Here’s a recap of my trip to Sacramento…

Sunday

Flew out of Detroit at about 5 PM ET, had a connecting flight in Phoenix, and landed in Sacramento around PM PT. Rented a car, checked into the hotel, and just crashed for the night. Nothing exciting.

Monday

First day of class (9-4:30). After class we decided to hit up the local casino, but they didn’t have a poker room, so I wasn’t staying. We decided to take a drive to Lake Tahoe and see what their casinos had to offer. We didn’t have a clue what was in store for us. Monday night turned out to be the best part of the trip. The drive to Tahoe was amazing! It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. The drive takes you up, down, and winding all through the mountains. While I was doing the driving, Heather was trying to take pictures through the windows with my digital camera ,and Mom was yelling at me to slow down around each corner. I think she was afraid of falling down the mountain…haha! At one point it rained near the top of some mountains and we followed a rainbow for a good 10-15 minutes.

After about an hour and a half, we finally arrived at Lake Tahoe and you can’t imagine the view. There aren’t even words to describe it, but don’t worry, I have a ton of pictures I’ll be posting on the new photos section of the site later this week. The time of day was perfect when we were there. The sun was just going down behind the mountains so there were all kinds of colors over the lake and moutains on the opposite side of the lake. The clouds were reflecting off the water and again had many colors to them. Breathtaking! You’ll have to see the pictures to understand.

I almost forgot to mention the casinos…they had 4 very small casinos all right across from each other. Again, none of them were playing poker, so I played some video poker all night and limited my losses.

Tuesday

Another full day of class and then off to Old Sacramento for a few hours. Old Sacramento wasn’t anything special, compared to Frankenmuth or Mackinaw, but it was neat to see. There were cobblestone roads, wooden sidewalks, a railroad museum, and some old style buildings. I took a few neat pictures (posted later this week). I made a few purchases in the shops including a dreamcatcher, money clip, some garlic hot wing sauce, and chocolate. I’ve been wanting a money clip for some time now and finally remembered to look for one. The one I bought has a neat design of a maze on it. I’ve been using it the past few days and really like not having a wallet in my back pocket.

Wednesday

After my class we headed off to Cal Expo to watch some harness racing and make a few bets. I lost a couple of hundred and really kicked myself in the ass on the last race when I decided to change up my betting strategy. I won’t go into detail, but I would have won a $300 trifecta had I stuck with the plan I had been using the whole night. I guess that’s why it’s called gambling…right? Off to a casino after the races, where I minimized my losses again by played video poker for 3 hours or so.

Thursday

We went to the Cal Expo again for some more harness racing. I didn’t win shit again, but Heather and Mom won a couple of hundred each. Now I’m down about $500 for the trip. Back to the casino…AGAIN! I walked in and pulled out the only singles I had in my pocket and figured I’d throw a few into a slot before going to play the video poker machines. It went quick on a 50 cent machine at 3 bets/spin. Two pulls to be exact. Mom pulled out a $20 and said “put this in.” In case you don’t know my Mom…she absolutely loves the slots! Within a few pulls, I hit a SPIN on the Wheel Of Fotune and then another one shortly after. I played the slot for about 5 minutes, cashed out for $100 and gave Mom her $20 back. Up $80 for the casino, but still down about $400.

I headed off to the video poker machines and thought maybe I could finally hit a royal flush. Yeah right! After about an hour and a half that $100 was cut in half. Time to use a new “strategy” for the rest of the night. I know that the lower denomination slots have horrible odds, so I sat down at a $1 machine and started hitting the Bet 3 Credits button. I went up and down for for awhile and then I finally got a SPIN on the Wheel. It hit for 500 credits! Cash out and I’m back to even for the trip.

After finding Mom and Heather to tell them about my luck, I walked around looking for some more of the Wheel Of Fortune machines. I continued to win about 30-40 per machine and then walk away to find a new one. I found Heather again and she decided to follow me and see how it was done. Might as well try the $5 slot which plays 2 credits at a time. Yes…that’s $10 a pull! Soon after sitting down I hit a SPIN for another $300. Now I’m up over to over $800 and $300 ahead for the trip.

I managed to get as high as $1100, but cashed out for the night with $799…$299 in the black. I know the odds of winning on slots is horrible and I hate them, but I have to admit it was fun.

Friday

Class finished up at noon so it was almost as if I had another day. We decided to do some shopping. I bought at least 10 new shirts, a messenger type bag to replace my regular backpack, a neat business card holder, and some shorts. Ended up getting two new store credit cards to get their initial discount. After shopping for a few hours and then getting lost twice we finally made it to the airport. The plane left before 10. We had a connecting flight in Las Vegas, so of course I had to stick some money in the slots they have in the terminal, but now I can say that I’ve gambled in Vegas.

Saturday

Our flight finally touched down in Detroit after 6 AM. I read a book during the entire flight and at points was the only person with my light on. After getting our luggage and packing up the car, we headed back to Saginaw. I drove most of the way, but with about 45 minutes left I had to pull off and let Mom take over. I was falling asleep way to easily. It was around 8:30 when we pulled in my driveway. I unloaded the vehicle, took a shower and was in bed by 9. Just woke up at 4:30 PM and I’m still dead tired.

It was a great trip and I had a lot of fun, but it’s always nice to be back home…well, kind of. Now I have to mow the lawn, do laundry, and catch up on about 15 things. Tomorrow I’m going up north to stay at a friend’s house for the night and then I’m golfing at Boyne Highlands with Dad on Memorial Day. Now I need a vacation!