The travel from Arizona to Vegas took us along I-40 to Kingman, where we cut up and over on highway 93. The landscape got a little craggier looking, and as we got closer and closer to Hoover Dam, there was more and more construction on the roadway, with many parts funneling down to one lane in both directions. (The first shot is for Debbie.)
Hoover Dam is really neat. The first time I went (1994), I hadn't realized that you could actually drive over the actual dam. It's a pretty spectacular sight. On I-40, before you get on to highway 93, there are signs every few feet (it seems) that say "no commercial trucks," "no trailers," basically only cars are allowed across the dam, and all vehicles are subject to inspection. After 9/11, Homeland Security determined that the dam could be a significant target for terrorists, and so there is now a vehicle checkpoint before you're allowed to cross it.
The last funneling point wasn't for construction purposes, it was the inspection station, so we made our way through the checkpoint and over the crest of the hill, switch-backing our way down to one of the upper parking lots that overlook Lake Mead and the four intake towers. Pretty damn impressive even from this distance. We walked down through the lower parking areas and onto the dam itself. Looking out to the north at the intake towers and Lake Mead, we could see the huge canyon and mountains, with lots of boats and ski-doos. Very pretty, but really... the big show is on the other side of the road.
We walked along that way, crossing over into Nevada, and to the monuments to the workers who gave their lives to make this piece of magnificence. We took the escalator down to the lower level of the Visitor Center where we signed up for a power plant tour. (After 9/11, they stopped giving interior tours of the dam for a while; they recently started doing them again, after installing metal detectors and scanning machines like they have at airports.)
We watched the movie about the making of the dam, then followed our guide into the bowels of the beast. He first took us to one of the diversion tubes they had to build to divert the river while they were making the dam - a 2-year process, necessary before they could even start work on the dam itself. He then took us to one of the observation stations where we could see 7 of the turbines, spinning away, making a bajillion kilo-gigo-megawatts of power for California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and parts of Mexico. We made our way back up to the observation platform on the top of the Visitor Center, and here's where you really get a feel for the magnitude of the structure. Holy cow (I said that a lot here, too.)
The bridge in the photos is the new by-pass road, being built so that they can stop traffic from driving over the dam. This will eliminate the need for the inspection stations (unless you're actually going to visit the dam itself) that clog up traffic so much. The bridge and bypass is scheduled to open in November of this year; a pretty amazing feat in itself.
After gawking at the dam for about 2 hours, we hiked back up to the car and joined the conga line to continue on to Las Vegas, the man-made wonder made possible by the Hoover Dam.
We made our way around McCarren Airport and entered Las Vegas Blvd ("The Strip") at its far south end. Normally, we'd just bypass the Strip to avoid traffic, but we wanted to get a picture of the famous Vegas sign. We toodled up the Strip, on the lookout for our hotel's entrance, which we had heard was poorly marked, and was pleasantly surprised to see it clearly identified. We pulled in, had the valet deal with the car, and made our way in to Aria at City Center.
City Center is MGM's newest endeavor on the Strip. It takes up the entire space between Bellagio and Monte Carlo, on what used to be the Holiday Inn Boardwalk property and a skanky strip mall with a dirt patch out back that used to be used for helicopter tours. Now, it is home to 4 hotels (3 of which are open), some residential units, and grossly upscale shopping (think Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, etc.). It's shiny and glitzy and glassy, with design elements that are Frank Gehry-esque - random angles and curves, elements that look like they won't work together but do. It's so big that, like the Grand Canyon, it was difficult to get a good shot of the whole thing.
Our room was electronically programmed so that when you walked in, the curtains opened, the lights came on, and the TV turned on to a user controller panel. Because we got a special rate, we overlooked the back of the hotel, which aimed us towards the western mountains and Vdara, one of the other City Center hotels. We could also see the City Center tram, which goes from Monte Carlo at the south end, to Bellagio on the north.
We played with the room controls for a bit (not very intuitive, even for us comfortable-with-technology types), then made our way down to scope out the casino. Very pretty, very modern feeling... and packed! The place was mobbed! Did someone say there was a recession? Not here, not this weekend! As we took the tram to Bellagio then walked to Caesar's Palace, we kept saying, "look at all the people!" When we were there around this time last year, there were enough tourists, but it was definitely not to capacity. This time, crowds, crowds, everywhere.
We walked to Caesar's, then over to the Venetian, then back to our own hotel, where we had dinner at the 24-hour restaurant, Cafe Vettro. Quite yum. We rested a bit, then wandered back outside again, this time taking in the nighttime neon and gathering all my player's club cards (which I had left in the car which was now safely valeted). I shot my gambling wad for the day and we headed back to the hotel - with the glorious thought in our heads that we would be staying here for TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW! This felt like an unbelievable luxury after "hotel hopping" for the previous week!
Tomorrow, more Vegas!
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