Date Night: Casino Queen

Because of my husband's school/work schedule, we didn't do much for Valentine's Day. This week he's on Spring Break, so we decided to take a day and get out. We went to the Casino Queen, which is just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, IL. It's easy to get to, the MetroLink has a stop right in front. Instead of a date night, we had a date day, getting there about 11:30am.

Neither of us are big gamblers, but we got married in Vegas, so we like to revisit the experience once a year or so. We take a set amount of cash and no credit/debit cards, so we can't get too caught up in the excitement, and once our cash is gone, it's gone.

We planned on having lunch there before we hit the casino. They have several restaurants, but we went to the Market Street Buffet. We got there early enough for the lunch buffet, which was only $10.95 per person (drink included). That's not a bad price when you consider the wide variety they have to choose from. There are several different stations: Asian, Italian, BBQ, American, and a huge salad and dessert bar. We'd planned to bring our appetites, so we each only had a banana for breakfast, so by the time we sat down, we were starving! Needless to say, Hubby and I ate ourselves silly!

We each started with a salad. I had mixed greens, spinach, mushrooms, carrots, shredded cheddar cheese, hard boiled eggs, real bacon bits, and french dressing. Hubby had a Caesar salad with added veggies and some extra Caesar dressing, bacon bits, and croutons.

I got a plate of assorted items, wanting to try a little of everything. I loaded the plate with an egg roll, fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, chicken and mushrooms, grilled pork steak, grilled whitefish, and some fries. J-Dawg and I wound up sharing it. Everything was delicious... I was especially impressed with the whitefish. I'm going to look for it the next time I head to the market and try making it at home, it had such a fresh flavor.

We were both pretty full by the time we'd had our salads and nibbled on the other plate, but there were still foods we wanted to sample, so we just sat and talked for a while and let our full tummies digest. After a while, I got another plate with some toasted ravioli, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a fried chicken leg. After eating about half, I was done. Totally stuffed. J-Dawg ate some Italian sausage and peppers and a side of green bean almondine. We took another "eating break" before hitting the dessert bar.

There was a lot to choose from: cookies, fruit pie, bread pudding, ice cream, fruit, and the best selection... various cheesecakes! There was chocolate, cherry, plain, and turtle. I chose the turtle, which was about 2 inches thick and covered in caramel and chocolate. It was bliss! However, I was only able to eat about half before my stomach told me that it had taken enough for one day. Hubby chose the chocolate, which was fantastic as well.

After recovering from the food coma, we headed out to the casino. It's fairly large and offers table games and slots. We are frugal, so we went for the penny slot machines. It took about three hours to spend our money, we each kept winning enough to keep playing. I don't play to win, I play just for the fun and novelty of playing the slots (of course, when I do win it's always a thrill!). I always place the minimum bet, so I never win big. However, hubby found one machine that kept doling out just enough to keep him going and he stayed at the same one most of the time we were there.

We headed home around 4pm, tired and still full from the buffet. Hubby wound up having a snack around 6, but I didn't feel hungry again until 9. Overall, it was a fun day out and we were really happy to have some time together, which is at a premium lately.

What do you and your partner do for date night?