Traveling with Roger and Karen

March 21, 2013 Built 130 years ago in 1882, The Cincinnatian Hotel, was our get-a-way room for the night. It was originally named the Palace Hotel. We were visiting the new Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino in Cincinnati, and since they don’t have a hotel on site, they comped us a room at The Cincinnatian. There are other hotels in the city that have partnered with the Horseshoe, but after staying here I don’t think we’ll go anywhere else. From the beautiful lobby to our actual room, the hotel was 1st Class. I don’t remember being issued an actual key in years. Don’t keep this one as a souvenir, though, it will cost you $50! We were in room 513. It actually looked like a bedroom. In fact, the entire room (remodeled, of course) didn’t have that “tired, ... read more

December 27-30, 2012 We left 10” of snow in the driveway on December 27th and began our drive to Louisville where we would take the 10:30 flight on Vision Airlines to enjoy a complimentary three night stay at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The normally two hour drive took an excruciatingly three what with stopped traffic on I65 which caused us to decide to take US 31 as an alternative. Unfortunately, 31 was still snow-covered with extremely heavy traffic. We made a detour to Horseshoe South to enjoy a late lunch/early dinner at the Paula Deen Buffet and some free play before completing the drive to the airport. This was our first trip on one of the complimentary junkets. Beverage service on the charter flight was a little different than on a ... read more

Sunday, December 16, 2012 We drove to Four Winds Resort and Casino outside of New Buffalo, Michigan to see the Cirque Dreams Holidaze show. We certainly are not strangers at Four Winds, although this was the first time that we had gone to a show in their relatively new theater, Silver Creek Event Center. I guess the name “Event Center” gives away the fact that it is not really a theater. But that difference had not yet sunk into my consciousness until we entered. Our complimentary seats were in Section 101, Row J, which was to the left side of the main section. The problem is that basically the seats, banquet chairs actually, are all on the same level. It was difficult to see the stage even being as close as we were. There were large ... read more

June 2010 We have visited Trembaly’s many times. Both of my sisters and their husbands love to fish. Every year they go to one of the lakes near Hayward, Wisconsin and fish for a week. Not loving to fish quite as much as they, we only make this vacation once every three to four years. The best part of the trip though is the one day mandatory drive to Tremblay’s. Hayward has one of those downtowns devoted primarily to tourists. However, I’ve never once groaned about going back to Hayward again. I even got my hair cut at the local barber one year. After shopping for that fishing t-shirt with just the right slogan (I mean you just can’t have enough of those, right?), and maybe having a pastry from the local bakery, everyone eventually will ... read more

September, 2010 After years of hearing about beautiful Door County, Wisconsin we, along with Rod and Mary, finally spent a weekend exploring some of what Door County has to offer. Our first stop was Whitefish Dunes State Park. If you have ever been to Indiana Dunes State Park or Sleeping Dunes in Michigan, you will be wondering “where are the dunes?” This park was nothing like what we expected. There is a beach, picnic area, eight hiking trails, and a nature center. With finding a lighthouse on our minds, we drove north to Bailey’s Harbor. After a delicious lunch, we made our way to Cana Island Lighthouse, just out of town. There was no parking, and admission to the island was $4. We walked around the grounds, toured the light keeper’s house, now a gift shop ... read more

Monday, October 22, 2012 Happy Birthday, Karen Up early. (Always happens on that first morning due to the 3 hour time difference.) Used our bus pass and went over to the Gold Coast for breakfast. Can’t beat a $6 buffet breakfast. On the strip they charge that just for a cup of coffee! After breakfast we played for a couple of hours before taking their shuttle over to The Orleans. Had a lot of fun and actually banked a few bucks. After taking the shuttle back to the strip, we stopped by the room, picked up a comb, chocolate at Walgreen’s, and walked over to Aria to check in. Karen had received a comped room, so we double booked for tonight. The room wasn’t ready, so we played our way over ... read more