Happy 40th birthday to Scott!
His birthday was on a Thursday, during his mid-winter break. So, we decided to head down to Detroit and spend the night at Greektown Casino. We've gambled there many times, but have never spent the night in the hotel. It was so much fun! And I love that in going on a Thursday night, it wasn't super busy.
I came home from work, Nana and Pops picked up the boys and Luna, and then Scott and I drove down to Detroit and checked in at the hotel. We got a "Corner King" room, which had great views of Greektown and of the Detroit River and Canada. We walked down into the casino so Scott could place his very first legal sports bet on the Pistons game and then we went out into Greektown to have dinner at our favorite place, Golden Fleece. Lamb and chicken gyros, a Greek salad, beer, and some tasty treats from Astoria Bakery and we were heading back to our room to decompress for a bit before going down to gamble.
The casino is now mask optional, but I still chose to wear one. We played the slots for a while. Scott wasn't having much success, but I was up about $75. We went back to the room a time or two to make a drink with the alcohol we brought and nobody stopped us or questioned us bringing it into the casino. Made for a cheaper night! Not to mention the hotel gave us a drink voucher to use at one of the bars.
Our luck seemed to change more in Scott's favor. I dwindled my money down and Scott won $320 on a slot machine. He gave me a bit of it so I could play some blackjack with him and we had a good time. I think when all was said and done, between the two of us, we lost about $100. Not bad for spending hours in the casino.
The next morning we enjoyed sleeping in and having a lazy start to our day. We put ourselves together and left around 11am to get brunch at The Dime Store. I've heard so many good things about this place and even though it was hard to get a parking spot on the street and there was a smidge of a wait for a table since it's a small restaurant, the food lived up to the expectations! I had a mimosa and Scott had an Irish coffee while we waited for our food. We both got an omelet and we split strawberry shortcake french toast. Delicious!
And then we started our bar crawl! We started at Motor City Brewing Works in Midtown. I opted for a spiked hot cider with brandy and Scott tried one of their beers. The bartender was really chatty and we stayed for quite a while.
Next up was Jolly Pumpkin across the street. We had a great time at Jolly Pumpkin with another super nice and chatty bartender. I tried a cider and Scott tried two different beers. The bartender also told us about the whiskey they sell and let Scott have a sample.
Next door to Jolly Pumpkin was the cutest Bon Bon shop. It was this tiny little place with a line of people buying individual Bon Bons. We bought four; one for each of us and one to take home to each of the boys. I got a bumpy cake flavor and it was amazing!
We had gotten a recommendation for a store in Midtown that sells all Michigan craft beer and has a bar in the back with several rotating taps. This was Scott's favorite part of the day I think. He shopped while drinking a beer! I had two small different ciders that both were delicious. I ended up buying a four-pack of one of them.
From there we drove to Corktown stopping at Brew Detroit first. This one was hard to find as it's an industrial area and the GPS takes you to the front of the warehouse where the beer is made for distribution. I'm not a big fan of Brew Detroit, but I was willing to give it another try. I had their seltzer, which wasn't that great. But, we enjoyed playing shuffleboard! Scott won all 3 times...but, I was close!
Our last stop was Slows BBQ for a yummy dinner. Scott was super full from all the beer so he didn't eat much, but I definitely chowed down on some pulled pork, mac and cheese, waffle fries and cornbread. We boxed up our leftovers for him to have later and I started the voyage home. It was an early bedtime for the both of us after all that day-drinking. One episode of Yellowstone and Scott was fast asleep. We had a great time together though celebrating his big birthday!
Saturday we had his family over for dinner and cards. I did a "whiskey/cigar" themed party with dinner carry-out from Compari's. We got a meat lasagna, eggplant parmesan, and pizza for the kids. Nana made a salad and brought some cheese bread from Jets to go with it. Mindy brought a vegetable platter.
After dinner and presents, we did a whiskey tasting in the kitchen with 3 whiskeys from Michigan that I bought Scott and 1 that Matt and Mindy gave Scott as his present. I'm not a whiskey fan, but it was fun to sample new things.
We played a mini euchre tournament (the adults did) and Josh was the big winner - again! I was the biggest loser. I had made some euchre blocks to use for the tournament. We finished the night with root beer floats (Scott's dessert request) and an ice cream sundae bar.
Happy 40th birthday, Scott!!
