We were originally thinking we'd just hit the Hoover Dam on the way to the Grand Canyon on Sunday morning (you literally have to drive over it to get to the Grand Canyon), but we wanted to have lots of time at the Grand Canyon (and the 4-5 hour drive would obviously slow us down), so we decided since the Hoover Dam is only about an hour outside of Vegas in Boulder City, it would be best to just do it on its own, since neither of us are gamblers and we'd be looking for something to do on Saturday anyways! Sean had rented a car (a Mustang!) for the weekend at the airport, so we had the flexibility to change up the itinerary a little bit.
While the Powerplant Tour tickets can be purchased online, the full dam tour can only be purchased at the visitor center and are first come, first serve beginning at 9:00am (the first Dam Tour is at 9:30am). The website indicated several hours will be sold out at a time, and reviews all indicated the later in the day you arrived, the longer you'd end up waiting for available tour times, so our goal was to get there right when they opened. Apparently driving an hour the wrong direction upon leaving Vegas is not the best way to make this happen - we were nearly at the California state line before determining we were definitely going the wrong way (ultimately, we blamed the valet at the Encore for not giving us very detailed directions on how to get to the correct highway). The drive out the "wrong" direction of Vegas really accentuated how barren that land is...we joked several times about how many people must be buried out there.
Once we turned around, we were there in no time and were making the loop around Lake Mead (such a scenic view!) and pulling into the parking deck at the Hoover Dam ($7 for parking, a popular complaint in the Yelp reviews) by 10:30am. We went straight to the visitor's center, where there is airport-type security to get in, to buy our tickets - the next available time was 12:45pm - so we had a couple hours to kill before we'd be able to begin the tour. There were some exhibits inside the visitor's center (a la carte admission to the visitor's center is $8) which we looked at quickly, but most of it was very technical about the inner-workings of the generators and pumps, and these exhibits didn't hold my interest for very long. There should be a sign warning "Engineers Only" in that area! We watched the 10-minute film about the history of the dam, which I enjoyed. I must admit, for an official U.S. National Historic Landmark, I didn't really know any of the history about the dam, and it was interesting to learn how many people had been put to work building it during such a depressed time in the country. After the film ended, we headed outside and walked around the dam to take some photos; it was a sunny, warm day and a perfect day to be outside! One of the most striking things about the grounds is the art-deco style all the buildings were designed in.
View of the dam:
There is a cafe just outside the gates of the visitor's center (which meant we'd have to go through security again), so we exited, had a quick lunch and got some souvenirs, and then headed back toward the visitor's center to make sure we had enough time to get through the security line again (which had lengthened considerably since we first arrived two hours ago) and went to the tour meeting point.We had a small group of perhaps 12 people, and after a few 'dam jokes' by our tour guide, we were piling into the elevator and heading down into the dam for our 1-hour tour. We first met up with a larger group (who had only paid for the Powerplant Tour) and were led down a tunnel originally drilled in the 1930s for construction and taken into the penstock viewing area, where we got to see the giant, 30-diameter pipes carrying as much as 90,000 gallons every second from Lake Mead to the dam's hydroelectric generators, which are creating electricity that is being sent to not only Las Vegas, but also southern California and Arizona. An interesting fact we learned is that the dam has not only paid for itself thanks to selling the electricity, but that it is the only government project that is actually turning a profit. Another interesting point that was made was that this huge dam not only came in under budget and time (it took only 5 years to construct), but that the more modern (and simple) bypass bridge across the way took seven years to complete and was over budget. My how government projects have changed! After a quick stop at the penstock viewing, we were taken back up in an elevator to a balcony overlooking a large room filled with 17 huge generators and people actually working at the powerplant.
The bypass bridge over the Colorado River:
At this point, the "full dam tour" group was separated from the "powerplant only" tour and taken through a back door and down several long, winding corridors dating back to the 1930s. These are rarely seen areas of the dam (due in no small part to the high price tag, I'm sure!) We clambered into a much smaller elevator and were taken much further into the dam - at this point I think we were near the base - and started walking down more long corridors. One of the interesting things our guide pointed out to us were the screws and bars that had been placed every 50 feet or so in the corridors. They were placed right next to each other so that if the structural integrity of the dam began to fail, you'd be able to see the screws were no longer aligned with each other and the walls were shifting. Our guide did note that while this would be a very bad sign, he has no idea what the plan is to fix it...ha! Some other cool markings that were pointed out to us were where black chalk had traced over cracks and then dated (60-70 years old!), so that workers could monitor cracks and know if they were getting bigger.Probably the highlight of being in the Hoover Dam was being taken into a small tunnel that serves as a vent. We were allowed to walk all the way to the vent and look out - we could see the river, Black Canyon and the Dam Bypass Bridge straight ahead. We were literally inside the downstream face of the dam!
The photo I took when I stuck my camera out of the vent and turned it up - the steep wall of the dam towering over us:
The last stop on the tour was down a dark corridor where we were shown a set of stairs that went down as far as the eye could see, and then turning around and seeing stairs that literally looked like they had no end. Definitely made me glad I don't work in this part of the dam...that would be a stairmaster exercise like none other!
