FRIDAY
On Friday there was a wine and cheese reception in Agate Bay followed by gambling at the Hyatt Resort at Incline Village and dinner at the Lone Eagle.
Agate Bay Melinda and Katie
It was a beautiful afternoon although the wind made it a bit cool. The evening was beautiful as well.
Sarah and Friends Robbie and I
You may not know this, but I am not an avid gambler. In fact I don’t get anything from it, no thrills, no excitement. Most gamblers fantasize at the prospect of winning; I only fear the prospect of losing. Not a very positive attitude, I know, but it is just a quirk I have. I may spend my money foolishly on another pair of shoes I don’t really need, but to lose money gambling kills me.
Lucia was so thankful about her health and the support we gave her during her illness that she showed her gratitude by giving us each $50 gambling money and a fancy dinner. At some point she said to me, “You can spend t it any way you want.” I said, “Don’t say that, and tell me I have to use it for gambling only.” This way I will have no attachment to it and I was hoping that this arrangement would allow me to shed my fear and enjoy gambling with my friends, if only this time.
Lucia, our generous friend and gambling sponsor.So at about 5:00 PM we headed for the Casino. I was prepared to gamble. So I sat on a slot machine with cherries. I only played a quarter at a time. Lucia kept on saying, “Play the maximum bet so your odds are better.” Well I wanted to play for a long time because our dinner was not until 8:30 PM. I just couldn’t let myself do it, I may have shed my fear using money gifted to me, but I was still being cautious. What would I do if I used up all the $50 before 8:30? I know I would lose my mind waiting.
After 1 ½ hours I used up $20 on the cherry machine, so I switched to another machine with lucky “7”s. I put in $10 and I used it up in half an hour. Lucia was floating around playing Wheel of Fortune dollar machines. Nancy won $200 on some machine and Pat and Melinda were playing video Black Jack and enjoying it a lot. Video Black jack is about the only thing I would play if I was ever talked into spending time in a casino. The live game intimidates me.
I was bored with the slots and I didn’t realize that the King Games machine wasn’t only for video poker until Pat and Melinda started playing Black Jack. All the time I was curious about some of the machines that did not have the typical cherries, “7”s or diamonds. Some had pirates, some looked like cartoon characters and looked like were in 3D. The one that caught my eye was the DaVinci’s penny machine. I thought okay, I have $20 left and another hour or so to go, so this should last me. I also thought, now I could bet maximum because that was only 3c!
I tried to find an image of the game; I found something similar, but not exactly the same. The game I played had emeralds, and rubies and other colored precious gemstones in between the Da Vinci-related items.
So I started spinning using the maximum amount, but there was some other element I had to choose…the number of lines I wanted to play. So I just blindly chose between 5 and 20, alternating. The machine’s graphics was mesmerizing. Every time you got matching gems on multiple rows, a line would go across each of the items then the gems would spin then in a twinkle they’d go poof; disappear!In the meantime the numbers at the top right of the screen kept on increasing! But I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was only playing with pennies. But there were so many horizontal lines and vertical lines and when I bet on 20 lines I may have been betting $2, who knows. Then I got a message saying I had 8 bonus spins. What was surprising was that it was spinning the bonus rounds automatically and while it was doing this it was winning and gems were spinning and poofing all over the place! The numbers kept on growing. This happened at least 5 times!
I was having fun. At times the numbers decreased, and then it was decreasing too much. Once it started increasing to a certain point I thought, well I should cash in now and get my $20 back. So I did. Instead of $20, however, I got $200!!! A winner. Wow.
Fortunately it hasn’t changed my outlook on gambling one bit, but I am thankful to Lucia for the gift that kept on giving.
Then we had a great dinner at the Lone Eagle. We shared Elk Tenderloin and Prime Rib. It was my first time to taste Elk, I have to say it tasted a lot more like beef than venison.
The Lone eagle, Hyatt, Incline Village
From left, Lucia, Melinda, Nancy, Me, PatSATURDAY
The wedding is at 3:30PM. Nancy, Pat and I had manicure and pedicure appointments at 11:00. I forgot my thongs so on the way I bought a pair of Reefs from my winnings. I’m sure you noticed that most (if not all) nail salons are owned by Vietnamese. In fact when we were in Grove City, PA, little town America about 60 miles from Pittsburg, the nail salon there was owned by Vietnamese. “VietSALON, a bi-monthly magazine, says that nearly 45 percent of the nail salons in the United States employ Vietnamese technicians or are Vietnamese owned” http://www.viet-salon.com/
Pat and ILucia does a good impression of the nail ladies, here’s one I found on YouTube
After the manicure pedicure, the four of us decided to go to lunch. We ate at Jake’s on the Lake. With lunch we had some cocktails, some chit chat and beautiful views. We then decided to check out Melinda, our friend and the mother of the bride who had to hang yellow jacket traps at the site of the reception at the Gatekeepers’ Museum Park among other things. The caterers suggested this because they had experienced a problem the previous week at another event they hosted in the same park. Did you know that you can put laundry conditioner/softener sheets under the table cloth to repel yellow jackets? I did not know that. I suppose if the tablecloths were washed and softened heavily it would work too? I could have used this trick at my Luau because the yellow jackets just would not leave the Lechon (roast pig) alone, we had to bring it in the kitchen, carve and plate it instead. It killed the dramatic effect of a 60 lbs whole roast pig.
At Gatekeepers after hanging the Yellow Jacket traps.The rest of the afternoon I spent my time ironing and getting ready for the wedding.
We arrived at the wedding at a quarter to three. Ben was playing some mellow chords as the guests arrived but we couldn’t find Robbie who was supposed to escort the guests. We found him later skimming rocks on the lake. I watched as people arrived, I observed the groom and his family, the bride’s family, the children, especially the girls with their pretty dresses, I took pictures. I love to take pictures. I took many, many pictures of the entire weekend.
The appetizers were great! I especially loved the oyster shooters (probably Kumamoto, Kusshi or Hama Hama); it was in a lightly tart champagne mignonette sprinkled with tobiko. There is nothing like small, delicately sweet oysters. The beef skewers and fig tartlets were also good.
It was a lovely ceremony and touching like most weddings. It was hard to find a dry eye in the crowd as the groom was in tears as soon as he saw his bride walk down the aisle and pretty much stayed teary eyed throughout the ceremony. Both of them were!
The evening ended with dancing and cake at the tent! I actually stepped away to our hotel to wear more comfortable shoes and clothes. At about 10:30 I was pooped and hitched a ride with one of Sarah’s friends. I was going to walk-what was I thinking!
Some wedding pictures below:
SUNDAY
Pat and Lucia still had the gambling bug so they went to the historic Cal Neva Resort Spa & Casino, while I stayed and chilled before the brunch in Meeks Bay at the Hickingbothom’s.
This was another lovely day at the lake. The home was gorgeous! We touched base with the wedding guests, the bride and the groom and said our goodbyes.
Stopped at Ikeda on the way home! This was my first time; it is worth a stop in Auburn on your next trip to Tahoe. It is a fruit market, a pie stand, a gourmet shop, and a hamburger joint; it is after all a “California Country Market” as its name indicates.
Brunch at Meeks Bay below:
For all the weekend pictures go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/9406780@N03/sets/72157602047763756/
No comments:
Post a Comment