In an earlier post, we gave the rundown on our "back of the house" tour of the hotel side of the beautiful Tulalip Resort Casino outside of Seattle.  Here's what we learned during the casino side of the tour, which was led by Ken Kettler, the amiable president of the Tulalip Resort Casino.

The hotel resort opened in 2008, but the attached casino has been in operation since 2003.  There is a transition area connecting the hotel and the casino, in part to provide a buffer between the smoking-area casino and the non-smoking hotel.  The transition is seamless -- the decor melds nicely, and smoke stays out of the hotel lobby.  The casino tried a non-smoking gaming area as part of the construction tying the hotel to the casino, but it was not successful.  They worked instead on the ventilation system, which uses floor ducts to recirculate air every three minutes.

As we walked from the hotel lobby into the casino, we passed a "people counter" that recorded the number of folks walking through.  The decor, as we noted earlier, is very much steeped in depicting the traditions of the Tulalip people.  On the hotel side, it is more reserved and features a great deal of authentic folk and fine art.  On the casino side, it's a bit sparkly, a bit glitzy.  Canoes and jellyfish hang from the ceiling, and a carpet "river" leads a guest through the gaming areas.  There are dragonflies, sea weed, water lilies, and salmon throughout -- plus the cool plexiglas eagles in the buffet.

We had an outstanding dinner at Blackfish, one of the restaurants in the casino.  The menu is described as "[t]he finest Pacific Northwest cuisine, prepared using traditional Tulalip Tribal techniques. Enjoy salmon skewered onto Ironwood spears and cooked over an open fire, fresh oysters shucked to order at the oyster bar, and an extensive list of Northwest wines and local micro brews."  Here's what we can say, as two vegetarians who don't eat fish yet found themselves in a seafood restaurant: we had one of the most accommodating kitchens and as a result one of the best vegetarian meals we've had while dining out.  For a mere $3 per side dish, the chef put together a plate of sides for us -- grilled fresh asparagus, sauteed summer squash, red and yellow beets, and (who can resist?) cheesy mashed potatoes.  We'd go back in a heartbeat.

The casino, of course, is regulated by the Tulalip Tribal Gaming Agency.  We stole a peek at the server room, where our tour guide, Rob, emphasized the importance of the TGA regulators having IT expertise in order to effectively regulate the IT side of gaming.  Servers support the electronic games, including the ubiquitous slot machines.  Rob told a story about a power outage -- a nightmare for the casino, since most of the games are electronic, and you need to see to play the rest.  The generator failed to kick in, so the games ran on battery backups for three hours.  With less than 45 minutes left on the batteries, the generator finally started up.  The players didn't notice a thing.