Vegas Trip - Hoover Dam

Chris and I made our way to Las Vegas this weekend and had a great time. Although we weren't part of the wedding of the century anymore - we still went anyway. It was a well needed trip for both of us and we cherished every moment we had together. This trip was even more special due to the fact that we live in different states right now.

So.... where do I start... at the beginning I guess.....

We met at the Las Vegas airport. Chris came from Phoenix and I came from SFO. It was like a little deja vu for us. Like a blind date or something... "Meet me at baggage claim carrosel #14"

We stayed at the Excalibur Hotel on the south end of the strip. We could see the Luxor and the New York New York from our room window on the 19th floor. Of course... the room was an upgrade from our 16th floor room that we never got into since the key wouldn't work... 3 times. We finally asked for a different room and they accommodated. The room was in the recently renovated part of the hotel. It came with a 42" flat panel tv, marble bathroom counter top, sleek chrome knobs, faux suade bedspread & headboard, walk-in shower (although showerhead was still crappy an low pressure) all and all it was a nice room.

Our room was on the 19th floor and at the end of the hall way, so it took 20 minutes to get down to the casino no matter what.

Ok so we got in really late Thursday night and by the time we checked in and got settled it was already 10pm. We didn't want to waste any time so we took off to have somewhat of a dinner. We just walked across the street to the NY and ate at first restaurant that looked decent. Some random Italian place on the bottom floor of the hotel. The server was obviously at the end of his shift plus the fact that he's probably been waiting tables all his life made him a little quick with us. He literally dropped our calamari on the table and started walking away before we blinked.

While we sat and ate our dinner it hit me ... I'm tired as hell. Chris wanted to go check out other things, but I really wanted to hit the hay. We had to get up to take the tour to Hoover in the morning anyway.

Friday morning we woke up really early... too damn early for being on vacation! 6:45am to be in the lobby for the tour bus to pick us up by 7:45.

So Hoover Dam is only about a half hour away from the strip, makes for a nice short bus ride.

We took the half day tour as supposed to their 8 hour tour with the visit to the chocolate factory since we only had a couple of days in Vegas, we didn't want to spend a whole day away from the strip, which was where we really wanted to be.

We paid $3 more to take the tour down to see the Hydroelectric generators inside the dam itself. It was very cool to see something that was built in the 1930's worked 365 days a year all this time. I appreciated it and was more impressed with it since my area of work relates to the inner workings of this structure. The generators for this dam is 700 times the size of anything we work on. What's even more amazing is that the 7 of 8 working units are super quiet. We walked into the chambers and you can hear the tour guide speak to the group without using an amplified system.

Then we went down one more floor to experience the tunnel and the diversion pipelines which takes the water from the lake through the generators and then out the other side to the river. You can feel the water thundering through the pipe as you stand there listening to the tour guide. It's also very cold under there... they said it was probably 500 feet down from the top of the dam or where the road was. Walking along the tunnel you can see water damage and where the leaks were. Pretty scary since all you can think of is having all that water in the lake come bursting through the walls while we're in the tunnel.

After the tour down stairs we went up to walk along the top of the dam. There are a bunch of monuments and things to see for historical values. It's an amazing engineering marvel to build such a massive structure for its time.

In the movie "Fools Rush In" there was a line on the road separating the state of Nevada and Arizona but apparently when we got there, it wasn't there! Although there was a plaque that designated the split so ... good enough for me! Chris and I walked into the state of Arizona and then we turned around. Now I can say that I was in AZ for 5 minutes!

This is Chris standing on the top of the dam facing Lake Mead. Look at that water line... it's receded over the past 10 years or so. A disturbing pattern with all reservoirs and dams around here really.

We found someone nice to take a picture of us on the top of the dam. Proof that I was actually there too!!

This picture was taken from the top of the dam on the other side of the street. Standing on the ledge looking down was quite scary, good thing we didn't have vertigo!