the lake. They also have better sports books than the lake. South Lake is lacking sports book quality...

 

[redsfann]

Reno, Carson City, Lake Tahoe vacation.

Atlantis and peppermill suck, too. Only thing that makes them better than the others is they aren't downtown. Downtown Reno is skid row but unless your walking to the bowling stadium you don't have to be on the streets if your staying at silver legacy or the Eldorado.
Besides, the Cal-Neva downtown is the place to be....:toast:

Anytime you'd like to send some more Pilny my way, please do so....:00hour


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[Dead Money]

Atlantis and peppermill suck, too. Only thing that makes them better than the others is they aren't downtown. Downtown Reno is skid row but unless your walking to the bowling stadium you don't have to be on the streets if your staying at silver legacy or the Eldorado.
Besides, the Cal-Neva downtown is the place to be....:toast:

Anytime you'd like to send some more Pilny my way, please do so....:00hour


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I had a really great burger for lunch there, (Top Deck Coffee Shop cal-neva) two/thirds pounder, swiss cheese, great chicken soup...great ambiance....lots of local color.

As I was waiting for my lunch I was texting my brother-in-law.
A small cockroach? walked across my table top,looked at me, said "hello."
Figured he had seniority there, let him continue his journey un-inpeded.

My kind of place, no pretense, just good food.

 

[redsfann]

I had a really great burger for lunch there, (Top Deck Coffee Shop cal-neva) two/thirds pounder, swiss cheese, great chicken soup...great ambiance....lots of local color.

As I was waiting for my lunch I was texting my brother-in-law.
A small cockroach? walked across my table top,looked at me, said "hello."
Figured he had seniority there, let him continue his journey un-inpeded.

My kind of place, no pretense, just good food.

Local color. I like it. Very respectful way of saying the place is a haven for all the skid row bums in downtown Reno.
I agree with the coffee shop and its burgers. Always have one there when in town. They still dealing 3 dollar blackjack and craps during the day?
We took over a blackjack table one late morning last trip. Waitress came by and took our drink orders. She saw 30 bucks in tips on that first round and I'm not sure she ever let our table out of her sight for the three hours we were there. She had to have made 200 in tips from us and our drinks and beers were never empty. Good times. [emoji1]


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