Hoover Dam, Lake Mead & Boys From Jersey

March 19 ~ 24

Hoover Dam (usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam) is listed as the fifth engineering wonder of the 20th century world...I have to look the first four up, 'cuz I can't believe there are others that compare to this feat begun in 1931.  And get this, it was completed two years early (in 1935) and well under the $165 million budget.

Neither one of us is particularily scared of heights...I would call it more of a healthy respect.  But a waist-high wall is the only thing that protects you from the 726 feet drop and it gave both of us a severe case of the heebie jeebies!

And I really didn't realize before that you can walk across the entire expanse of the dam and that it's top is a regular road that moves traffic from Nevada to Arizona. It is very cool to see it and the resulting reservoir, Lake Mead, from so many different vantage points....all the while hanging onto the wall!

Loved this view from the back side of the dam...expect to see Flash Gordon or Ming walk out at any moment!

Though Rick had been here a couple of times before, he opted to go again on "The Dam Tour"....a trip down 530 feet to the generatoring system.  I, as a mega claustrophobic, sat in the sun and waited.

The ticket I opted for allowed us in the Visitors Center, another exhibit building and an observation tower that took you a couple of stories higher...those were all fine, but frankly the coolest things to see are all free. 

What I found quite striking were all the beautiful Art Deco touches to the structure.  Doors and brass trimmings that were reminiscent of the Chrysler Building and two towering "Winged Figures of the Republic" representing "eternal vigilance that is the price of liberty".

Much of the traffic congestion( which I'm sure is monumental in the summer) will be alleviated when a new dam bypass that will remove traffic from the dam itself is completed by the end of this year. That construction is fascinating to watch in progress.

Took a brief drive around a loop bordering Lake Mead on our way back to town.  Checking out whether it would merit a separate trip back.  In our opinion, no. We asked the park ranger at the visitors center where to go and what there was to see....he said, not much...it's the desert!  Perhaps if one took a boat around it might be more interesting...to us the landscape looked like a bad paint-by-number painting.

Jersey Boys

Remember when Vegas was a bargain?  Not anymore! Tickets to shows are Broadway prices and fancy chef restaurants are higher than DC.  There are ways to get some discounts....but they really make you work for them.  Reduced price tickets can be gotten for the same evening or sometimes a day in advance at a place called Tix4Tonight (tiks4tonight.com).  There are 12 locations throughout town.  The catch is you don't actually get the tickets then and you can't pick your seats, just theater section....you get a receipt which you take to the box office and then figure all that other stuff out.  Advice...we bought Jersey Boys tickets the day before and went to the box office the next morning when it opened at 10 a.m.  Ended up with good orchestra seats at about $40 a ticket off.  Box office also gave us a coupon for a free drink at Lavo (lavolv.com) an Italian restaurant/bar/club in the Palazzo Hotel (palazzolasvegas.com) where Jersey Boys is playing.

Sat on the terrace on a lovely night, had a couple of appetizers and watched the glammed up Treasure Island pirate boat go down once again.

Pretty good food, though I would stay away from the calamari, very good wine and a great way to kick-off a theater night.

Play was good fun.  Really funny thing is we could have seen the real Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in Palm Springs for half the price! 

Still Glamping...Arriving Las Vegas

March 17~19

Dreary.  There is no better word to describe the what should have been a 5 hour drive from Palm Springs to Las Vegas.  The landscape is bleak. Granted we are driving through the Mojave Desert, but geez, there is nothing!  The only thing of interest are a series of trains with hundreds of cars winding their way through the valley. But we are still chasing the sun...everywhere we want to go is still too cold, so Vegas it is.

It took us eight hours instead of the expected five to make the trip because Gigantor kept overheating as we climbed steep hills up to the 4,000 foot elevation.  We had to stop several times along the way to cool down and will have things checked out properly in Vegas. 

We enter Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort (lasvegasmotorcoachresort.com) with a sense of deja vu.  While each of these Outdoor Resorts of America have their own personalities and level of amenities, the bones are very similar.

This one is very pleasant and we manage to score a great site again....#188.  Huge outdoor kitchen that can seat 18.  And I've learned a new word....palapas...those are the grass skirt looking umbrellas over the tables. Really quite interesting in their efficiency and construction.

The resort overall is very nice, but we have become so spoiled.  It's not up to the level of either of the ones we stayed in Indio. But it's pretty convenient to the strip, about 15 minutes, and we pop in the evening after our arrival to have a little fun and try our luck.

We go to Caesar's Palace (caesarspalace.com) because we want to try Mesa Grill (mesagrill.com/lasvegas), Bobby Flay's place.  Way laid a bit by the slots and I'm up $63.  Grab appetizers and drinks at the bar which were terrific.  Split a "rough" cut ahi tuna tartae with a mango habanera sauce and a smoked chicken/black bean avocado quesadilla.  Very pleased with the choices.  I really have to learn when to fold them...back at the slots end up losing my winnings plus another $10.

The Mirage volcano show is still cool.

Haven't decided how long we'll stay here....kind of waiting the weather out...booked us here for a week and then we'll figure it out.  Lots we want to do....Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, some golf, see a couple of shows and see all the hotels that weren't here 10 years ago. We've also been in contact with Habitat for Humanity to see if we might be able to volunteer while we wait out the weather here.

I've Created a Monster!

March 13~16
Rick has flung himself headlong into golf!  He's out on this par 3 course all the time.  And it's paying off.  He was previously short-game challenged....now he's getting it.  He even signed up for the weekly scramble, had a great time and made quite a few of the points.

Took it out to a real course, Desert Willow (desertwillow.com) and it's still working....for him....for me, not so much.  My game is nothing short of horrid...have got to get some help.  Not much fun playing like this. Regardless of how  bad I played, I was bit disappointed in this course.  The facility is lovely...we had a lunch overlooking the course with friends when we were here in December.  However, the  Mountain View Course is visually appealling but pretty tame and rather uninteresting. Huge greens, super wide fairways and most holes are straight away.

What I did enjoy from this round was the flora and fauna....so different from the east coast. 

Guess I've never seen a jack rabbit before...they were amazing and the big ones rather intimidating.  There were literally hundreds and hundreds of them on the course.  The biggest one we saw, truly, no exaggeration, had to be two feet tall on all fours. Couldn't get to my camera quick enough for that one, but this is what the average sized ones looked like.

We've really enjoyed our time in the California desert.  The whole outdoor lifestyle is very appealing.  Went to some open houses just to get an idea of what you can get out here....compared to where we come from, there are amazing values here.  And they all have outside living areas like this!  Love it!

Leaving for Las Vegas in the morning. Must admit it's a double-edged sword.  We really like it here, but I think staying in one place for so long is probably not a good thing.....losing a bit of the wanderlust.