Top Stories Reno

The train pulls into the Emeryville station, with someone in uniform hanging out the door grinning and waving.

“Welcome to the Fun Train! Let’s have some fun!” he hollers.

It’s “Fun Rick” — the energetic, silver-tongued Reno Fun Train manager — revving up the assembled group for their weekend escape.

After the train stops, a brass band disembarks and starts playing “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, ” and almost everyone breaks into a smile as they board the festively decorated cars.

Excitement is evident. Someone in my car exclaims, “She is lit!”

The Reno Fun Train has been chugging along its route from the East Bay to Reno since 1963. It began as a way to stimulate wintertime business in Reno and also keep the Southern Pacific Railroad crews working during the off season. Although it disappeared from the scene for a few years in the 1990s, it has been back since 1993, and the rolling cocktail party continues every winter.

A bar car, dance car with a live band, and sightseeing dome car with bar help pass the time.

Passengers are encouraged to bring along snacks and drinks to augment the one meal that is provided in each direction.

Going to Reno, chicken pot pie was featured, brought on board hot in Sacramento; the return trip meal was a deli sandwich.

Entertainment includes a magician and musician. When laid-back Chris Crockett reached our car, he sang and strummed various requests —

most of which were train-related. He was adept at toying with lyrics and satisfied everyone by singing Johnnie Cash’s famous “Folsom Prison Blues” as we passed through Folsom.

Soon after Crockett moved on, someone in my car who was part of a group of partying parents escaping their young children for the weekend hollered out, “It’s time to break out your tiaras!” The group also had sweatshirts and blinking-light pins. Some fun-seeking groups such as this book a weekend on the train every year.

Each car seems to have its own ambiance. Mine was party central, with portable iPod speakers and loud alcohol-propelled stories and gaiety. Others were quiet and sober — you could actually fall asleep.

The train schedule lists several departure and arrival times for the Friday through Sunday trips, which take about 6 hours. Our train pulled into downtown Reno about 9 p.m. The package includes the choice of hotels. Passengers pick a hotel from about 10 venues when making their reservation. Prices begin at $259 per person at the Sands Regency and reach a high of $385 at the Eldorado Player’s Spa.

I picked the Eldorado ($315 for my room) based on its close proximity to the train station and also on its reputation for great pastries. The price includes the train ride (passengers board in Emeryville, Martinez, Suisun and Sacramento), two nights’ lodging, transfers to some hotels and a coupon book with dining freebies, discounts, gaming deals and other goodies.

Reno just spent $10 million to beautify North Virginia Street. The city narrowed the street to two lanes for traffic and widened the sidewalks making them more pedestrian-friendly. It’s now lined with shade trees and flower baskets.

Once in town, everyone is free to do whatever he or she wants. (When we ran into “Fun Rick, ” he said he was holed up doing his taxes. Didn’t sound like much “fun” to us.)

My husband enjoys gambling. But I can pass a gajillion one-armed bandits and not put in a single coin. So after lunch Saturday, we went our separate ways.

He went to casino poker tables, and I walked over to the small but exciting Nevada Museum of Art for a leisurely browse. Then I moseyed over to the newish car-less walkway known as River Walk, which follows the Truckee River from Virginia Street to Arlington Avenue. An island in the center of the river, known as Wingfield Park and is reached by a bridge, is the perfect spot in cooperating weather to watch the thrills and spills of kayakers running white-water rapids.

Another popular gathering spot is in front of the Sierra Tap House bar, and Bernie Beauchamp’s marionettes sometimes perform opera nearby.

From here, it is a short, easy walk back to downtown. I stopped in several enticing antique stores, dropped a few coins in them and came away with a bag full of inexpensive treasures that included a cow-shaped pitcher.

We enjoyed several good meals while in town. With lovely “villa” decor that included plenty of cozy and romantic booths, Harrah’s Cafe Andreotti starts Italian meals with a basket of freshly baked bread and tasty tapenade. It’s hard to go wrong with an order of pasta here, and good wines are available by the glass (We loved the Cosentino Sangiovese).

Excellent desserts include a wonderful mascarpone white-chocolate mousse and house-made gelato.

A few blocks from downtown, Louis’ Basque Corner is famous for serving multi-course family-style meals at long communal tables. Waitresses wear authentic Basque attire. It is perfect for lunch, when choices include pork chops, steak, sweetbreads and a really garlicky and good leg of lamb.

Breakfast in the Eldorado Coffee Company cafe on the casino hotel’s lower level is a must-do. The pastries were as good as their reputation: an excellent raised maple doughnut; a light and nongreasy blueberry muffin; and a pair of white-cake cupcakes frosted with a lovely Paris Hilton-pink butter-cream topping shaped in dollops to make them resemble chrysanthemums.

We washed it all down with coffee made from beans freshly roasted in the casino’s own on-site roaster.

Saturday night, we squeezed into the Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club at the Silver Legacy — the casino that displays a big mining rig and laser show under the world’s largest composite dome. It’s quite a scene, and quite a laugh.

Sunday morning, after the fun of the brass band again at the station, the trip home was much more subdued. There was less drinking — and some big-time hangovers — and someone complained of having “a case of the ‘Monday’s tomorrow.’”

Because of the mid-morning departure, we were able to see the spectacular mountain scenery outside and enjoy a changing landscape for the entire return trip. We also had time to read the Sunday newspaper and wind down from our Fun Train adventure.