The Worlds Largest Golden Nugget

We used our Lake Mead Park pass to get to Las Vegas by the scenic route. I couldn’t talk Claire in to having a go on the helicopter so we set off quite early around 10am. We thought we would have a drive around the other side of the lake to see if it was any different but ended up just stopping once at Las Vegas Lake which is at the end of Lake Mead. It looks like it could do with a little more water at the moment as it all looks a little dried up. But this is a typical landscape around here but usually black mountains in the background.

As we almost went straight to the Golden Nugget on Freemont Street, Downtown Las Vegas, where we have booked the next 2 nights we thought we would have to leave our bags and go for a walk as it was only around 11am and check in wasn’t until 3pm. There was quite a queue and only one person serving so it seemed to take ages to get to the desk but to our surprise they let us have our room. Again it was valet car service where you park at reception, get your bags out and give your keys to the valet service and they park it for you. If you want your car back in the mean time you just give them your ticket and they fetch it for you. I think they expect a tip of about $4 plus each time they give you your keys back. I compared prices for a room at the hotel on a few different websites but the one Geoff gave me came out cheapest at $39 a night plus tax but with no resort fee. For that you get a room in the oldest tower and sheets etc are basic but we upgraded to the Golden tower for $59 a night which we thought was very good. The room is lovely with a King bed, Egyptian cotton bed sheets and a 42” TV screen. Also this block is in a quieter part so you can’t hear the street noise. We have lots of room and our window overlooks the pool which is great.

We had a wander around to familiar ourselves with the surroundings and the pool area is better than it looks from our window; they have black jack tables out by the pool and the huge circular fish tank. It has water falls to the front and lounges all around as well as on two levels above the tank. They even have one of those water slides, that start at the top and winds its way around, through the fish tank and dumps you in the pool. There is another small pool on the top deck and cabanas that can be rented or reserved. By the main pool they also have a large spa and a fire that you can sit around if you are cold all the time like Claire. The main pool goes all the way around the fish tank where they have sharks and rays amongst other things.

We went for a brief walk around outside to see if there was anything around Freemont Street but it all get a little rough the further you seem to go. We were looking for somewhere to eat lunch but didn’t succeed and ended up going back into ours and eating at the buffet on the second floor. I think that I am a little slow as I didn’t realize that they had the world’s largest golden nugget in a glass safe there. When I had heard talk of the largest Golden Nugget in the world, I thought they were talking about the hotel chain. It’s not a very good picture but it weighs 61Ib and is in its raw state. A glass safe doesn’t sound like a very good one to me; I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these dodgy locals have a go at it one of these days.

I think that Claire likes it in this hotel even better than Treasure Island and Fremont Street suits us better than the main strip. I’m sure we are in the minority but its not so load and big and not so many people; also everything is much cheaper here. The lunch buffet is $11.50 each and you can have as much as you like; they have a great choice and we both didn’t find anything that we didn’t like. They have crab cocktail, shrimp cocktail, salads, fruit, Chinese food, Italian food, roast beef, roast chicken, more than I can mention and a marvellous selection of hot and cold sweets, my Mum would love it here. I tried the bread and butter pudding with bourbon sauce and it was delicious. A tip for would be dinners is that the dinner starts at 3.30pm where they change all the dishes over ready for the evening and there is even more choice but the price goes up by about $10 each. If you get there for about 3.15pm you pay the lunch price and you sit for a while and order a drink, have a nice seafood salad and by the time you have finished that all the dishes have been replaced for fresh dinner dishes. Oh, I forgot they have 2 soups and the one I tried was great. Naughty Claire even went around the cheese board, getting lots of different cheeses and biscuits piling her plate high. I said that she would never eat all that but then most of it seemed to slip off her plate into her saddle bag for later.

Anyway, the light show starts at 7pm and is on every hour after that so we should manage to stay up for the first showing. I don’t know why but we are still both tired all the time and it seems to be getting worse rather than better. I think that it must be all the packing up, travelling around, unpacking again and finding our way around; its quite tiring and stressful moving into a new place until you settle in.

Last night I had a go at proper black jack on a table as the minimum was $2 and they gave me 2 $5 vouchers to use. Trouble is every time you used a voucher, you had to match it with $5 of your own so I used mine cautiously. Luckily, both times I used them I won so it boosted my money very nicely. I only started with $20 and played all evening, we both got free drinks and I got two spin the wheel tickets where Claire won $2 and $5. We had a great night even though it all went back in the end except for the spin the wheel money. On the way out, I put a quarter in a poker machine and came away with over $6 so we weren’t far off even by the end of the night. Here at the Golden Nugget, they have machines by the bar where you can play poker and black jack amongst other things for 25 cents a go and while you are playing them you get your drinks free so we already had some fun today; I could hardly drag Claire away for lunch, she really go into it and also did better than me. Beginners luck; lets see what happens tonight!