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To start our tour of Chicagoland casinos, I present to you The Blue Chip.
What the Blue Chip lacks in sexiness it more than makes up for with a decent gamble and slot selection. Best of all, the area around it is great for day tripping. And that is where we will start our journey.
Hop on I-94 early Saturday morning and a quick 75 minute drive lands us in Michigan City Indiana. Why have a town named Michigan in Indiana? It sits literally on the boarder of Michigan along the shores of Lake Michigan. With so many Michigan's, it does get hard to keep things straight.
First stop of our stay-cation, a zoo in Michigan City (across from lake Michigan). The name of the zoo? You guessed it! Washington! See what I did there?
It's $7 bucks, or something, to park in Washington Park. But once you do so, you can walk to their marina and get a bite to eat, head over to the zoo or even stop at the beach. We opt for the zoo & beach.
For a little zoo, it's actually pretty solid. Some older exhibits that look like they have been there for 100 years alongside some modern zoo type ones.
Since we get here bright and early, we pretty much have the place to ourselves. That means the big kid gets to drive the train.
The other side of the parking lot sits the Indiana Dunes. Nice beach, the lake hardly smells at all any more. Plenty of sand for digging and sun for relaxing.
But I didn't come all the way out here to watch baboons fuck and get sand in my asshole. We grab a bite to eat and get checked into our room.
The resort is made up of a few restaurants, a deli & buffet. Some shops and a spa plus an indoor pool. They also have a gym, if that is your thing. I like me a good gym, and this one sits right next to the pool. I like to build up a nice sweaty gooch while working out and then immediately jump into a pool filled with people.
Seemingly in the middle of nowhere rises the Blue Chip Resort...
My host scores us an upgrade to a top floor suite. Pretty nice digs. A big seating area with a door to the rest of the suite. When you travel with kids, being able to shut them in for naps while you watch TV is HUUUGGGEEE!!!!
The big kid has some chips left over from lunch. They are her chips, she doesn't have to share them with the little one if she doesn't want to.
So the baby tries bringing her random things in order to trade. The tube of butt cream wasn't going to do it...
View from the room is about the best you are going to do here. A nice shot overlooking the harbor next door.
Continuing our room tour, we have the wet bar in the main living area.
A seating area in the bedroom.
Of all things, a bed in the bedroom...
A massive shower, to be wasted on a night with the kids cockblocking. I swear, it's like they never want to see dear old Dad get laid.
And back to the "soon to be destroyed by my idiots" living room.
View from the bedroom.
All settled in, we grab the buffet before Mom heads off to the spa. Blue Chip comps very well for a Boyd casino. My play is enough to get me a room for 3 nights (I really only stay one), the suite upgrade, usually $150 in free play. A shit throwaway gift. 2 buffets (or $150 in the steakhouse) plus a $100 spa credit.
All told, that is a good value for about $10K of coin-in on the slots.
Mom says the spa is great, no pictures to share but I'll take her word for it. Stuck alone in the room with the kids for two hours, I'm happy to pass them off and head down to play.
The casino itself sits on a massive barge. While you are playing over water, it is as far from a riverboat as you can get.
To the immediate right of this shot sits Nelson';s Deli. Very good, but usually long lines on the weekend.
No idea why I played this weird older game, but I do well on it.
I play these Gold Bar games every time I find them. They are always an absolute point producing machine. I sit here for a good 30 minutes playing up and down before finally cashing out with double my money.
Your millage will vary, but they are a pretty sound investment.
Normally I hate these older Aristocrat machines. I have no idea why this one called my name. But nearly a 100X win means I'm glad it did.
I started with a hundo on their bank of Monte Carlo type spinner machines. I played through my $150 in free play on this sucker. It was a solid investment since I cashed up $214
I play around for the next hour holding my own and this IT gumball machine catches my eye. I try to play any new Incredible Technologies game I see. They very rarely let me down.
Move over to some IGT game and get a decent hit. From there I play around, not winning much, but not losing much either. As long as you avoid all of the latest & greatest themed penny slots, your money can last a long time here.
I see the Triple Diamond line up on this nickle game, next comes a blue 7 and another triple. That is 9 X a blue 7 & 9 X a bar and I'm thinking handpay on my $5.00 bet. Nope, just $200.
See an IT play an IT. What a shit bonus on max bet, usually these Sky Wheel games are money in the bank.
Some more fleeting luck playing nickles after a bonus...
And a solid line hit to end the night. I play a little longer than I planned to. I was just doing so well I lost track of time. I end up running nearly $12,000 through their machines over a 5 hour stretch. But end the night down $300. That is still an assload of play for such a small loss.
The Stardust brand still lives on at the Blue Chip, even if it is now just tied to a convention hall...
No sense in wasting a Sunday morning just driving home. So we head across the street to the Lighthouse Outlet Mall.
The baby highly recommends the Garfield ride if you are up for it.
At the end of the trip, I go home down, but not much. Had I paid for the room, the food and the spa the weekend would have cost me $600.00. So I'll take my minimal loss for a value like that. Plus I got to spend hours wandering around a casino, and that hold value too!
Thanks for dropping by, check out the other Chicagoland casino Trip Reports. If I get enough interest in them, I'll gamble my way across the Midwest for you guys.
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