Hoover Dam: Take the Dam Tour

On our Vegas vacation we stopped at one of the most amazing places I have ever seen: Hoover Dam. It was beautiful.

We took the tour of the dam which began with watching a short film on the history of the dam.

Going under ground in the dam is a little nauseating. If you are claustrophobic, do not go. It is very small and they cram a lot of people down there. It's very deep and you can hear the millions of gallons rushing around you. Down in the dam you get some more information about how deep you are, how many gallons are flowing around you, and how big the pipes are.

In the Dam we could see the blasting holes from when they created the dam. We learned the construction of the dam took a really long time. They had to divert the river on both sides of the dam before blocking it off completely to create the dam, which created Lake Mead, generating a great deal of electricity for the area.

It was interesting walking inside the dam because it was a lot like walking around inside a cave. In all reality it was really a cave because it was hollowed out underground tunnels. I really don't know how deep we were, but it seemed like we were pretty far underground.



Once we came out of the tour we stood on the backside of the dam and saw a beautiful bridge going over the river, which is an amazing site. It's a beautiful view.  The dam sits on the Nevada/Arizona boarder so during the winter it has two different time zones. (Arizona does not change time during daylight savings; therefore, in the spring they are the same time zone. There are clocks positioned on one side of the dam with the name of the state over them)


Overall,  Hoover Dam was spectacular site to see because it is truly an amazing accomplishment. It took a long time to build and many people lost their lives in making it. The tour guide explained to us that there were no men buried in the actual cement or in the structure. I guess people ask that a lot on the tour.

Hoover Dam is an example of how man has had to change the environment to survive and thrive. Harnessing nature we do have the power to enhance our way of living. If only we use it properly.



One major thing concerned me on this visit, the water level. In the pictures you will see the the white spots just above the water line. This is where the water used to be less than 20 years ago. Water is disappearing rapidly because there are so many people living in these areas. It's making the dessert drier. I wondered where it will be in the next 20 years. 

The Neon Museum in Las Vegas

 I went to the coolest place in Vegas. At least I thought it was. It was full of old neon signs from the strip and surrounding areas. The place even included one from Utah. It was a museum, outdoors, in a "boneyard". The signs all had their own history and the tour guide told us about neon, how it was used in the sign process, the art, and the meaning behind many of the signs.





They had a very exciting collection of signs and detailed information about the casinos and motels that used the signs. We learned about the history of Binions, and how it was the first casino in Las Vegas to have carpet. It was also the first casino to ban allowing horses into it. The name: Horseshoe Casino.

Another interesting thing we discovered was Las Vegas isn't only famous for it's wedding, it is also famous for divorce. Nevada has very relaxed rules on divorce, so "Divorce resorts" were set up for people to live at and claim residency at for several weeks in order to get a divorce faster. This is still popular.



 

Some of the signs were illuminated and others were not. It would be extremely expensive to have all the signs on every night. The museum in non profit and the land for the bone yard is rented from the city of LasVegas for $1 a year in order to keep it open.  The building is the rebuilt La Concha Inn and has some pretty exciting architecture.




One of the newer pieces they acquired was the
sign from the Sahara which closed not to long ago. The sign is in really good shape and it was donated to them. The signs they receive are donated to them, but this is still really expensive. The signs cost a lot of money to create, like millions of dollars, they are also extremely heavy and they take a lot of labor to be moved and reset in the bone yard. When they are very old they contain a lot of rust and broken glass from the bulbs. This can be hazardous in the moving process.

Some signs, like this duck, cost a lot of money. This duck was made for a car dealership and cost them like two million dollars. Obviously they went bankrupt. I think that happens a lot in Vegas, go big or go home.





Thank you to my sister in law Julie for the idea to visit this museum! It was very interesting!

The Jump: Stratosphere, Las Vegas

When my husband's family invited us out to visit this spring we decided to try an adventure ride in LasVegas. SkyJump. Basically, they hook you up to a cable and drop you 855 feet to a platform just above the entrance.

Yes. I said 855 feet. From the best of my knowledge/memory of the elevator ride on the way up, it is 108 floors. Yes. I jumped off a building that was 108 floors.

What would possess a person to do such a thing? My husband's father Pat. He wanted to do it, he wanted to do it so much. He called several times before the visit and asked me if I'd do it. Sure, I'll do it. When we arrived he said, "I don't think I'm going to do that....."

....

Randy's brother was still on board. So we prepared.

