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Flagstaff and Laughlin ... short, maybe sweet

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Trip Reports' started by ken2v, Apr 25, 2007.

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  1. ken2v

    ken2v This Space For Rent

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2003
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    My Trip Report

    Elderly couple on the elevator, woman speaking: “Oooh, the 17th floor?! Wow, you’re that much closer to heaven!â€

    Ken: “No, ma’am, it’s still Laughlin.â€


    Terri and I went to Flagstaff late last week to check out some ritzy-tony golf development for an article I’m writing. You know, the kind of place where if you sold your house and most everything you own you could buy a piece of bare earth. The director of golf is late of the Vintage Club in Indian Wells, where my sis has a place. So it turns out he’s the guy who taught my nephews how to play golf. Small world.

    We’d hoped to get in some hiking and golf in Flag for another article I’m writing but the weather just didn’t cooperate – cold, wind, bit of snow flurries. So we turned it into a shopping and arts trip (galleries, museums and a play at Northern Arizona University … "The Grapes of Wrath," which I’d never seen on stage). It’s all good and we did get one day to explore Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. Put in two nights at the Inn at NAU, a small hotel run by the university’s school of hospitality and restaurant management. The joint and the all-student staff isn’t perfectly polished but for Motel 6 prices and being away from the interstate and train tracks it scores votes for a return trip. Great linens and bedding in big rooms that look like former dorms. Breakfast included. And no bed tax since it’s an educational institution. The third night we put in at a B&B on the edge of the national forest. The owners once ran sled dogs so there are a dozen of the fuzzy howlers in a kennel on site. Sled Dog Inn. It gets a thumbs up. I think we’re going to go back next month and do more exploring during that week we’ve been leaving open. (We “lost†three days of that planned getaway to a piece I’ll be writing about a revamped resort down here in our desert.)

    After Flag we hit Laughlin for two nights, where we met up with The Moms. We used an offer at Aquarius, and I gotta say, for all the hoopla surrounding the “wow, bang, hip†remodel, the casino is the same old Flamingo with a few tweaks. And no one has touched the hotel and I think I’d be doing a disservice to downtown Vegas if I suggested it’s a downtown-caliber hotel. Maybe now that Icahn has rolled over the property someone will get in and undo 16 years of no one giving a damn. Regardless, we had a lot of fun with the moms and played a good amount of VP. I played DDB and hit a load of quads, including aces, treys with a kicker and treys. We played golf across the way at Laughlin Ranch, and the experience reaffirmed my opinion that it’s a regional top 10 play. It’s just an amazing course. My m-i-l has been bitten big time by the golf bug so it was a nice treat for her and it was Terri’s second full round in some number of years, so she’s getting back into it.
     
  2. Jer

    Jer “The Walrus has spoken”

    Joined:
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    Southern California
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    999
    :evillaugh

    Nice report ken:thumbsup:
     
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