The Capitalist Maven

My wife and I made a quick trip to Connecticut this past weekend.  I had a “Free Category 1-5 night” Marriott certificate that I received for my $65 annual fee for holding the Marriott Rewards credit card.  Turned out to be a pretty good deal this year, as the Mystic Marriott and Spa was going for $249 a night this particular weekend.  It was kind of a last minute plan as the certificate expired March 29.  We had various ideas for using the free night but the expected rain late Saturday into Sunday had us looking for something that could keep us occupied in the rain on Sunday.  We explored the idea of a quick trip to Vegas, where the weather was bound to be good, but would have needed to return on Monday instead of Sunday to get the good airfares.

So we settled on Connecticut.  Saturday was beautiful here in New England, so we wanted to do something outdoors.  We discovered the Mystic Seaport Outdoor Museum was perfect for this.  I wasn’t sure what to expect before we went in.  I left very pleased.  They have recreated a 19th century whaling village on the museum property with actual buildings that were brought in on barges.  The various buildings are intriguing to see.  They also have traditional indoor museum type exhibits (the eskimo and figurehead exhibits were particularly good).  But the highlight of the museum is actually boarding the ships they have on display.  The friendly guides posted on the ships have some great information to pass on about the ships and are so passionate about it that even the details don’t seem boring.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

After checking into our hotel and having Mexican food at a particularly crappy local Mexican place we headed up to the Mohegan Sun casino.  My wife wanted to get her nails done at the spa for reasons I assume only a woman can understand.  I settled into a nice $5 craps table.  The table was cold for a good 20 minutes, then the dice were passed to an eccentric drunk woman who had a hard time keeping the dice on the table.  She made about 6 points and hit lots of other numbers in between.  I managed to be up about $125 by the time my wife returned from the nails.  She hung out with me and had a free drink, but I could tell she was getting bored so we left.

The next day I saw a sign on the way in advertising “New $5 Blackjack.”  I asked a casino employee where to find it and eventually worked my way over.  My wife wanted to go shopping so I had some time.   By the time my wife returned I was just about even.  Then I got on a huge run and was up another $100.  My wife knows nothing of Blackjack.  I tried to explain some simple strategy so she could keep the winning going while I went to the bathroom.  So I told her, “the other players will help you, I’ll be back.”  She managed to win 2 hands without me.  When the spot next to me opened up, I convinced her to sit down and play from my stack.  I think she was just enjoying the drink service and talking with people in the peanut gallery, so sitting down involved actually paying some attention to the game.  Sure enough we continued to win, running up yet another $100 and tons more drinks.  5:30 rolled around and I said it was definitely time to get going.

Gambling is seldom a frugal endeavor but with $5 tables and free drinks you aren’t going to lose much.  Worst case it’s a great way to spend a rainy Sunday.

Jon Off topic, Travel

This past weekend I traveled to Niagara Falls, Ontario for my bachelor party.  A visit to Niagara Falls has become tradition in my group of friends as we get married off.  Five years ago this destination was a premier spot for east coast gambling but lately it’s definitely not as special in that respect.  Lately I think the only thing keeping the place in business as a bachelor party destination is the local strip club, Sundowner.  I’ll leave it up to reader to find out more about Sundowner but suffice it to say it’s good enough to keep us coming back to this increasingly less desirable location.

The weekend got off to a good start, with my flight departing BOS right on time and landing in Buffalo, NY ahead of schedule.  Since my brother and friends were driving up from Pittsburgh and were running late, I was going to head straight to the airport bar.  Unfortunately due to the rain in BUF, they took my carry-on which was gate checked onto the regional jet straight to the baggage claim, meaning that I had to leave the secure area and lose access to the bar.  Doh…

So I got my luggage and proceeded to the bus stop hoping that I could find some information on where I might take the bus to grab a beer and kill some time.  At the bus stop, some friendly Buffalo residents directed me straight across the parking lot.  I’m not sure if I found the bar they were directing me to but I did find one particularly uncrowded “bar” which was more of a sandwich shop.  I grabbed a beer and watched some TV.  I ended up talking to the old guy cleaning the tables.  He had some great info and economic theories on the problems with the local economy.  Particularly why Niagara Falls, NY is not nearly as successful as Niagara Falls, ON.  The Indian Casino in NY has little interest in developing the region, it wants to take money in and keep it there.  In ON, the state run casinos have an interest in developing the community.  Curiously though, the NY casino does provide a better experience for the gambler, nearly all the Canadians we talked to seemed to like the Seneca casino better.  In other words government excels at building the community while free enterprise excels at building business.

