Visitreno

[remano]

Saturday I went skiing at Sugarbowl. This is actually a pretty good place. In the past I have had passes at Northstar (too busy, bad parking), Mt. Rose (small), Heavenly (nice, but hard to get to from my neighborhood) and Squaw Valley (the best skiing in the area). Although Sugarbowl doesn't measure up to Squaw's offerings, it gives me everything I need, it's pretty compact, it's convenient and the pass was about $100 cheaper than Squaw's. It was warm and there wasn't much snow but Sugarbowl did a pretty good job of grooming what was there and keeping it serviceable. I grew up skiing in the midwest so ice, rocks and bare spots are par for the course. This was more of the same, but a bad day of skiing is still better than a good day at work.

On Sunday we checked out the Great Western Market Place. If you want to get away from the casino scene it's about 10 minutes from downtown, just off I-80 and W. McCarran at 4855 Summit Ridge Drive. Here's the link:

http://greatwesternmarketplace.com/

This place used to be a K-Mart until they closed down about 6 years ago. The place re-opened about 3 months ago with individual kiosks for small businesses. I would call it an arts and crafts faire, there are about 300 spaces and only about 100 are occupied so there is a lot of space available. But, of those spaces occupied they are all top quality, unique, creative services. There is everything from local photography to hand crafted leather work to furniture to Mayan items. Even if you don't buy something it can be an entertaining side trip.

Then we went to the Lucky Beaver, a sports bar/hamburger place across from the Atlantis (used to be an Irish bar, Murphy's?). I think the Awful Awful has met its match. Every burger is 1/2 lb. with a side (fries, salad, soup etc.) and they are served in clean, classy surroundings (not the soup kitchen aura of the Nugget). Not cheap - $16 or so for every choice but we ate it up.

[spdmrcht]

Glad you found the place, we love it. and the one in Tahoe next to
Harrah's. The VP is pretty decent also, as is the Employees, Great
people.