Circus-Circus, Reno

When we were in Tahoe a few weeks ago (you know, before the 6 feet of snow that fell in one week that I am still quite sad about missing), we took a suggestion from a friend mine to ride the train into Reno and then hit Circus-Circus. As anyone who has spent time with my family knows, this represents a true departure from how we normally spend our days.

We learned the train does not go round-trip (without an intervening night in Reno) so my mom, Connor, Helen, and I piled onto the train, while the older men in the group drove cars to Reno. That's because they can actually follow directions and not get lost, unlike me and my mom.

The train trip was fantastic, and one I highly recommend. The views are beautiful, I was able to do quite a bit of knitting, and not being strapped down in car seats makes my children much happier people. Unfortunately, I have no photos  because the train conductor was not keen on me delaying the train to grab my camera from Ed. Sheesh. Did he think Mussolini was his boss?
The kids were thrilled to be at Circus-Circus. We went to the area upstairs that had activities for kids, and they both started accumulating tickets to turn in for disappointing prizes.

Helen tried to throw a dart at a balloon, failed, and won a pink bear anyway ("everyone under 12 a winner!"). She was thrilled.

Connor, however, didn't want a pink bear, so we wandered around for a while playing a few games. Of course, the games are set up to make you lose, which Connor did, and he was starting to get a little sad about this. So we decided to find him an "everyone a winner" game to end his bad streak (and the draining of dollars from my wallet!). He even asked "do you think we could find a game that young children could win?".

Finally, we found a fishing game. The object was to fish a metal object out of a little stream circulating these metal objects quickly around, with a magnet attached to a pole. As the adults stood around explaining to Connor how he wanted to get a red one to get a bigger prize, he cast his rod in expertly and bam - he fished out a red object. Clearly, the adults' advice was completely useless. (I hope he doesn't generalize this finding too broadly).

He won a horse. A horse that I have fixed several times at this point, because naturally, it is of poor quality. Connor sleeps with that horse nightly. Last night, after walking into a doorknob and getting quite a bump on his head,he slept with me. At 3:30 he woke up and asked me where his horse was and when I told him it was up in his bed, he asked me to go get it. I told him it was the middle of the night, he could get it himself. Turns out, he didn't want it that badly.

Now that the kids had proven their worth at the games of skill, we excitedly waited for the circus act. And can I just say, when I went to Circus-Circus in Vegas as a kid, I remember some really fantastic acts. On our day in Reno? We saw two or three acts that took place about once an hour, and that lasted maybe five minutes. I'm left wondering if the passage of time has made my memories exaggerate the circumstances, or if Circus-Circus is just not the happening place it once was.

Regardless, for those three or five minutes, all eyes in our party were transfixed.

Clearly, we are a very easy crowd to please because we were entranced by this jaw-dropping entertainment.

There's a dog in that photo, in case you missed it.

We wrapped our day up with a trip to the buffet and let's just say, the hotel might wish to reconsider its kids eat free policy. As the waiter told me about the pizza, Helen and Connor eyed up the crab legs and clams. They had their fill.

Elaine