Vegas 2006 - Day 3
Nov 8, 2006
We woke up knowing that we had booked the Hoover Dam tour and needed to get to the tour bus area by 9 am. Of course, we thought the tour bus area was at the front of the building. Wrong. We wandered around aimlessly until we eventually found it, by mistake, while waiting in line at Starbucks. We then waited and waited and waited some more. We saw at least three other tour buses come and go. We were getting concerned that perhaps we had waited in the wrong area. Eventually, the bus showed up, but it was a small bus, as it was supposed to pick people up from the various hotels and take them to a central spot - The Aladdin. Surprisingly enough, it dropped us off in the back of the Aladdin, right next to the spot where we could use our Power Pass to claim our reserved our spots, and then we paid for something - a gas surcharge, I think.
The bright side of all of these was that this was the bottom of the barrel. Things started to look up when we got on the bus taking us to the Hoover Dam. The tour guide was/is a chef at the Venetian, and did an amazing job of keeping us entertained with stories and such during the 45 minute trip, and back again. He talked about how Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the US, but that most of the jobs were hospitality jobs that paid very little, but had a great health plan and rewarded loyalty with a good pension. He gave us a detailed history of the city of Las Vegas from the time when the mob ran it to today, and how it is almost impossible for the mob to get a gaming license in Nevada now because of the intense background checks they do.
There was a story of how Wayne Newton lost his gaming license because he asked a reputed mob boss to protect his daughter against threats of kidnapping, and the alleged kidnapper was never heard from again. He told us the story of Bugsy Segal, and how in the end, after spending way too much money building the most luxurious hotel/casino in Las Vegas, his best friend had him executed to save him from a long, painful death at the hands of the mob. Most of all, he encouraged us to look beyond the strip to see all that Vegas has the offer - Hoover Dam, Red Rock, Fremont St., and the Hooters Hotel Casino. Well, he didn't mention it, but I'm sure he was just as concerned about the plight of the chicken wing bearing orange owl as I was.
We stopped once at a checkpoint. Apparently, it is possible to drive over Hoover Dam, so (since 9/11 and until the new bridge is built), all vehicles have to be inspected to prevent ... well, you know, but I don't need the authorities kicking down my door due to certain combinations of keywords on my blog.
Hoover Dam itself was an engineering marvel. They had to create a temporary dam so that the Colorado River would be diverted from its regular course. Then they had men propel down the sides placing explosives to blast out more of the bedrock. There's a statue there of the type of gear they had to do this dangerous job. They even had the foresight to build in overflow channels so that if the water ever rose too quickly, it could be diverted to the sides to prevent major flooding of the banks. Of course, with the drought in Las Vegas, there was no worry of that while we were visiting. It was pointed our several times that the "bathtub ring" that we saw in the bedrock along the Colorado River and around Lake Meade was the former height of the river.
We paid extra to go down into the bowels of Hoover Dam, just re-opened to tourists that very week. It was a spectacular scene, and to realize that most of what was dug out was during the Depression was even more amazing. Equally amazing was the view down (both straight down, and down river) from the top of the dam.
After the dam, we were taken to a lookout point at Lake Meade, the world's largest man-made lake. It was such a breath-taking blue, but we were only given a few minutes to take pictures before we were taken to the Ethel M chocolate factory.
More like the Ethel Mmmmmm chocolate factory, and since it was a weekday we got to see chocolate being made. I must've taken half a dozen pictures of three men pouring caramel onto a table and smoothing it out. That's actually more pictures than I took of the three beautiful chocolate sculptures on display. Speaking of beautiful chocolates, they had a new line of gourmet chocolates that were filled with fruit, liquor, etc, and each one was topped with a picture of what was inside.
One the way home, the tour guide told us that to truly say that we've been to Las Vegas, we would have to visit Fremont St, as the Las Vegas Strip wasn't technically in Las Vegas. It was located in Paradise, Nevada. Besides, the food and drinks were much cheaper on Fremont.
After returning to the Strip, we headed to the cheap ticket place to get tickets for a Cirque show, any Cirque show. To no one's surprise, the only on available was Mystere, the oldest Cirque show in Vegas. Also to no one's surprise, what we got was a voucher for the tickets. So, off to the Mirage we go. After we get the tickets, things get a little blurry. I can't remember if we go to an early dinner or head to the Bellagio for the Ansel Adams exhibit.
[ rummage through digital photos ] It was dinner. So ... we went to Maggiano's, which is a place recommended by Vegas Nicole, and very close to the ticket place. I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer and the waitress recommended that we get the "half size" ... for the both of us. We took that as our cue and ordered one entree for the both of us. They might as well have served it to us in a bucket. The "half size" was about 3 - 4 times the regular size anywhere else. We could have just eaten the "half size" appetizer for dinner and been quite full, but somehow we managed that and the entree. The sensible group next to us ordered one spaghetti entree for three people and I'm not sure if they finished it. Dessert was absolutely out of the question.
After dinner was Cirque, and right off the bat, we were bothered by one of those roaming photographers. Obviously, we weren't allowed to take any pictures of our own. All I can say about the show was that it was pure Cirque magic, a wonderful combination of acrobatics, humour, and audience participation. The best audience participation was actually prior to the start of the show when a clown was acting as an usher and randomly taking people the room.
