RENO-A GIRLS WEEKEND

I just got back from a "girls" weekend in Reno. I get a lot of free room offers so my BFF (Best Friend Forever)Trena took a couple of days and went to Reno for 2 nights. We had a nice room at Harrahs with a nice view of the hills, as long as you didn't look down then all you saw was the roofs of the different casinos. We got there Sunday afternoon and after checking in we hit the strip. We went to the mezzanine that joins El Dorado,Silver Legacy and Circus Circus. Trena wanted to get something to eat so we went to Kokopelli's and she got a plate of french fries to split and a couple of beers. Since December of '06 Trena has lost 114lbs!!! Of course she probably shouldn't be eating fries but she needed to get something into her stomach. She is supposed to eat at least 6 small meals a day... they are supposed to be healthy meals but hey, we are on vacation. She can eat about a dozen fries and here we had a whole plate full and they were really good fries. I ate some of the fries,but didn't want to eat too many since we would be going to dinner in a few hours. We walked back to Harrahs after our snack and played a few slot machines with no luck. We went over to Lexies on the River located in the Sienna Hotel and Spa. I thought that would be a good choice since they have a pretty good selection of hot and cold appetizers that Trena could choose from rather than a whole entree. We got there around 8 and it wasn't' busy so we got seated right away. We had a bottle of Matanzas Creek Merlot to start. They brought a basket of Focaccia Bread and rolls with butter. The Focaccia was really good.. I should have asked for some olive oil for dipping, or they should provide that since they are an Italian restaurant. For dinner we had the Lobster in Escargot Butter and the Mushroom Risotto. I got the Ocean Ravioli.. Lobster tail,scallops,clams,shrimp,mussels all on top of a bed of pasta sheets (not very good.. too under cooked) all covered with a Lobster Bisque sauce.... It was so good! Trena had half of the sea food, half of the Lobster in Escargot Butter and some of the risotto. We ended the meal with Tiramisu which wasn't very good. That was a lot of food for her. We don't have any pictures since the batteries in my camera died. After dinner we went back to Harrah's and gambled until the wee hours of the morning. I did pretty well so split some of that with Trena.. we finally went to bed around 3 am. I don't think I'd stayed up that late in years.. not us old folks. Monday we got up and hit Starbucks. We got going around noon and went to Marshalls to find Trena a pair of slacks. She's lost so much weight that she has no clothes left and she doesn't want to spend a lot of money replacing things since once a month her clothes are too big. She found a nice pair of black slacks a new smaller purse and wallet. We ended up at McDonalds for lunch. Trena gets a 4 piece kids meal and eats 3 chicken nuggets. We spent the rest of the afternoon gambling and having cocktails. We had dinner that night at the Steakhouse at Harrah's. It's dark wood and clubby looking. The place is so good and we got lucky and got Ozzie as our waiter. he has been there for as long as I can remember. We got the St. Michelle Merlot along with an appetizer of Oysters Rockerfeller. We split the Prime Rib Entree. They have the best Prime Rib. Instead of desert we got the Cafe Diablo.. Ozzie makes that right at the table. It consists of lemon peel and orange peel which he studs with cloves. He lights the Sterno and adds Cointreau, Grand Marnier, and Brandy to the bowl to heat and adds the lemon and orange peels which he has skewered on a long fork. He the lights the alcohol on fire and pours the flaming liquor over the peels to get the oil to flavor the liquor. It is quite a presentation as the flames shoot up and down the peels as he pours the liquor over it a few times. He adds coffee to this mix and pours it all into a silver coffee pot and little demitasse cups. He knew that this was our last night in Reno so I think he said he'd make us a good one... meaning that he wasn't putting much coffee into this mix. We still had about a quarter bottle of wine left so we gave Ozzie the rest of the wine since we were not about to finish the wine and the drink. That drink was so good.. and we drank the whole pot! How we walked out I have no idea. That was a fabulous dinner... a great end to a fun relaxing mini vacation.
Now it's back to reality... We said next time we get to the point of being overwhelmed with everyday life we are going to head back up to Reno and have some more Cafe Diablo.