Tuesday started feeling like I was back at work. 6 am and I'm out of bed. We walked west to Circus, Circus, which I guarantee will be torn down inside of three years. By Vegas standards, it is too old and not nice enough. And on the walk down Riviera Blvd, the entire north side of the street was a construction zone.
The whole deal was it was a tour guide/comedy deal to Hoover Dam. So the bus picks us up and the driver was Ruben and the guide/comedian was George. I must say they were great. They were smart and entertaining. There were 26 of us, including eight from South Dakota. I don't think I've met eight people from South Dakota since I've been alive There were six from Orlando and the two couples sitting right in front and behind us were both from Canada. In 1.5 hours, we arrived at the Dam. We started on the Arizona side of the dam, and worked our way back to the Nevada side. The dam tour (all the guides do those jokes, sadly) took one hour in all. We walked right by the eight generators and they gave us the scientific breakdown of how they control the Colorado River and how the overflow works. I googled it and I still don't know if I understand. Suffice to say, they planned the design well.
After the tour, we took the bus to an overlook of Lake Mead, a man-made lake right behind the dam and located in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The views of mountains, water, and sky was outstanding. From there, we drove to Boulder City, which was the town constructed when workers started constructing the Dam. It's also the home to Desi Arnaz Jr. and we passed by his house. We went over to the town museum to get some more history about the construction of the dam and the town as well as some of the people who were instrumental in developing it. While at lunch, we chatted with the Edmonton couple. Nice folks, and they even recommended the Vegas mob tour to us. They mentioned it was quite enjoyable. So we thought we'd take them up on their offer...
On our way back, we made our final stop at Ethyl M's Chocolate Factory. When I realized they make a lot of M&M's and that kind of thing, I wasn't too excited. But we did our walkthrough and when we walked into the gift shop, the workers started offering us samples. I had a small chip of white chocolate and it was ok. I knew it was fine quality, but just not my thing. Then I saw a woman hawking pieces of pecan brittle. This stuff was so rich and so good and full of flavor. But I went over to the ice cream stand and got a scoop of bananas foster. It had chunks of banana, graham cracker, maybe a touch of rum. People on the tour were preoccupied with their chocolate. Then they saw me with the ice cream, and they would look at me with this stunned expression. "Where did you get that," they would ask. Within five minutes, at least ten people got ice cream too. I took it outside to the cactus garden right behind the factory. There are over 30,000 species of cacti and last I checked, none grow in Illinois. It was a very good walk.
After getting back to the hotel around 4, Mom crashed, I guess. Anthony came over and we went to Stratosphere, which is an observatory tower, hotel, and casino on the north side of the strip. You actually have to go through a security check to get to the observatory tower. Had to empty my pockets and everything. Between my jeans, orange and black Knicks leather jacket, and dark glasses, I must have looked like a mob guy in training. The view with the lights was neat. But then, you go up another flight of stairs. They have three rides for people who are either crazy, thrillseekers, or suicidal. Insanity freaked me out the most. This thing looks like a roller coaster car that is about to ride over the tower's edge and drop 1000 feet to the Vegas concrete.
Finally, I tried it. In-N-Out Burger, that is. Double cheeseburger, fresh fries, and lemonade for 6 bucks. Incredible value, maybe not incredible nutrition, but it was great stuff. Can they get past the southwest though? Is that asking too much? Anthony and I headed back to his place. Nice spot on the east side, but those damn cats just drove me crazy. Thirty minutes, and my eyes were watery and my nose was running. But I hung around long enough to watch the Kings lose to the Wild in a shootout. But that wore me out for the night.
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