Sorry! Had a day off yesterday. Too much to do. So, today is the final day for 230 JE Irausquin Blvd. 230 JE Irausquin is one of the few resorts where the resort hotel never changed. It's still the Holiday Inn. They have added some verbiage at the end from time to time, Sunspree, resort and casino, whatever, but it's always been and still is the Holiday Inn.

On September 1, 1998, the Grand Holiday Casino was sold to Michael Posner, who renamed it the Excelsior Casino. I don't know much about Michael Posner, but there are websites (which read more like psychotic rants) that accuse him of being connected to the Chicago mob, a former bookie, etc. I have no idea if there is any truth to this at all and take it with a large grain of salt.

The Excelsior has one of the longer running poker rooms in Aruba. The casino has always looked ratty and dirty and smoke filled, but they have a sunken area where they play poker. For whatever reason, I always did very well at the Excelsior, to the point of paying for all food, transportation and souvenirs for our trip. So, I can't complain. The Excelsior is also notable as the place where Natalee Holloway met Joran Van Der Sloot before she disappeared. For those that don't know or don't remember, Natalee Holloway was an Alabama girl who had just graduated High School and went on a graduation trip through her school to Aruba. She disappeared on May 30, 2005, and has never been found. Van Der Sloot was the leading suspect, but there was insufficient evidence against him to prosecute him. In 2006, I played in a poker tournament at the Casablanca Casino. For 90 minutes of the tournament, I sat next to a young guy who played well. He was a tiny bit cocky, but generally nice. He lost based on two hands where he had the best hand when all of the money went into the pot and he was drawn out on. I later found out it was Van Der Sloot. In 2010, while at a poker tournament in Peru, he killed a girl he met and is now serving time for that murder. Allegedly, he killed her because she was looking at information about Holloway on his laptop.

And an error:

And some borrowed images:

That should be enough.

Tomorrow brings a new location.

Michael Siskin