As much as I love living in California, the whole "June Gloom" phenomenon we go through each year can be a real drag. Grey clouds and chilly days are not what I signed up for when I moved here. I'm more the sunshine and sitting in the swimming pool kind of guy. Plus the mild humidity is making an old wound in my left-hand hurt like hell. One of the problems of getting old, I guess. :-)

Donna and I finally decided to check out another of the local casinos yesterday. We took a bus (provided free by the casino) down towards San Diego to the Valley View Casino. Not up to what you see in Vegas or Atlantic City, but still nice enough. It actually reminds me of the Mohegan Sun Casino, back in Connecticut, before that place grew so big. VV is actually expanding, adding a hotel and some other venues around the property. Guess not everybody is hurting in the current economy, huh?

Unlike some of the other casinos, there aren't a lot of table games at VV. There is a separate room for Poker and the usual other games, but only one or two tables each and you can actually miss them among all the slot machines.

Speaking of which, I can't remember every seeing so many Penny slots! Generally, you will have a couple dozen and you'll find folks standing around hoping to find a spot, but VV has hundreds. They also have a nice non-smoking casino, separate from the main floor. The free lattes and self-serve soft drink areas also make the place very friendly. Since it was our first trip and we got Player's Cards, we had a free buffet and I highly recommend it, even if you have to pay. Everything was tasty and they have a really good dessert section!

Considering how much we 'donated' I do think that we'll be sticking to Bingo for a while. Since I got chosen as "Bingo Player of the Month" for June, I also don't have to pay for my buy-in, so that makes the usual Saturday night games even more fun.

Hope that you are all enjoying things as much as we are! Take care!!