We each got $25 from our resort to spend at South Point Casino next door, so we did!
I spent all mine on the penny and nickle machines - you get lots more turns that way!
I won $12.15 and later piddled it away - but NO MORE! I wasn't about to lose MY money!
Whoopee!
We went to Hoover Dam on Thursday - the nicest forecast of the weekend, and it was beautiful.
We did a tour that took us down into the depths of the dam - cool! My class at school enjoyed the pictures, too.
Did you know the amount of cement in this part of the dam would build a two lane highway from California to NY City? The base is as wide at two football fields. (My class liked those stats, too.)
I wouldn't have wanted to be a worker on this project back in the early '30s.
The new bridge is so much better for driving across the river.
Tim and I walked out on the bridge - scary! But it didn't ever wobble one bit.
I thought the shadow of the bridge was a neat effect.
There was a special memorial site for workers who died in the making of the dam.
Included were these two peace angels. They say it is good luck to rub their feet. Of course, we did! Joan took our picture doing it. I think it worked, because we had three extra days in Vegas due to the snowstorm in Minnesota on President's Day! Our flight was cancelled, and we couldn't rebook until late Wednesday afternoon:)
Don't drop the camera!
We drove down the strip that night, and took lots of pictures of the glitz. The space needle casino (I don't remember the name) has amusement park rides ON THE TOP! No way!
The lights ARE beautiful.
This is a Denny's restaurant!
On Friday morning we went out to Red Rock Canyon and explored a 14 mile drive through this beautiful nature spot.
They have hiking trails down through the rocks. Maybe the gals from church would like to hike here next year?
Such an incredible array of unusual rocks - it boggles the mind.
They used to have a rock quarry in the early 1900s but it closed after about ten years. You can still see the cuts for large blocks of rock.
It was fun climbing up here, but coming down was a bit tricky!
The nature center had some fun things to see. Watch out, Tim!
That afternoon, the guys went golfing, and Joan and I took the shuttle bus to the strip and walked around a bit.
There are really a lot of unusual buildings, fountains, gardens, themes, ... too much to take in in one afternoon.
We walked past the Hard Rock and headed for M&M World - mmm - chocolate!
There it is, just past the big coke bottle - 4 floors of M&M products to buy, and we did! Did you know there are 23 colors of M&M's?
That night we drove back downtown to see the water fountains at the Biaggio. All the fountains erupt at different times to music. All I can say is ...WOW!
On Saturday we went back down to the strip for dinner, exploring, and TWO shows! We got such a good deal from our resort on tickets for The Phantom of the Opera, we couldn't resist! Besides, they were right across the street from each other, so it worked out great.
This is another casino with a New York City theme - pretty cool. We ate in a restaurant at the Venetian, and walked around the mall area and gardens until it was time for our first show at 7:00.
We bought tickets for a gondola ride, but there wasn't time before the show. We had to go back on Sunday for that.
We had a deal with the gondola tickets for free admission to the Wax Museum, so we went there before the show.
We had fun joining famous people in the scenes!
Look at my back up singers!
Phantom of the Opera was incredible! Then we headed across the stree to Treasure Island to see Cirque du Soleil at 9:00 p.m.
The acrobats and set design were fantastic. What a fun night.
On Sunday afternoon, we headed out to the Valley of Fire - similar to Red Rock Canyon but on the other side of Vegas completely - about 40 miles away.
More interesting rocks - these were called the beehives. We saw a lizard that entertained us for a while. I DID get his picture, but it's not the greatest.
There are petroglyphs all through the valley. This spot had a three landing set of stairs to climb up to get a closer look. The drawings are 4,000 years old!
There is a sign by this arch that asks people to NOT climb on it, otherwise I would have been all over it:)
This rock formation is part of the Seven Sisters - seven rocks in a row down the roadside. Tim got a great picture with the reflection, so we had to go back and let me try it. His turned out better, but I like this anyways.
On our way out of the valley, there were a bunch of cars stopped by the side of the road. As we got closer, we could see why. There was one lonely Bighorn Sheep having his dinner!
Looking back over my shoulder as I took the picture of the sheep, I saw this view - magnificant! God sure made incredible things in this world!
On the way home from the Valley of Fire, we stopped back at the Venetian for our gondola ride. Our gondolier was from Italy! We got to have our ride outside since the weather was good. There is also a canal inside the mall area.
We walked over to Caesar's palace for dinner and hunted for a good place to eat.
There were fountains and statues that are animated inside this mall full of shops. We ended up at a Mexican place since all the other places were either too expensive, or had long waits. We had all our luggage in the trunk of the car, and had to head for the airport to take the red eye flight home. BUT ... there was a snowstorm in Minnesota and our flight was cancelled! By about 2:00 a.m . we had rented ANOTHER car (for twice what we paid for the first car) and headed to the South Point Casino for 3 more nights - they counted just a few hours of Sunday night as a whole night:(
On Monday, we had the warmest day of our whole trip. Joan and I hung out at the hotel while the guys went down to the WPPI Convention at the MGM. This is Wedding Professional Photographers International and Tim does a lot of photography. They had a good time there for a couple of hours. Then we had to go find a laundromat and get our prescriptions filled at Target - none of us had brought enough pills for an extended trip!
Tuesday, it was off to another adventure! This time, we went to Death Valley - only 120 miles away.
We took a side road around a one way narrow path that led to the Artist's Pallette. You'll soon see why.
This is called Bad Water Basin - don't drink the water here! It does flood in the winter, and is dry as a bone in the summer.
Ah ... here are the colorful rocks on the Artist's Drive!
At one overlook, there were lots of photographers lined up. Why? Sunset, of course!
This is an unusual lighting effect - if you don't take the picture quickly, the golden rock becomes dull brown like the rest! Really cool!
On Wednesday, we had about half a day to find something to do that was cheap - in fact, free! It was called Emily M's Chocolate Factory and Desert Botanical Garden! The candy samples were so good, we had to buy some for the trip home:) It was toffee with pecans, and actually lasted over a week! Yum!
There were lots of strange cacti in the gardens - some were called skeletons, because they die and leave behind a shell. 
Well, that's it! We had a great time, and would love to go back to explore Death Valley some more - but NOT in the summer! I think this vacation will last us for this year, except for a few long weekends. We are so blessed to be able to travel and see all the wonders of creation! I'm glad I can share it all with you on this blog.