The first thing you need to know is there is a wait. If you want to do this ride come and make a reservation. When we showed up we had to wait four hours. Pat changed his mind and decided to go, but when he was signing up he found out he had to wait four hours. This was a major disaster. He was thinking we could just get it over with, it was kind of stressful thinking, oh, in four hours I'm going to jump off that building.

We returned at 8pm. Our reservation was for 8:45. We signed a waiver. They asked some basic health questions and then in 20-30 minutes we suited up. They triple check all the equipment before you even get in the elevator. They travel with you all the way up to the elevator, and they they check you again when you get into the room where the plank is.

The room with the walkway leading outside is really secure. Only one jumper is allowed in at time and all the employees are harnessed to prevent them from falling out of the building. The walkway has a sliding glass door and it remains closed while they are preparing the jumpers.



Of course we purchased the video, which they strap a Go-Pro to your arm, so the entire experience is captured.





Here is where we went and the youtube video:

http://youtu.be/DsQ37HeAX6A
http://www.stratospherehotel.com/?utm_source=GGL&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=STR-StratosphereHotelcom&utm_content=Stratosphere-Hotel-Casino&utm_term=stratosphere-tower-hotel-and-casino&mkwid=sdGlDWEFD_dc&pcrid=33020923572&pkw=stratosphere%20tower%20hotel%20and%20casino&pmt=b&gclid=CJCZ6IOBsb0CFWZo7Aod718AGg

How much fun can you have with an empty popcorn container?

I love R2D2. I think he's the best Starwars character. My husband brought me an empty popcorn container from Disney World, shaped like R2D2 and it's one of my favorite things.  I also wondered what R2D2 would do if he was in Las Vegas. I'm sure he'd want to see a prirate ship. 

We took him everywhere, up and down the strip, pretending that he was a real person. I probably have more shots of the popcorn container than I do my husbands family. 

Caesars Palace was great. It seemed like Zeus was hand picking him. Beep-bop-beep 

After losing significant amounts of money in the Rivera R2 decided it was time to get some fresh air. 

He got tired of walking and wanted to ride the moving walkways.

It didn't work out so well, he fell down. 

We took in the light show at the Belagio. 

(*This image was scanned in after being purchased. I asked permission from the Venetian photo booth person about posting it on my blog)

He wanted a boat ride at the Venetian. The gondola driver loved him. R2d2 is a little scared of water, being a droid and all.

He was constantly getting photo bombed. 

 Despite his fear of water he wanted to see the Golden Nugget pool, with sharks. 

He really was getting kind of lonely and wanted some companionship, so we went to Freemont street to take his mind off it. He was still looking for love in all the wrong places. 

See what I mean.... 

He's such a handy friend to have around. 

He does get himself in some ackward situations though. 

See what I mean? 

Overall though, I think he had a pretty good time, even though he for sure lost money...

Although, he was a little disappointed that there was no representation of Starwars to be found. He missed Chewie and the gang. Hopefully the next time we visit Las Vegas some of R2's friends will be there. 

Death Valley

Death Valley is full of amazing things to see, just make sure you have time for it. We only had one day to enjoy this amazing place full of desert, sun, sand, and rocks. It probably doesn't conjure up pleasant images for most people. The pictures that come to mind are probably of a flat desert floor, where the ground it so hot it literally is peeling, vultures, dead animals, or just flat empty land and maybe some rocks. Death Valley is amazing though because it has amazing rock formations. It is also full of all sorts of landscapes and terrian, plants and animals. There was even some green plants (although I didn't really take any pictures of them because the landscape was so amazing). It really did look like the surface of another planet as we drove around the park. 

We first pulled into Death Valley and found the Badlands. The Badlands here are similar to the ones found in South Dakota. They are rocky and have been made into interesting shapes. It looks like a pre-historic playground. Centuries of volcanos, weather, water errosion and earth quakes are the culprits in making this interesting landscape. 

Some of the scenery might seem kind of familar. Part of Starwars, episode four, (the original) was filmed here. This was were Luke lived. Yeah, it seems kind of cheesy, but we brought our R2D2 popcorn container with us to take pictures. 

Death Valley has interesting things to see all around and it is the largest national park in the lower 48 states. There are really really high points, (3000 ft above sea level) and really low points (282 feet below sea level). The biggest highlight we had was driving through artist's pallette, it was extremely beautiful because there were so many different colors in the rocks. They were pink, green, purples, yellows, and reds. They contain just about every type of mineral imaginable. 

