It was to be our last night at our friends' place in North Las Vegas, and we decided to take advantage of their proximity to Lake Mead.
Located near the Arizona border, Lake Mead is a 110 mile reservoir created behind the Hoover Dam in 1936 known for a variety of recreational activities, not the least of which is fishing. Striped and largemouth bass, bluegill, perch, channel catfish, black crappie, and carp are some of the species which abound there.
It was named for Elwood Mead, commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the time that the dam and lake were created. The controversial Boulder Canyon Project forced the evacuation of a number of communities, and the ruins of St. Thomas, Nevada are sometimes visible when water levels drop below normal.
We took a trail down to the water from one of the vista points, and I relaxed, listening to the abundant quail, while Jaime fished. The water was beautiful and we could clearly see the enormous fish swimming all AROUND the pole that Jaime had cast. It was a fantastic place to eat our lunch, at any rate, and we got to enjoy an exquisite sunset.
The next day we headed to our room at The Orleans. The Orleans is a large off-strip hotel known for its reasonable rates and plentiful entertainment. It's a great place for families to stay because, in addition to the usual grown-up entertainment you'd expect, they also have a movie theater, bowling alley, arcade, and food court.
I like the fun yet creepy look of The Orleans. The enormous heads, masked mannequins, and glowing animals at the various bars (Gator bar, Crawfish bar, etc.) are fun, and the slots fairly loose. I came up $30 while conservatively playing pennies and nickels.
We had been there before to play, but it was our first time staying. If you're looking for a deal, it's hard to beat. Besides the normally inexpensive rooms, there are deals throughout the year for club card members.
Membership to the "B Connected Club" is free, and gets you discounts on the buffets at their various hotels (including my favorite downtown brunch buffet, Main Street Station), in addition to invitations to stay free during their off-season. This particular trip offered a buy-1-get-1 offer on their rooms, so our grand total for two nights was $50.
The room was a nice, clean, and comfortable (and located down the longest hallway I've ever seen! It took a minute and a half to walk from the elevators to our room!) with a little view of the Rio and included a room safe, though the lack of mini-fridge was disappointing.
One of my favorite experiences there was the Craft Beer Tasting. It was an adventure finding it, and a perfect example of how ridiculous things can get when you have too much stuff going on.
It started out simply enough…we saw a poster in the casino/lobby area advertising a "Bourbon Street Craft Beer Sampler." A man who works for The Orleans was passing by, and I asked him if he knew where it was. He looked at the poster blankly, read and reread it, and said he had no idea. No problem. We called the front desk to find out the details. They'd never heard of it, so connected us to the concierge who spent a while looking it up and found nothing about it, so connected us to food and beverage,where we left a never-to-be- returned message.
Since it had to be SOMEWHERE on the premises, we started out by asking at the bar/restaurant nearest the poster. Nobody in there was even aware that such a thing existed. We pulled one of the guys from behind the bar to come look at the poster, and he was then able to direct us to the place. Turns out Bourbon Street is the name of the actual bar, not just the name of the beer sampler.
It was front and center in the casino.
So we moseyed on over and looked at the brew menu. Plenty of craft beer, so this was definitely the place, but no mention of the sampler was written anywhere. We ordered it anyway. A deer-caught-in headlights look passed quickly over our bartender, and then he asked us what we wanted to try.
"How many do we get to taste, and how much does it cost?" I thought was a reasonable thing to ask.
"Um…..hang on. I need to find the book."
So he disappeared for a while, and another bartender came over to see if we'd been helped.
"We're waiting to find out abut the beer tasting. He's looking for 'the book.' Do YOU know how many beers we get or what it costs?"
He shrugged, "Probably five or six for five or six bucks. There's a book?"
"Has anyone ever ordered this before?"
He shrugged again, "Not while I've been here."
At last our bartender returned with the news that it was, in fact, $6 for 5 tastes, so with 2 tastings we were order to order all but two of the beers on the menu. We'd already tasted two of them, so it worked out perfectly.
The only problem (besides the fact that nobody knew about it) is that he just poured them in the order they appeared in the menu, which had nothing to do with the order in which they should be tasted. So, using our best judgement, we had to try to figure out the order in which to drink them.
I highly recommend going to the Bourbon Street Bar and ordering the tasting. The beer's good (I especially liked the Gordon Birsch Marzen and Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat White Ale...HATED the Harp Lager), and it's fun to watch them be so confused over something that the hotel/casino advertises, but nobody actually knows anything about.
That particular bar is also located in front of a stage that has different bands each night. The first night we were there, there was a TERRIBLE band that badly covered some of my very favorite hair band songs of the '80s and '90s. The singer made me mad. The night we did our beer tasting, however, the band was a crew of older gentlemen with a younger lady drummer rockin' the oldies. I liked them very much. So, I guess it's hit or miss.
Our time there passed in a happy blur of slots, Keno, free cocktails, bowling, and eating. Their buffet, though not exceptional, isn't bad, and has a HUGE selection. You're bound to find something you'll like, and the price is right. We spent less money there and enjoyed it more than the food at their 24-hour cafe, which I cannot recommend at all.
Next stop: El Cortez, downtown, with some fun along the way.
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