Thanksgiving in Laughlin

After turkey and pie and all the fixins at Dave's parents' in OKC, he and I flew out Thanksgiving afternoon to Laughlin, NV. Dave loses a lot of money at Harrah's, so they were gracious enough to extend an invitation to spend our long weekend with them.

We arrived in Laughlin at 6 p.m., and the next morning I pull back the curtains of our room to see what kind of view we have.

Mmm, not so much.

Nope, that's not what I expected either.

Ah, there's the Colorado River!

Dave went golfing the first morning, so I set out to sight-see and walk the Riverwalk. After figuring out that to get to the other casinos from Harrah's you take the water taxi, I paid $4 for my one-way ticket and went to the other end of the "strip" to check out the casinos.

I also discovered across the street an outlet mall with The Gap, Levi Strauss, and the like, so I fought the crowds on Black Friday and bought a lot of Christmas gifts.


I think here I was taking a picture of the mountains. They don't look as cool in the pics as they do in real life.

Same here, the mountains, with the Colorado River in the foreground. The river was beautiful. It was so green, and you could see straight to the bottom. I asked my taxi captain what the depth was, and he said 8 to 10 feet.

I finally made it to the strip. This is looking one way...

...and this is looking the other. The sign you see says "Edgewater" and was the first casino in Laughlin that was opened by Don Laughlin for whom the city is named.

This is the casino Colorado Belle. It only looks like a steamboat. It doesn't actually move.

Dave and I waiting for a water taxi on Day 2.

Yes, that is Sooner crimson that we have on. We watched the game while playing video poker at a bar. We had A LOT of USC fans surrounding us.

Dave still waiting on our taxi on Harrah's dock. To the right of the bannister is a little beach area that curves all the way to the big cliff.

Us cruising up the Colorado.

This is Harrah's. We learned while we were there that Harrah's Laughlin was the location of what is known as the River Run Riot, which was a shootout that happened on Harrah's casino floor in April of '02 between the biker gangs Hell's Angels and the Mongols during the River Run, which is a big biker get-together in Laughlin. Harrah's was kinda creepy after I learned that.

A view of Edgewater from the river side.

This is a picture of the carpet in one of the casinos (I can't remember which one now). I really liked the colors (they aren't so vivid in the pic). Dave said he better not ever come home and see THAT on our floors.

And this is the largest piece of gold ever found, exhibited at the Golden Nugget. No, it wasn't found in Laughlin but in Australia, less than 1 foot underground by a man with a metal detector. Does that make him a "gold digger"?

This reminded me of the Big Texan found at the fairgrounds in Texas. It is actually a sign at the Pioneer casino. The cowboy's left arm that is pointed at his head moves back and forth.

Laughlin was a great little get-away. I would like to go back in the summer b/c you can rent Wave Runners to ride on the river or take jet boat tours to Hoover Dam or the London Bridge in Lake Havasu. If I had my choice, though, I would stay at the Aquarius casino. It was really nice. They have renovated all the rooms, and you can't smell the smoke. I thought it was a smoke-free casino until I asked an employee and was told otherwise.