I definitely wouldn’t have chosen Reno as a vacation destination but my CMP designation brought me here for the annual Convention Industry Council Conclave and we decided to use it as a jumping off point for a week long California road trip. Growing up my mother always taught me “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” so I’ll keep my post short and I’ll try and be sweet. If Reno itself is the dark cloud, the silver lining was the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino.  My stay here was wonderful and there is so much to do on site that you could spend a couple of days here and never even leave the property. The hotel offers 11 restaurants (we had dinner one night at Rim–a Pan Asian Bistro–and the food was reasonable and delish), bowling alley, movie theatre, shopping, world class spa, a driving range, a theme park offering go-kart racing and simulated sky diving, concert venue, and, of course, a casino. I spent the better part of my days in the confines of the convention center and was not able to experience any of these fun ammenities but I did put just a few $$ in the new Ellen slot machine before my departure (not a winner). Also within easy driving distance is beautiful Lake Tahoe and one seminar free afternoon we did drive there…look for that glowing review in my next post. A real clue as to how much I disliked Reno is the fact that in all my 220 posts to date, this is the only one that does not contain any photos. The only photo taken was the one above from my cell phone while playing the slot machine and that’s because I love Ellen.