First Day in Las Vegas
We got up at 8:30 local (11:30 EDT), an indication of how tired we were. Our west-facing window featured sun-lit hills and the shadow of the great pyramid, our hotel, on the parking lot below.
Following showers, we headed downstairs to reclaim our car. Today would feature a trip to Hoover Dam and, if we didn’t get lost, a tourboat ride on Lake Mead. First, though, breakfast. Luckily we happened on an iHop just a little bit south of the hotel on Las Vegas Blvd. Happy place! They have free internet. The hotel charges $15/day, something of a rip-off.
The drive to Hoover Dam was short and we were early enough not to be caught in the usual summer traffic jam of tourists crossing the dam. We parked in the new garage and walked across the street to the visitors center where only a 10 minute wait preceded the introductory movie. The Bureau of Land Reclamation puts on a decidedly pro-dam presentation with no discussion of the anti-dam point of view.
The dam is wildly impressive, from the ‘30s-style winged statues and commemorative plaques at the entrance to the vast pipes and turbines in the generator house. What an incredible work this structure was and how beautiful the lake impounded behind it.
Almost equally impressive is the new highway bridge under construction across the Colorado half a mile or so downstream of the dam. The enormous concrete arch has grown from both banks and has only a few center sections to cast before it is complete (estimated at 30 days). The bridge is a cable-stayed concrete arch. The cables are already in place, providing support for the incomplete arch. Afterwards, they will provide necessary stabilization for the arch. The completed bridge will carry a 4-lane, divided highway across the gorge, a substantial improvement from the narrow, twisty 2 lanes now riding atop the dam.
From there we turned back to Las Vegas. A short way down the road we followed signs to a lookout with spectacular views of Lake Mead. It is amazing how bright blue the water is. A little further on, we headed to a lakeside marina where we took a two-hour sightseeing boat ride featuring a round trip to the dam. This was quite a sights as were the hills surrounding the lake. The only negative was the furnace-like breeze — it hit 108 degrees that afternoon. Luckily the boat had an air-conditioned deck where we spent most of our time.
The rest of the trip back to Las Vegas was uneventful except that our GPS took us to the north side of Las Vegas, not the southern end of the strip where the Luxor is located. We got the full view of the strip, through some pretty seedy areas including a couple of blocks of homeless tents. Obviously the opposite pole from the glitz and money image Las Vegas likes to present.
There is lots of construction going on in Las Vegas, though some of the big jobs are apparently now on hold. Nevertheless, literally thousands of new hotel rooms will be coming on line in the next 12–18 months. I wonder what the occupancy rates will look like next year.
We ate dinner at a nice (and quite expensive) steak restaurant in the hotel and then cabbed to the Rio Hotel, home of the Penn & Teller theater. They put on a great show — funny and obviously skillful magic. Gillian thinks this is the high point of the trip so far, even surpassing the roller coaster at New York New York.