Reno

We got our first trip sans kids last weekend. We get these each time somebody we know gets married and has a wedding outside our county. It's the third time we've been away without them. The first was our honeymoon in Vegas, the second was up by Auburn at a buddy's wedding, and this time it was my cousin who got married in Truckee, CA. This allowed us to leave the kids with the in-laws, spend a night in Truckee and then head to Reno the day after. We took Monday off work to sleep in and enjoy the ride back. Well, I slept for a good portion of it. But don't worry! I wasn't driving.

Reno was an experience that I haven't had in a very long time. It had been at least 5 years since I was there last and maybe even longer. We stayed in the Silver Legacy and because we booked with out AAA card, we got a free buffet breakfast. Pretty sweet, yeah? We got all settled into our second room, the first had the horrible reek of smoke in it, and headed down to lose our fortunes. We were just wandering around when we got stopped by a timeshare presentation lady, who offered us $50, free dinner, and 4 days 3 nights vacation at a spot of our choosing if we'd suffer through a 90 min presentation. So of course we did. I'd never done one of these before, and it was as strange as I'd pictured it would be. In the tram on the way to the hotel where the presentation would take place, I noticed that we were the young couple, there was also a black couple, a mexican couple, a retired couple, and one that was in their mid-40's with kids somewhere in middle to high school.

We got matched up with the youngest salesperson there was, the black couple got the black salesman and so on. It was a very awkward first few minutes as our new BFF Camille tried to get to know us. From there we went into a room where Serge, who just got over here from the MotherLand, gave us a group sales pitch in his very thick East European/Russian accent. I think somewhere in it, he said that if you liked camping then you were homeless or something. I wasn't really paying to much attention. After that nightmare, we got back out with Camille who tried to sell us this wonderful program for only $11,000!! Holy Crap!! We said no thanks and got sent to the last chance lady who gave us our free stuff and we were back at the hotel in time for our free dinner. But, honestly, if you ever have the chance to do one of these and the free stuff is good, do it. Instead of blowing our cash in the casinos, we were getting stuff. Plus we came out of Reno ahead from gambling plus the $50 we got from them for free, so it was a very successful, and fun trip.

Also yesterday, when I went to get T up from his nap, he told me, "Don't wake me up, I'm still sleeping!" So I let him sleep some more. Even though he never slept. Check out "Don't Need Anything" by Glen Phillips.