Table for Two. Lunch for Ten.

I love coupons. I love food. Combine the two and I'm in heaven. While I usually toss the casino flyers without reading them, something told me to open this one. That something, being the word "BUFFET" in large letters. To my surprise, a 2 for 1 coupon for The Feast Buffet at Red Rock stared back at me after peeling back the first layer. Angels were singing. Especially since Brandon had a Monday off this week because he works on Saturday. 

Ridiculously awesome coupon? Check.

Super amazing friend willing to watch Teagan so we could go on a date? Check. (My friend had to tell me we were going on a date - I was just thinking selfishly that she wouldn't last a plateful and we'd waste our money. So thanks for the perspective, Katie!)

Station Casinos Boarding Pass? Nope.

Got to the front of the line in front of and behind senior citizens as far as the eye could see and were told that we could only use the coupon with a Boarding Pass - didn't say it anywhere in the literature, the manager had just decided.

So we head on over to sign up for a Boarding Pass, since it would save us an additional $3 on the buffet each time anyway. This should be easy, right? A friendly hostess pulled us out of line as first time registrants and churned a card out of her machine with impressive speed. Card in hand, we were ready to Feast. Or so we thought. Apparently the card has to be activated in one of the slot machines. Should have known. "You have a $3 credit to start with, but you have to put in $1 of your own," she explained, thinking she was making perfect sense while I was baffled as to why I needed to pay my own money when I have a 'credit'. So she told me to play the game while she went to get a free XL T-shirt for me. (To be fair, she told me they only had XLs and I'll never turn down free stuff...especially when I have an XL husband.) 

"Um, we don't gamble," I told her.

"It's easy, just press ". She was surprised to see us still standing there with bewildered looks on our faces when she returned.

"I really don't gamble. I have no idea what to do here," I told her.

So she told me how to play (although I couldn't tell you now that it's over - the slot machines really aren't as user friendly as I thought they would be) and apparently we won a dollar? Not one to waste, I wanted to collect my original dollar back but was given a cash out voucher. Again, not familiar with how things work, I skulked over to the cashier's station to collect my "winnings" hoping she didn't laugh at me. She did. "I don't gamble" was the sentence with which I chose to defend myself. She probably thought 'Well I wouldn't either if I was that cheap." Embarrassed, I slinked away...right past an automatic cash out machine that would have spared me some humiliation. Awesome. (Still figuring out what to do with our ill-gotten winnings. Donate to charity? To Teagan's college fund? A slippery slope indeed.)

Now it was time to Feast. We paid our $9.72 and marched back and forth to the rows and rows of deliciousness that spanned the globe. I wanted to take a picture of Brandon's international melting plate - namely chow mein, sweet potato fries, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing and a Chinese pork bun. 

 

We surprised ourselves by not being able to stay for the 2+ hours we'd planned and slowed down a lot sooner than we expected. More humiliation. Apparently we're getting old? Our "server" (what do you call them when they don't actually serve you food?) seemed a little frantic, so we opted for a terrible selfie that highlights the chins we added to during our visit. I know what you're thinking - too much sexiness for one table.

Because Katie is so sweet (and a glutton for punishment) she told us to extend our date and take our time. So naturally, we did what any young couple with an hour away from their child would do and plotted a course for romance. That is to Sam's Club to sign up for a membership. I was lucky enough to see a Living Social deal floating around Facebook for a premium Sam's Club membership for $45, which included a $20 gift card and coupons for $19.50 worth of free food. So essentially $5 for a year's membership? Yes please. The cherry on top was that if I got 3 people to sign up for the same deal, mine was free. So not only did we get a free membership, we still got the gift certificate and coupons. SCORE! All we needed to do was wait in line for 20 minutes, and get impossibly fuzzy, horrible photos taken for the backs of our cards. Like I said, romantic, no? Brandon had never been, so we wandered the aisles, in awe of the phenomenon that is wholesale. And now we're a part of it. 

Our Mondate was so much fun. Not looking forward to Saturday, but at least we'll have the memories. And the memberships. And the ill-gotten dollar.