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Published: August 17th 2009
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Golden Gate Hotel
Unchanged since 1906! Due to PokerStuff commitments and a number of other things to arrange I never really had the chance to get too excited about this trip. Jo (bless her) had made most of the arrangements and I didn’t really know too many details beforehand.
We arrived at the airport at 1600 for a 1900 flight and proceeded to check in to try to get a seat in the exit row so I had some leg room. After half an hour in the queue I was assured by the lady that the 777 did not have exits and therefore had no exit rows - the temptation to ask if I could get a seat in the entry row was self suppressed. The last time I played silly buggers at check in I had no end of trouble after I declared that the only sharp thing that I had packed was my wit.
We had a few ‘quiets’ with Goldie, Oz, Mum, Sue, Simon, Paula and the girls and got through customs by 1830 to find that departure was delayed by an hour. I managed to get a few hours sleep before arrival in San Francisco but on landing we were told
Our room at Golden Gate Hotel
We certainly don't travel 5 star that our 1350 transfer to Las Vegas had been delayed until 1600. We found a bar at the domestic terminal and I sat on a coffee and an $8 Budweiser (camels piss put through a soda stream) for three hours watching Jimmy Johnson win Daytona and the Canadians go down 2-0 to Finland at Turin Winter Olympics.
We arrived in Las Vegas at 1800 local time and waited half an hour in a taxi queue being rather inefficiently by a series of (I imagine) otherwise unemployable Americans with fluro vests and whistles. Their presence was not only unnecessary but I'm convinced they were actually slowing the process down. A lifetime of having to deal with people in fluro vests has taught me never to argue with them - there is something about those things that actually changes the attitude of the person wearing them - not for the better either.
I could see from the cab how much Las Vegas has changed since I was last there in 1994. New buildings were up and up buildings had been demolished. We got to our home for the next few nights The Golden Gate Hotel and Casino on Fremont Street
in downtown Las Vegas. It was apparently amongst the first casinos built in 1906. Unfortunately it had not been changed at all since then - carpet, curtains and showers included. There is a good possibility that the original front desk girl from 1906 was the one that checked us in. Still it was a roof - and after 32 hours awake a roof was all we needed.
We ducked out to have a quick look at Fremont Street and the Fremont Street Experience. Dinner was a traditional Las Vegas buffet (traditional: cheap and tasteless) at Fitzgerald’s. I’m sure we ate there last time I was here and I’m pleased to report that it is no better now. We went to Binions to have a look at the WSOP wall of champions and the poker hall of fame before going to bed at 2100 - it had been a long day.
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