The never-ending stairs:
At this point, we were lead back up to the visitor's center, and the tour was over. We got back in the car and drove approximately a mile to the entrance of the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, also known as the Hoover Dam Bypass. The bridge was completed in 2010 to alleviate the bottle-necking into the Hoover Dam and give non-tourists a way to get around the dam quickly. Sean had been to the Hoover Dam prior to the bypass being built, and was amazed at what a difference it made. It was much windier on the bridge so we didn't stay long, but we were provided an awesome view of the Hoover Dam:
At this point our Hoover Dam adventure was over, so we hopped in the car and headed back to Vegas. We went straight to the Mirage Resort & Casino to pick up our tickets for the Beatles LOVE show later that night so we wouldn't have to deal with the will-call line at showtime (which did turn out to be monstrous...this was a smart decision!). After fetching the tickets and making a quick stop in the Beatles souvenir store (so much Beatles merchandise...I had to pull myself out of there!), we sat down at Rhumbar across from the hotel's check-in area, which was a cool Caribbean-inspired lounge, and had a few fruity drinks before going back to the Encore to get ready for dinner.We left our hotel at 6:00pm to head over to the Palazzo for dinner at Mario Batali's Carnevino restaurant, where we had a 6:30pm reservation. We allowed extra time because we decided we were in walking distance, and with it being a little chilly now that the sun had gone down, it was pretty easy to stay indoors almost the entire way, walking through the Venetian along the cute indoor canal where people were taking gondola rides.
Indoor gondola ride at the Venetian:
We were seated immediately and ordered a bottle of red wine that was one of my favorites I've ever tasted - I'm still trying to remember what it was so will hopefully be able to fill that in at some point! The restaurant was large and the tables were far apart so that you felt like you were the only one in the restaurant. The service was exquisite and our waiter was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and able to make good recommendations, which we did take. We began with the chopped salad that was fresh and delicious with beans, parmesan, peppers and a light vinaigrette; the bowl they brought out was for the table to share and we couldn't even finish it between the two of us. For our entree, we had the dry aged bone-in ribeye for two, which was perhaps the largest cut of meat I'd ever seen at 32 oz. It was brought out to our table on a tray and carved in front of us. The bone was then sat on the table as some sort of monument to the feat we were about to undertake. We also ordered some of the sauteed shiitake mushrooms and asparagus, which proved to just be too much food. SO. MUCH. STEAK. I think the ribeye for 2 could also pass as a ribeye for 3 or 4! By the time dinner was over, I think we both needed to be rolled out of there.Carnevino:
We then made the short walk over to the Mirage and got in the massive line waiting to get into the theatre for the Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil show. We had been advised that the theatre was a very odd shape so trying to get seats as close to the stage as possible might not be the most advantageous strategy. Our seats were a little further back and upon sitting down didn't seem like they were in a great spot - there were huge nets up splitting the stage into four pieces and one of them seemed to be blocking our view pretty substantially. However, as soon as the show began, the nets dropped and we had a clear view of the entire stage. I don't think getting seats closer to the stage would have been a bad thing, but our seats were a little less expensive and still fantastic. There was a lot of stuff going on way up in the air, so had we been down lower near the stage, our necks may have been a little sore from looking up the whole show. This being my first Cirque show, I wasn't totally sure what to expect but was very excited! The entire show was so beautifully put together - I was already familiar with the soundtrack so knew I would enjoy all the music, and each Beatles song had it's own performance to go along with it. While I am a bit dubious about the over-arching plot of the show as a whole, if you just look at each song as it's own little performance and not worry about trying to piece together the entire story, I think you'll find it much more enjoyable (as I did). There were some really crazy stunts and there was so much going on at all times (just like a circus), that it was so difficult to decide what to watch the entire show! Probably my favorite single moment in the whole show was when they performed "Something." A man was doing some really 'bendy' interpretative dance on the floor, while several women with drapey dresses on would swoop in on trapezes around him. It was gorgeous!When the show ended, we made our way back out and headed back to the Encore. By this point, we had been checking the weather at the Grand Canyon for Sunday all day and had determined tomorrow was just not going to be a good time to go. It was going to be cold, possibly heavy snowstorms (definitely rain) and extremely gusty winds (40-50 mph). Nothing about that sounded like the Grand Canyon out in the middle of the desert I had pictured, and even if the canyon looked beautiful in the snow, it would be too uncomfortable to stay out and hike around the way I had really envisioned it. There was also some concern the access road to the canyon would be closed because of the weather...it was just too far of a drive to make to not even be able to get in. And despite having hotel reservations in Flagstaff, we decided there wasn't enough to do in Flagstaff to warrant leaving Las Vegas. So that was that...when we got back to the Encore, Sean was able to convince them to let us book our suite for an extra night, and off to bed we went.
Miles Traveled Today: 57
Total Miles Traveled: 31,583
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