Lake Tahoe? You bet!

It’s always good news when I get a phone call from my aunt in Boston, Dr. Jacinta Vallillo, because it usually means she’ll be taking me to some fabulous destination.

Like Aunt Augusta in Graham Greene’s Travels with my Aunt, she has taken me to places as near as Singapore and as far away as Paris.

This year, she gave me two choices – fly to Vienna or attend her birthday celebration at Lake Tahoe in Nevada, USA. Her mention of Tahoe immediately brought Mark Twain to mind. "Lake Tahoe offers the fairest view the earth affords," he once said, reason enough for me to choose it over Vienna. Besides, I’ve always missed out on this yearly affair which also serves as the annual family reunion.

The prospect of living the good life, even for just a week, was irresistible. So was the attraction of fantasizing the role of a casino highroller, something I wasn’t able to do in Vegas last year.

Thanks to Philippine Airlines, I also had good news for my aunt because I was in Los Angeles even before she could send my plane ticket.

Arriving early afternoon at Lake Tahoe after a four-hour drive from California, our party broke up into two groups. Those who couldn’t wait to do battle with one-arm bandits headed straight for Harrah’s while those of us eager for relaxation took the shuttle up to the Ridge Resorts.

After settling in, I spent the first hour planning my script for the week-long "lifestyle of the rich and famous" which I intended to play to the hilt. I toured the resort grounds, taking note of all its facilities – indoor and outdoor jacuzzis, a heated swimming pool, sauna, tennis courts, game rooms, massage parlors, clubhouse, shops, theater and fine- dining restos – and made a mental schedule as to when I’d try everything out.

That done, I perused the schedule of shuttle buses I could take to and from the casinos. A bus leaves for a trip down to casino row every 30 minutes. I’m sure casino operators saw to the frequent schedule, lest a would-be client like me loses himself in a nature trip of sorts. Which, of course, would be easy high up in the Sierras as the scent of pine inveigles, and playful squirrels and raccoons seem to beckon one to enjoy a hike. But before I could do just that, I was waylaid to the shuttle stop by the rest of the group.

Two hours into stepping inside Harrah’s, the words in my regular vocabulary like "progressive" and "hit," acquired other meanings. By 9 p.m. I had graduated from nickel to quarter machines and was seriously contemplating playing the dollar slot machines. Guess what stopped me? The P50-to -US$ 1 exchange rate.

It’s nice to have generous relatives around in places like this because my little tub of tokens was always replenished. And as long as I played, sexy waitresses always slithered up to offer drinks. This non-alcoholic drinker eventually got hooked on virgin piñacolada.

During succeeding nights, if Lady Luck wasn’t at Harrah’s, I’d take the connecting tunnel across the street to Harvey’s. If she still wasn’t there, I was off to Horizon, or Caesars Palace. Always, I passed a photo gallery of winners, all smiling as they received their six-or seven-figure checks. These casino guys really know the art of temptation.

One time, I overheard someone say the corner machines usually give out lots of money. Since the only corner ones left were the dollar machines, I reluctantly plunked in a token. The buzzer blared and the blue bulb blinked, I won $80! The victory was short-lived. Of course, the casinos are there to make money and not give it away, so by the next day they got their $80 back, and more. Baccarat, blackjack and roulette tables were all around but I wasn’t bold enough to try to play these however.

Gaming isn’t the only nightlife in Tahoe. The choice is wide. There’s cabaret, impersonation, magic acts, classical concerts, even Shakespeare by the lake.

Daytime found our group outdoors. Among the myriad tour options, we took a cruise aboard the Hornblower, a Mississippi-style paddlewheel boat. The highlight of the trip was the swing around Emerald Bay on whose shores stand Vikingsholm, a Scandinavian-style summer palace built in 1929 by socialite Lora Josephine Knight.

The bay area features rugged mountain scenery with Eagle Falls cascading down granite cliffs, a view of bald eagles nesting on treetops and the picturesque Fanette Island in the middle of the bay where Knight built a tea house for holding her afternoon soirees. Only the stone walls are left of the tea house but Vikingsholm is very much preserved and is often visited by tourists.

Other days, a drive down main road, which used to be a Pony Express trail, took us away from the hotel-casinos down to quaint little shops, cottages and restaurants as well as factory outlets where signature brands were perpetually on sale.

Not to be missed, of course, was a visit to Tahoe’s premier attraction, the Ponderosa Ranch. Those old enough will remember it as the setting TV’s most popular Western series of all time, Bonanza. Yup, that’s the Cartwright house all right with a picture of a young Michael Landon long before we saw him reincarnated as an angel in a later television show.

Well, what’s Tahoe without the ski slopes? Though snow hasn’t covered the Sierras yet, a gondola ride up the slopes called Heavenly is nonetheless breathtaking. It’s the next best thing to having wings as one is afforded a 360-degree view at 3,000 feet above the lake. It’s especially spectacular at sunset when the lake’s color turns from sapphire to amethyst.

Our week-long stay eventually drew to a close but there were still a lot Tahoe had to offer: ballooning, parasailing, cycling, sailing, jetskiing and watersports.

"So will it be Tahoe again next year, or Vienna?" my aunt asked before we parted. I still haven’t made up my mind.