California Calling-Day8-The Hoover Dam and All That Jazz!

[Bella1]

After the dreadful weather the day before we were glad to wake up in a dry Vegas although we could still see the dark clouds away in the distance in the direction of the Grand Canyon. We took our time getting up and had breakfast in the apartment before heading out.
We were amazed to see our car without any dents after the run-in with the valet on our first night so we programmed Meredith and set off in the direction of the Hoover Dam.

We had seen the Dam the previous day from the light aircraft on the way to our ill-fated tour of the Grand Canyon but we wanted to see it from the ground too.

The drive was easy and quiet and we had decided that we would park on the Nevada side of the dam to access the Visitors Centre. Even though we probably arrived before 10 o’clock the place was heaving and we ended up getting a parking space on the top floor, the car park costs about $7 I think.

We walked down all the steps and then made our way across to the Dam. The kids loved the fact that at one point they could have one foot in Nevada and one in Arizona. The scale of the place is difficult to capture in photographs but it is certainly impressive.





After taking quite a few photos we headed in to the visitors centre, Graham wanted to take the tour of the pump rooms but since I suffer from claustrophobia I declined so he decided to do the tour with Meg and Ally. Having purchased the two different types of tickets I was ushered towards the stairs by one of the assistants but then another man chased after me and pointed at Graham and asked if I was with them, I confirmed I was but that I wasn’t doing the tour but he said that I would have to wait a long time for them but if I liked he would let me in to sit with them to watch the film first before they went downstairs. This was very kind of him and I really enjoyed watching the film about the construction of the Dam, I expected it to be terribly boring but it was amazing to see how they worked out how to overcome all the problems.

I then walked up to the exhibitions and the viewing platforms whilst the rest of the family descended in to the depths. I read everything and looked at all the exhibitions as well as took quite a few photos before they eventually re-appeared. They said their guide was rather dull but that what they had seen was fascinating.

We went back to the car and decided to drive across to the Arizona side just so that we could say we had driven across the Hoover Dam. We turned round in the car park and headed across it again. We had thought of walking across the Memorial Bridge but Graham has a fear of heights so he used the excuse that it was too hot and it was also nearly lunch time so why didn’t we give it a miss!

We drove back to Vegas to our hotel with the plan of using the pool. However it was so incredibly hot and humid that when we walked out on the pool deck we couldn’t even face sitting there. It was on the 5th floor and surrounded on 3 sides by the hotel walls which seemed to be acting like convector heaters and were bouncing the heat back. We scuttled back inside in to the air-conditioning and returned to our room. We had been really busy up until this point so we spent a couple of hours relaxing in the cool, Dibbing, reading and catching up with friends before getting changed for the evening.

As we crossed the bridge near Bally’s we hit a crisis, Megs sandal broke completely and it was slapping around only attached to her ankle. She certainly couldn’t walk around the Strip all evening like that so we had to quickly buy her some new shoes. She was staring longingly at the designer stores when I remembered that we had definitely seen a H&M store in Caesars Palace so we went back there and managed to get something in her size that would at least do her the evening at a reasonable price.

As huge fans of the Big Bang Theory Meg and Ally were insistent that we eat at the Cheesecake Factory. We had seen one inside Caesars Palace so we made our way to that one. We were seated almost immediately and since it was just before 5 o’clock we were told that we could order of the smaller lunchtime menu or the Dinner menu. I have never seen such a huge menu, it was more like a book!



Ally opted for Pizza simply because I don’t think he could be bothered to look through it, Graham had some sort of Calzone I think and Meg and I went for pasta dishes off the lunchtime menu as these were $7 cheaper and were supposedly smaller than the Dinner portions.
I thought the place was really noisy and hectic but our server was very efficient and bought our drink refills and our bread quickly. The bread was delicious and since we were really hungry, having not had lunch, we tucked right in. At 5 o’clock our server changed and we had another girl who also seemed pleasant. It wasn’t long before 3 of the meals appeared but no Pizza. A few minutes later someone ran over and said it would only be a couple of minutes and then disappeared. We waited and waited but our server was AWOL. We had to start eating as our meals were getting cold but still no pizza. Ten minutes later our server reappeared and said she would go and see what was happening, she came back to say it had gone to the wrong table and they would have to cook another one. We asked for more bread to keep Ally going whilst he waited and then the manager came over. He apologised again and then walked off but Graham called him back and said we expected the pizza to be taken off the bill and he agreed but I think he could have just offered that first! It was 25 minutes later when Allys pizza appeared by which time we had all finished! In fact I could only eat half of mine since it was huge so I had the rest boxed up to give to one of the poor teenagers asking for food on the walkways. Ally is a slow eater at the best of times so we had half of his boxed up and he ate it for breakfast the next day.

Since it was our last night in Vegas we wanted to see as much as we could so we walked around the Bellagio and had a look inside the Conservatory.





We then made our way to TI to see the Sirens show, I had read a few threads where people were saying this is too raunchy but I didn’t think it was any worse than most of the music videos these days. We all enjoyed it (Ally, being a 15 year old boy really enjoyed it!) and thought it was good fun with some great effects.







We planned on watching the Volcano but we kept missing it as we always seemed to be in the wrong place at the right time so we didn’t get to tick hat off the list.

We found the streets seemed much busier than they had been on Sunday and Monday and the slappers were out in force but I can honestly say that as a family we were never approached or offered anything.

After walking around and people watching for a while we headed back to Bellagio to watch the fountains from a better viewing spot than we had had before. Once again we really enjoyed them before we made our way back to our hotel.

[mick]

Another great day shame about the pizza it's not nice when you can't all eat at the same time

[daytonababe]

Nice Day :-) shame about the Pizza though..

I'm glad i'm not the only one that doesn't find Sirens too raunchy.

[Bella1]

Originally Posted by daytonababe

Nice Day :-) shame about the Pizza though..

I'm glad i'm not the only one that doesn't find Sirens too raunchy.

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I took on board what you said about Sirens although I couldn't get to the other end of the boat but I thought it was fun, the clue is in the title really so not sure what people expect!

[Glee Fan]

Still never managed to catch Sirens or the Volcano - next time

An alternative to the Cheesecake Factory is Grand Lux Cafe - shame you didn't get to eat altogether, that would have made me really cross!