Prelude: For each of the last three Novembers, my good friend and I have taken a trip to Vegas for a golf getaway. The first year we played Primm (Lakes) and Arroyo at Red Rock. In 2014, we chose Coyote Springs, Los Prados and Bear’s Best. Last year we played DragonRidge, Reflection Bay and Chimera (the latter two in some of the most bitter, blustery weather unfit for golf). This year, trip planning and course selection was done for us, as the golf group of which we’re both active members – Greenskeeper.org – had scheduled back-to-back events in Vegas for the exact weekend we typically took our trip.

Saturday, November 12 was scheduled for TPC Las Vegas, while the following day we’d play the Snow Mountain course at Paiute Resort. Seeing I’d played TPC Las Vegas previously and didn’t especially care for it, I chose to skip the hassle of a Saturday night stay in Vegas and decided to participate only on Sunday. However, I also planned to stick around a couple days and play some more.

I booked Sunday night at the Mirage via a free night from myVEGAS, and Monday night at Palace Station, also courtesy myVEGAS. I also snagged a ticket for LOVE from myVEGAS for Sunday night. My friend stayed with me at the Mirage and was able to get the seat right next to mine for LOVE, so that worked out great.

Here I go… (Click on any photo for larger version on my Flickr page.)

 

Day One: Sunday, November 13, 2016

With a 9:16 tee time at Paiute, I crawled out of bed at 3:30 after a restless few hours’ sleep, took a shower and hit the road by 4:05 am. I really don’t mind the drive much at all anymore, especially when I’m by myself and able to blast whatever music I want and take in the desert scenery.

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Shadow Self-portrait:

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Stateline:

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Jean:

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Finally, round the bend, and there it is:

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There what is? This:

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Ahhhh….

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I stopped at Santa Fe Station to possibly eat breakfast, but then realized I would be too rushed to enjoy my meal, so I jumped back in the car, swept through a McDonald’s drive-thru and made my way to Paiute. It was great to see a bunch of friends from GK, and I really enjoyed Snow Mountain (a little bit more than I liked Wolf back in August). It was in fantastic condition. Here are some pics:

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After waiting for all the groups to finish and a prolonged raffle in which I won a Linksoul hat, I was ready to go check in and relax a bit. That meant dealing with Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon-related Strip closures, but eventually I made my way to Mirage just as the city lights came alive.

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I’d invited my friend to stay in my room, but a week or two before the trip, the Mirage website indicated the entire hotel was sold out, so I was fortunate to switch my reserved king room to two queens:

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Earlier in the day, I’d agreed to cash a ticket at the LINQ for a friend who forgot and was headed home immediately after Paiute. With the marathon closing the Strip, this meant a circuitous walk all the way down to Flamingo, so I decided to just go eat at Ellis Island Cafe again Sunday night. I had the fish and chips and it was great. I also played a tiny bit of nickel VP but hit nothing noteworthy and lost $5. Here’s a glimpse of the Strip during the marathon:

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We had tickets for the 9:30 LOVE show. After finding our seats, a friendly usher informed us there was a light crowd and some better seats were available, so we got to move down to around midway through the 200 section. This was my third time seeing LOVE and I really enjoyed it, but it had been a very long day and I was super tired by the end of it. After the show, I had no energy to go gamble and I simply went to bed.

 

Day Two: Monday, November 14, 2016

As I’ve mentioned previously, my friend is on a quest to play as many golf courses as possible, so seeing I was playing a course he’s already played – Aliante – on this day, he took off early and did his own thing. Meanwhile, I got a GK friend to join me to use my free foursome voucher at Aliante, even though we only had the two of us. I’ve played Aliante several times previously, all on free play vouchers I’ve won at GK events. It’s a decent course but doesn’t excite me much.

First things first, though, today I did make it to Santa Fe Station for a mediocre steak and eggs at the Grand Cafe. I used a $10 off $20 myVEGAS reward, so it was only like $8 but probably not really worth the effort.

Here are some Aliante pics:

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After Aliante, I had a few hours of sunlight left in the day, but not enough for another 18, so I headed over to Angel Park to check out their 12-hole “Cloud 9” short course. I got right out, played by myself and had a great time. What a cool little course! It’s all par 3s, and many of them are “inspired by” famous holes around the globe, although none are meant to be exact replicas. Either way, it’s a fun track.

