Traveling Around - Pretty Nice Trip To UP Casino

As part of a trip to a conference in Marquette, MI, we decided to take a couple extra days and spend some time at Kewadin Casino in Sault Ste Marie, MI. The conference started on a Thursday so we left home in central Michigan late morning on Tuesday. After crossing the bridge at Mackinac City, we stopped at a McDonald's for a midday snack. Headed further north and got into Sault Ste Marie about 2:30.

We checked into the hotel with no problem. Room was nice. Television had some funny kind of remote that took some getting used to but the wife figured it out and watched some HGTV while I snoozed.

Down to the casino for some fun before dinner. Found a multi player blackjack machine and settled in. They continue to make refinements to the software and on this one you must react in approximately 10 seconds or the machine decides you want to "hold" and goes on to the next player. A little disconcerting but I adjusted.

Wound up a two hour session from betting the minimum $3 some $50 ahead and the wife came and got me for dinner.

We'd always had good experiences at Dream Catchers Restaurant. This time for some reason, it wasn't good. An inexperienced waitress took our orders and when the food was delivered we didn't get exactly what we had ordered. It was explained that although we ordered rice with our meal, we wound up with a baked potato because they didn't have any rice. The food was not hot enough to enjoy. We ate a dab of the stuff and called it quits. Won't try that place again.

Back to the casino for a couple hours before and evening of television. Decided to invest my winnings in video poker. The game wasn't the best but returned 98.3% due to a reduction in full house from 9 to 8. I succeeded in breaking even for the two hour session, helped along with the following.

Up and at 'em on Wednesday. Had a cinnamon roll and an English Muffin at the snack bar. They were good (how can you screw those up?). Out on the town in the late morning.

Perhaps our favorite shopping in that area is a store called "A Quarter To Five". For those unfamiliar with the store it looks like a room full of wheeled laundry baskets like those you'd find in a hotel. Overnight every Friday the baskets are emptied and filled with miscellany. When the store opens on Saturday, everything in the store is priced at $5. Each day the blanket price is reduced until on Friday, anything in the store is priced at 25 cents. Then it starts all over again. On Wednesday when we were there, the price had fallen to $1.00. There are signs that indicate they have had major problems at opening time on Saturday due to some of the extreme bargains to be found and have implemented a numbering scheme so that you get a number, get your place in line, and wait to get in. Even on Wednesday, it is a fascinating store. I accumulated a bag of books (sold by a bag containing whatever you can cram in rather than individually) and the wife found an indoor television antenna she wanted to try. Big purchases but it looked like every one of the shoppers was departing with something.

I had done some online research when our meal at the casino restaurant didn't turn out very good and located what sounded like fun. It was in the neighborhood of the outlet store and had good reviews. "Pure Country Family Restaurant" didn't disappoint. The food was excellent and inexpensive. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, ate too much, and still took some back to the hotel for a later snack.

I decided to play for a couple hours, take a break, and play for a couple more. As I grow older I find that sitting at the machine for too long, I begin to lose concentration and it becomes counter productive. Two hours is about my limit.

My first two hour session brought me several 4 of a kind and I finished a few dollars ahead.

I didn't get pictures of all of the 4's and the one of 4 threes didn't turn out very good but included it anyway. Even though the picture was bad, I got my 125 coin payoff.

We watched Jeopardy on television and I decided it was time for a last session of video poker for the trip. Found the machine I'd been playing and about 45 minutes into the session, got this:

I realized I wasn't likely to improve my results, so I took my $1,000 and called it quits.

The conference on Thursday began with a cookout at the local park so we had a full day to travel the 100 plus miles from Sault Ste. Marie to Marquette. Along the way is Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore at Munising. I'd reserved tickets for a cruise through Lake Superior. The cruise offered views and a narration talking about the formations, their origin, and their future. It was two hours well spent and we enjoyed it.

Because of the size of the sandstone cliffs, the pictures are a little deceptive. They are huge natural structures. Some of them are well over 200 feet. The waterfall is some 70 feet.

We got checked in at the Quality Inn in Marquette. The cookout at a local park was a good social time. Friday morning was spent in business meetings and Friday afternoon consisted of some 5 seminars associated with being a Michigan State Employee Retiree.

Up on Saturday and got on the road. 6 1/2 hours later arrived at the old homestead - pretty tired and bedraggled. After recovery I started feeling good about the video poker and figure we may have another trip to Sault Ste. Marie before the snow flies.