After an uneventful border crossing we arrived at the Embassy Suites.  Never having stayed here before, we left the car with the valet which ended up costing $20 a night, later we learned that we could have just parked at the casino across the street for $10 a night.  Additionally it would have been far more convenient to avoid the 15 minute wait for the valet to fetch the car.

We pounded a few beers that we picked up at the duty free shop and headed to the casino.  $25 was the minimum bet at all the tables.  Our small bankrolls did not allow for realistic play at such high limits so one of my friends had a great idea.  Pool our money and then have one person play, effectively playing $6.75 per hand.  Our friend playing got on a pretty good streak and managed to win $200 in the first chute.  We told him to quit and each took our $50 home.  A good first night.

We played golf the next morning, then hit the casino again in the afternoon.  After taking a cab to the older casino, we managed to locate minimums to our liking.  I won another $100 on the Craps table, after a very dramatic run as some eccentric guy in sun glasses hit 5 numbers on the Fire Bet.  I quit and just hung around playing some video poker here and there while the other guys finished up.  We went to the Wild Mushroom across the street for a $19.95 pizza and pitcher special, which honestly is about the best deal you’ll find in Niagara Falls, ON.  Surprisingly though, the place was dead.  The old casino just isn’t as popular with the younger crowd.

After a quick stop back at the hotel, we grabbed a cab to the Sundowner.  Traveling down Lundy’s Lane is an interesting experience.  For a good stretch it’s pretty much a red light district, with clubs and adult stores.  There is a virtually continuous stream of cabs from the strip to this section of Lundy’s.  Seeing all the cabs streaming down makes you realize that despite it’s seedy nature, this is the place really keeps Niagara Falls in business amongst the young male crowd, not the casino.  The Sundowner really is an experience that is unavailable in the states.  We had a great night…

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed in time for checkout and attempted to find some food.  We ended up at Al Mac’s $6.99 breakfast buffet.  A great deal right?  Well the food was ok, about what you would get at the $6.99 buffet in the US, but then we get the check.  Drinks were $4 each!  We should have known when the waitress said “We don’t serve tap water.”  Oh well, lesson learned.  Hopefully now you won’t fall for this trap either.

I arrived at the airport a good bit early, so I asked them to move to some earlier.  I moved up to the 3:00PM non-stop to Boston, no charge due to my Silver status with US Airways.  I can’t speak enough for the difference that having preferred status makes in air travel, it’s really worth picking an airline and sticking to it to work towards status.  I then proceeded to the US Airways Club Lounge to use my free day pass they sent me 2 weeks earlier.  It was a great experience.  While I don’t fly enough to justify club membership, I can certainly see the value in it to someone who flies more.  Since it didn’t cost me anything, I was quite pleased.

I got back to Boston almost 4 hours early.  All in all, a great trip.

Jon Off topic, Travel

It is with deep regret that I report the loss of something near and dear to the hearts of Penn State Alumni everywhere:  the chicken cosmo is dead!  For those who have never experienced eating a chicken cosmo, it’s probably hard to understand the significance.  In fact, when I first walked into the dining commons over 10 years ago on a day when cosmo was on the menu, I did not realize the culinary journey I was about to embark on.

I asked “lunch lady Pat” what a chicken cosmo was, she replied that its “like” a chicken patty.  So I tried it.  It was like a chicken patty, but better.  I still can’t explain the reason it was better.  It’s not that it was really good, but after eating you wanted to go back for a second serving.  When it appeared on the menu again you wanted to walk across campus to whatever dining commons was serving it.  Perhaps it was the preparation?  Perhaps it was the side dish(pierogies were often offered with the cosmo)?  Perhaps something in the processed food product metabolized to produce a recreational drug-like experience? And now the world will never know…

Jon Off topic chicken cosmo, farewell