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I’d always heard great things about the Chicken Parm Sliders on Triple George Grill’s happy hour menu, so I stopped downtown to finally sample them. There were only a couple other people in there. The sliders were decent, but I didn’t understand why anyone would ever single them out as noteworthy. To me they tasted exactly like what you’d expect a chicken parmesan slider to taste like.

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I’d put 2 hours on my meter, so I then decided to go walk Fremont and explore a bit. I walked over to Fremont East and then circled all the way back down to the Plaza end from there. At one point I saw a poster advertising the Du-Par’s $3.99 shrimp cocktail, so I ducked in there and tried that. It was great and definitely worth the notoriety.

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I then continued over to Main Street Station and started gambling. It took forever to hit my first and only quad, and I lost about $40 playing nickel DDB. I did get a tasty Long Island Iced Tea out of it, though.

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With time on my meter running out, I hustled back to my car and headed to tonight’s hotel, Palace Station. Check in was smooth and I got a standard tower room with a decent Strip view:

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After settling in, I played some more nickel VP, this time on STP DDB. Hit these but still lost a little:

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When I stayed at Palace Station in August, I was very intrigued by the giant line of people waiting for the Oyster Bar and its specialty, a dish called “Pan Roast” I wasn’t familiar with. Seeing I was on my own tonight, I decided to give it a shot. I stood in line probably 30-45 minutes before being seated, but I met a really nice guy who gave me the lowdown on the pan roasts. Once seated, I opted for the “Palace Pan Roast,” which included shrimp, crab, chicken and andouille sausage.

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The pan roast is made right in front of you. They started by frying chunks of chicken in butter:

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Then they added some veggies, shrimp and sausage:

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Then they added a stock or broth, followed by a creamy tomato mixture:

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The crab it added toward the end and a ice-cream scoop of white rice is plopped in the bowl as well. Here’s the finished product:

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It’s really rich and full of chunky goodness:

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It’s also quite spicy. I ordered a 4 on a 1-10 scale, and it was perfectly at the upper limit of what I could handle. All in all, I really enjoyed it and would recommend it at least once if you’re a seafood/soup lover. I also really loved the chicken in it. I felt the chicken stood up to the heat better than the seafood, so I was glad I opted for the Palace option rather than an all-seafood offering.

I gambled a little more after dinner but had nothing good to show for it. My luck is in the toilet with five consecutive losing trips. Fortunately, my gambling budget is minuscule so I only lost about $90 or so.

There’s not much more to do at Palace Station other than gamble or eat, and I’d done my share of both, so I hit the sack.

 

Day Three: Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Today was the last day of my trip with a 11:30-ish tee time at Boulder Creek Golf Club out in Boulder City. On my way out of Palace Station, I appreciated the description of the alarm sound on their signage:

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I left early and hadn’t spent much time on the Strip during this trip, so I took it down to the 215.

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Before golf, my first destination was the Iron Rail Cafe at Railroad Pass Casino in Henderson. I’ve driven past this quaint old casino (it claims to be the oldest continuously operating casino in Nevada) a few times, but never stopped in until today. I’d read that the cafe has a great breakfast special called the Three Deuces, which includes two sausage or bacon, two eggs and two pieces of French Toast for $4.25. I jumped all over that and it was delicious:

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After my meal, I had a little time to kill so I played a little more DDB nickels, but this is all I had to show for it:

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I’d heard good things about Boulder Creek Golf Club, and it definitely lived up to (and exceeded) those expectations! I really loved it. It has all sorts of interesting features, like split fairways, desert areas frequently coming into play, great bunkering, no houses, etc. I enjoyed Paiute, but Boulder Creek was a more interesting course to me. Here are some pics from the Desert Hawk/Coyote Run nines:

Intimidating opening tee shot:

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From there, I made my way back to the 15 and headed home. The sunset was absolutely spectacular for about a solid hour of my drive.

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I grabbed a yummy dinner at the Outpost Cafe in Oak Hills and arrived home around 9:00. I then had only four or five days until I’d be headed right back to Vegas again on Sunday. Another TR to come…

 

sounds like a great time! How was the wind on your day out at Paiute?

 

Super gusty warming up on the range, then pretty much stopped when we started. Ideal weather day.

 

The Pan Roast is fantastic!

 

Thanks for report----I've played several tracts in Vegas and Boulder Creek is always a pleasure----