Nice girls don’t get delayed
I got up early to play a little video poker and the heavens were smiling on me today because I won back all of yesterday’s hoovering plus a good chunk more. My Caesars luck had not yet run out! A gentleman had hit a Royal Flush yesterday with only one coin in, meaning it paid 250 coins instead of 4000. Most people would take that lesson to heart but he was back today playing one coin again.
Kevin had been up all night working and was taking a nap so I went for a short walk. When I returned it was time to eat so we went down to Café Lago and got a VIP booth with a view of the pool. I had a burger with blue cheese while Katie tried my yesterday’s BLT chicken salad and Kevin had a club sandwich. As a rule I don’t eat dessert but Katie had an apple cobbler ŕ la mode so I had just a couple bites. Kevin left a generous tip and we were done.
I let the kids go off to swim while I played a little more video poker, finishing down just a bit for the afternoon and still up a hair for the trip. I relaxed in the palatial suite, checking up on Hunnybear’s United flight, already delayed an hour due to weather on the East Coast. We made plans to eat an early dinner without her. But when she got to O’Hare she found the weather was so bad flights were being canceled, leaving extra airplanes sitting around O’Hare so her flight was no longer delayed. We revised our dinner plans and went down to play a little Pai Gow Poker before it was time to pick up Hunnybear from the airport. I sat next to a retired schoolteacher who had pages from Stanford Wong’s Optimal Strategy for Pai Gow Poker tucked in his shirt pocket, consulting them when necessary but setting his cards as banker in full view of the other players. The first activity probably shaved 0.3% off the house advantage. The second could potentially cost him a bundle. I lost a little but had several free $40 double Glenlivets on the rocks.
I went out into the blast furnace and waited just a few moments for my limo to pull up. The driver took Koval Lane to the airport and dropped me at Ground Zero. He tried to coach me in how to get to the gate but I said, “Sir, there is little of this airport I do not know.” I went up the escalator and through security, taking the tram to the D gates. Hunnybear’s flight was early but I showed up at the gate at the exact moment she emerged from the Jetway. I gave her a passionate belly hug hello and we zoomed out to the waiting driver, who whisked us back to Caesars in record time. We went up to the suite in record time and found Kevin and Katie waiting there. We watched one Bellagio fountain show and then headed down for dinner.
Tonight we had reservations at 808, the trendy Hawaiian seafood restaurant near Café Lago. The chef started us with a delicious amuse of cooked halibut temaki (sushi hand roll). Hunnybear and I split the not-to-be-missed day-boat scallops while Kevin and Katie tried a salmon appetizer. For the main course I had the wok-stir-fried lobster on jasmine rice, much more food than it looks like and I couldn’t finish it. Hunnybear’s mahi-mahi came out a little overcooked so the chef redid it to medium at her request. We all passed on dessert because this was a place where you get a little dessert even if you don’t order it and sure enough a tree of petit fours arrived with the check. With our $69 1996 Chehalem Reserve Oregon pinot noir the check came to only $280 for the four of us, a bargain in Vegas. I signed the bill to my comp account and Kevin left a generous tip.
It was way past bedtime for these Midwesterners so we all went up and retired.
[Stay tuned tomorrow for the next installment]
------------------
I hope you enjoy my Lion Tales. For photos, past travelogues, subscriptions, and more, see
www.liontales.com
[This message has been edited by QuietLion (edited 06-23-2001).]