Even though the temperture was 91 degrees fairenhait, we could still see snow on the nearby mountains.  The valley is actually made of salt flats and looks a bit like a mirage from the road. It is easily mistaken for water until you get up close to it. 

Water is hard to comeby in the valley, but badwater basin is where it can be found. The water isn't posinous, but it's not good water. It has large amounts of choloride, sodium, and sulfate in it.  The entire area used to be a lake thousands of years ago and in the hills you can see the layers of where it used to be. 

Overall it was a great adventure. It's a two hour drive from Las Vegas and to actually drive through the entire 3.3 millions acres of Death Valley would take about 10 hours. My advice, make sure your car is in good service, bring water, and pray to God your air conditioner does not break. It is extremely hot, even in the spring/winter. 

Ps this is this first time I have blogged using my phone/iPad. Please forgive any bad spelling... 

Chinese New Year in Fountain Hills, AZ

A god of wealth 

This year while I was visiting Fountain Hills, Arizona I was able to see their first annual Chinese Festival. I don't understand all the cultural significance of the New Year other than the 11 animal signs and this year is the year of the horse. There were lots of dragons and lots of red. As I understand it red is a big color for the Chinese New Year. It's a lucky color.

This festival had the beautiful fountain hills fountain behind it. There were several really wonderful performances that ran throughout the day as well. We listened to Chinese Opera singing, we watched Tai Chi, and we also heard classical Chinese music played on instruments. 

The way the silky sculptures were lit up at night were amazing. They were beautiful and many of them moved. 

The rest of this blog is just pictures. It was really interesting. The festival goes on for another week through February 6th if you live in the Phoenix area. 

Desert Botanical Gardens: Chihuly

 

Today I was lucky enough to explore the botanical gardens in Phoenix Arizona. The Desert Botanical Gardens are full of interesting cacti and desert plants. Some of the thoughts which are conjured up when one thinks of the desert are sand, maybe a cactus, or a scorpion, but this is not the case. The desert is alive and there are a lot of things to see. It is as much alive as any tropical forest, swamp, or lake. It's ecosystem never ceases to amaze me. Each time I look a the desert I see something new or learn new forms of life I learn they not just live in these harsh conditions, but they thrive.



The plants were not the only spectacular thing I got to see on this trip. The event that is currently running in the botanical gardens is "Chihuly in the Gardens". This is a lot of blown glass sculptures throughout the gardens. These glass pieces are mixed in with the plants and they look amazing.  Some look like science fiction and remind me of shows like Dr. Who where alien creatures blend in completely unnoticed. These are defiantly noticed, but they look like they belong and were placed by someone with an incredible sense of design and good taste. The forms are mostly very obvious and some use color that is not found naturally in the desert.

Several pieces of the glass match with the gardens that are surrounding them. Some of them were just by themselves, like the wooden boat full of glass. It was tucked away in a pond with the reeds. It was a beautiful piece of art, with bright red, yellow, and green glass sticking out like octopus arms. I was relaxing to watch it in the water while the blue cubes behind it drifted aimlessly, bumping the reeds gently. It was a little bit windy than normal today as well, so the art moved with it.




There are many different types of cactus, I will not bore you by naming a bunch of them. I will just tell you that there are too many to name and they have families just like any other plant. They survive on very little water and a lot of heat. Surprisingly cactus are pretty sensitive despite their harsh conditions they live in and their tough exterior. The prickly pear are my favorite. Small and mighty. They have a lot of needles and they are small. It would be very easy to just step into them if you were not paying attention. They also have a couple of different colors and sizes.




A lot of the cactus have fruit that grow off of them and they can be used for various things. This is where Ethnobotany comes in. Ethnobotany is the study of how people interact with plants. The way people interact with desert plants have a very long history.  Some has been used as medicine, some as food, some as fuel for fire. Cactus with all it's prickly dangers has been very useful to people that live in the desert. They supply a lot of resources in a harsh environment.

Fairy Duster

There are other plants in the desert that attract bees, butterflies, and birds throughout the desert. There are even plants that bloom specially at night to attract bats and this is the way the plant is pollinated to reproduce. Most of the night blooming plants are white and pale yellow. One desert flower which was my favorite to see was the Fairy Duster. It was such a cool looking flower on a bush.






The desert plants already look like beautiful sculptures made by nature. The glass with them is the perfect contrast of color and light. They blend almost seamlessly in some places and don't

Where I went: www.dbg.org 

Here is some more pictures. If you live in the area this tour is well worth it. The place is bigger than it looks. 

Glass sculptures in the Garden

Agave