Casino Is A Full-Service Resort, Right In Our Own Back Yard

Now that William Bennett, self-appointed guru of virtue, has put his good-living seal of approval on gambling, the track is clear for a whole new approach to celebrating anniversaries and other family occasions.

Consider, for instance, sending your celebrating parents or married offspring to Mohegan Sun. Oh, sure, it's a casino, and perhaps your dad and mom have never dropped a quarter in a slot machine in their lives.

But this is a casino with a difference. The gambling is certainly there, with slot machines singing their song, craps tables tense, blackjack players tapping index fingers on the table or giving tiny shakes of the head.

But the gambling part is surrounded by a lovely hotel with spacious guest rooms, a state-of-the-art spa, a giant indoor swimming pool that is as much outdoors as possible in good weather and 29 restaurants serving everything from hot dogs to lobster.

And then there are the shops, more than 30 of them ranging from nationally known Chico's to OdySea, a charming place with a wide range of gifts and several huge aquariums. Celebrators won't need to go anywhere near the slots or the cards or the dice. But you might tuck in a coin-wrap of quarters, just in case.

Anyone accustomed to the stark casinos established by Indian tribes in the high desert country of New Mexico will be surprised by what the Mohegan tribe has done in southeastern Connecticut.

The eye-opener begins when you round the bend and tall, all-glass buildings pop up from the ground where no tall buildings have ever been before. With the intention of expanding their horizons in the town of Uncasville, the tribe built a billion-dollar addition that eclipses their original casino. It is a stunning place where color is used brilliantly and casino sounds are drowned in a two-story waterfall.

The tribe's focus on nature has exploded in the design of the addition. Something like a billion multi-colored beads were strung together to create the flying panels of color that represent the sky in the hotel lobby.

Trees created from natural cedar climb through the canopies over a reflecting pool with an infinity edge. Much Indian legend and tradition is built into the architecture here, where water, trees, rock and curving paths are basic to the structure. Water spills over the sides of the quiet pool into a stream that tumbles down to the next level, home to the casino, shops and restaurants.

At the top of the stairs, anyone familiar with the work of famed glass artist Dale Chihuly will immediately connect him to the 25-foot sculpture that rises in front of the major waterfall, called Taughannick Falls.

Chihuly's one-of-a-kind sculptures start at $50,000 in art galleries, and his chandeliers are $150,000 and up. So it's easy to believe that Mohegan Sun's 10,000-pound example of his work, a sculpture called “River Blue,” is a million-dollar piece of art.

In Chihuly's signature style, some 2,500 hand-blown curlicues of icy blue glass come alive in this lower lobby, a cool change from the hot colors of the lobby above. Beyond the sculpture rises the waterfall that is familiar to anyone who has seen Mohegan Sun commercials on television.

Another work of art is found in the center of the Casino of the Sky. Wombi Rock is a three-story mountain constructed of sheets of alabaster and onyx quarried in Iran, Pakistan and Mexico. The stone was taken to Carrera, Italy, a town famous for its marble and its stone craftsmanship, and fused to glass.

With its peaks creating a jagged silhouette, glowing from the lighting inside, Wombi Rock is not only beautiful but an important symbol to the Mohegans whose ancestors held Tribal Council meetings at Cochegun Rock, said to be the largest free-standing boulder in New England.

And because this mountain is the centerpiece of the new Casino of the Sky, Wombi Rock is topped with a planetarium dome that uses fiber optic technology to project constellations, sun cycles and clouds. A charming cocktail lounge (50 kinds of martinis) is tucked into the rock and reached with a winding stair.

We're still not at the tables. First (or perhaps after suffering some losses), there's the quiet corner of the complex, the 22,300-square-foot Elemis Spa, where you can be wrapped, herbed, pummeled and pampered for an hour or several. The spa includes a fitness center and an enormous pool with French windows that open to a terrace in good weather.

Then there's the shopping. Brookstone, Starbucks, Yankee Candle, Chico's and Discovery Channel are familiar. Add Cache for women's clothing, Jaboola for all sorts of innovative painted furniture and accessories from Israel, Nostalgia for jukeboxes and vintage signs, OdySea for treasures of the sea and several fish tanks, and one of only two Fred and Don Imus Auto Body Express stores (the second is in Santa Fe).

The hotel has 32 retail outlets, most of them in one convenient section of the “addition.”

Obviously, this is a place where people other than blackjack players could have a nice time. The casino, in fact, acknowledges that many families travel together these days — so there's Kids Quest/Cyber Quest, a child-care center and an arcade.

For a tranquil and economic getaway, the secret is to book a room at the beginning of the week, not Friday through Sunday. The rates are lower then, and you can put aside the extra for a fine dinner at the restaurant called Rain. (Yes, it rains in the restaurant, but the water is contained inside glass walls and creates a soothing environment, not a soggy one.)

If you're lucky (or possibly if you ask), your room may have a wonderful view of the Thames River as it travels toward Long Island Sound. And if insomnia strikes, there's no need to toss about or wake anyone. You can put your clothes on and find food, drink and new friends right downstairs, 24 hours a day.