When our oldest son, Joe, was about 16 years old we decided that it would be a cool idea to take him to Las Vegas for his 21st birthday. Excited by the idea, he looked forward to the trip for years. Unfortunately when his big birthday was quickly approaching a trip to Vegas was not at all in the budget. I found a Groupon for Atlantic City and we decided it would be the next best thing. We made the trip and he had a blast. We decided to make it our tradition to take our boys on the trip when they each turned 21.
This year our youngest, Kevin, reached his 21st birthday, so now it was his turn. We made plans to go to Bally’s once again. We really enjoy Bally’s. Without leaving the building you have access to three casinos and many places to eat. We found a great deal on the room that came with a $20 food credit as well.
Kevin had snagged free tickets to a concert at Penn State the night before we planned to leave so we met him in Richmond and then went to lunch at Riverbound Cafe. After lunch, we were on our way. We ran into a lot of traffic slowdowns so our trip took a bit longer than expected, but we finally made it to our destination. When we checked in they upgraded our room to one with an ocean view so we were off to a great start. We took the elevator to the top floor and as we rounded the corner to our room I thought it looked somewhat familiar. Once we got into the room we realized why…it was the same room that we had stayed in when we made the trip with Nick last year.
We settled in, toasted with shots of Jameson and headed out for dinner. We enjoyed a great dinner at Guy Fieri’s Chophouse before exploring the casino. We wandered through the three casinos scoping out various slot machines. Chris put $20 into the Davinci Diamonds machine (his favorite) and a few minutes later hit for $285. Kevin enjoyed exploring the various cocktails available.
In the morning we headed to Buca di Beppo for breakfast and then back to the casino. My favorite thing about Bally’s is the Wild West Casino where they have $5 blackjack tables. The tables didn’t open until 2 so we took a walk out to the beach. As Joe and Nick both have January birthdays and both trips had temperatures below zero, this is the first time we made it outside. It was a beautiful warm day (unseasonably warm for New Jersey) and we enjoyed the view of the quiet beach.
At 2 we picked a table and sat down to play. I started with $120. A really nice couple joined our table as well as a few other people and pretty soon there was a great camaraderie among the group. Kevin had a great time learning the game. At some point, he and Chris decided to check out the Hard Rock Casino down the boardwalk. I was doing well so stayed at the table for a while longer. When it was time to eat, I walked away with $228.
After a little shopping on the boardwalk, we went over to Caesar’s for the Palace Court Buffet. It is a large buffet, with a variety of food choices. There is also a pasta station where they cook the pasta with your choice of ingredients. Chris usually brings food from other parts of the buffet to add to his cooked to order pasta. My favorite part is the dessert station. I get one of each item that looks interesting. I look like a piggy with my plate full of desserts, but then I just take a bite of each so I can taste everything without overdoing it.
After dinner, Kevin went back to the blackjack table with his last $20. The cool couple that we had met earlier were at the table again and welcomed him back. He played for about an hour before he finally lost.
We took a walk down the boardwalk to the Ferris wheel. According to the website, the Ferris wheel is open until midnight, but apparently, the site had not been updated for October as it was not. We went back into Hard Rock Casino and played some slots before walking back to Bally’s. When Chris put his rewards card in we noticed that he had a 1000 point credit. We weren’t sure how to use it so we decided to call it a night and then we would ask in the morning when the rewards counter was open.
After breakfast at Cafe Roma, we found that the credit was good for $5 in a slot machine. I decided to give Kevin another $5 to use while Chris used his credit. Kevin put his money into the roulette machine. The machine allowed quarter bets. Kevin had a great strategy for playing and his numbers hit over and over. He was up and down for some time. At one point he was up to $29 and cashed out. I teased him and said that I wanted my $5 back. He decided to play more to get one more dollar so he could give me $5 and still have an even $25. He got up to $42 and then went back down to $12. He commented that he should have cashed out at $42. When he was down to his last $2 Chris told him to put it all on one bet. He sat for a minute before deciding on 25. The wheel went around and 25 hit. He won $72 and promptly cashed it out.
On our way home we stopped for gas and saw a food truck. The gyros and the fries were very good. Our trip home was faster than the ride up had been. After sitting in DC traffic last year we got an EZ Pass. It was very nice to hop on the expressway and zip past all the stopped traffic saving us hours.
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