After the show, we went to get some postcards. In the gift shop where those pictures that they took of us while we were in the show. The lady who took the picture must have seen us coming because she picked up our picture, but when we ignored her, she slammed it back down on the table. I thought that was funny too, but Anne was too distracted to notice. She was making eyes at a Latino kid, and then she suddenly realized that it was one of her students, who had come to Vegas with his parents. Small world. Shake hands. Make small talk. Go pay for postcards.
Then we headed out to the interactive wax museum at the Venetian. We posed with various famous waxen celebrities, debated about whether or not one of them looked remotely like Julia Roberts, and generally goofed around. What makes this museum interactive was that you could play golf with Tiger Woods, wear a wedding dress next to George Clooney, play basketball with Shaq, and otherwise touch and interact with the celebrities. By the way, you know your wife loves you when she allows you to stick her head between Jenna Jamieson's boobs, and you know your husband loves you when he allows you to get into bed with Hefner. We skipped the horror exhibit, as we were both chickens, and we are guessing it was extra interactive, in that some of the wax figures are live. I almost stuck my tongue in Britney's mouth, but then decided against it as I hadn't gotten my shots yet. Though, much to my chargrin, I did like Michael Jackson get behind me.
After that, I remember being tired out of my skull and almost nodding off in the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Bellagio. No amount of stunning landscapes was going to change that. (I hear you asking, "Frank, are you that whipped? Why didn't you put your foot down and say, 'No!'?" Well, I wanted to make sure that I got my money's worth from the Power Pass. Without that, it would have been easy to convince Anne that it wasn't worth $15 each to see the pictures, especially since the Belliago is such an amazing place already).
It was close to American Thanksgiving, and all around the hotel were displays of falling autumn leaves. Each one was a piece of art in itself. The Conservatory smelled like pumpkin pie and the floral displays were absolutely breathtaking. Words fail me here, partly because I was so tired.
We woke up knowing that we had booked the Hoover Dam tour and needed to get to the tour bus area by 9 am. Of course, we thought the tour bus area was at the front of the building. Wrong. We wandered around aimlessly until we eventually found it, by mistake, while waiting in line at Starbucks. We then waited and waited and waited some more. We saw at least three other tour buses come and go. We were getting concerned that perhaps we had waited in the wrong area. Eventually, the bus showed up, but it was a small bus, as it was supposed to pick people up from the various hotels and take them to a central spot - The Aladdin. Surprisingly enough, it dropped us off in the back of the Aladdin, right next to the spot where we could use our Power Pass to claim our reserved our spots, and then we paid for something - a gas surcharge, I think.
The bright side of all of these was that this was the bottom of the barrel. Things started to look up when we got on the bus taking us to the Hoover Dam. The tour guide was/is a chef at the Venetian, and did an amazing job of keeping us entertained with stories and such during the 45 minute trip, and back again. He talked about how Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the US, but that most of the jobs were hospitality jobs that paid very little, but had a great health plan and rewarded loyalty with a good pension. He gave us a detailed history of the city of Las Vegas from the time when the mob ran it to today, and how it is almost impossible for the mob to get a gaming license in Nevada now because of the intense background checks they do.
There was a story of how Wayne Newton lost his gaming license because he asked a reputed mob boss to protect his daughter against threats of kidnapping, and the alleged kidnapper was never heard from again. He told us the story of Bugsy Segal, and how in the end, after spending way too much money building the most luxurious hotel/casino in Las Vegas, his best friend had him executed to save him from a long, painful death at the hands of the mob. Most of all, he encouraged us to look beyond the strip to see all that Vegas has the offer - Hoover Dam, Red Rock, Fremont St., and the Hooters Hotel Casino. Well, he didn't mention it, but I'm sure he was just as concerned about the plight of the chicken wing bearing orange owl as I was.
We stopped once at a checkpoint. Apparently, it is possible to drive over Hoover Dam, so (since 9/11 and until the new bridge is built), all vehicles have to be inspected to prevent ... well, you know, but I don't need the authorities kicking down my door due to certain combinations of keywords on my blog.
Hoover Dam itself was an engineering marvel. They had to create a temporary dam so that the Colorado River would be diverted from its regular course. Then they had men propel down the sides placing explosives to blast out more of the bedrock. There's a statue there of the type of gear they had to do this dangerous job. They even had the foresight to build in overflow channels so that if the water ever rose too quickly, it could be diverted to the sides to prevent major flooding of the banks. Of course, with the drought in Las Vegas, there was no worry of that while we were visiting. It was pointed our several times that the "bathtub ring" that we saw in the bedrock along the Colorado River and around Lake Meade was the former height of the river.
We paid extra to go down into the bowels of Hoover Dam, just re-opened to tourists that very week. It was a spectacular scene, and to realize that most of what was dug out was during the Depression was even more amazing. Equally amazing was the view down (both straight down, and down river) from the top of the dam.
After the dam, we were taken to a lookout point at Lake Meade, the world's largest man-made lake. It was such a breath-taking blue, but we were only given a few minutes to take pictures before we were taken to the Ethel M chocolate factory.
More like the Ethel Mmmmmm chocolate factory, and since it was a weekday we got to see chocolate being made. I must've taken half a dozen pictures of three men pouring caramel onto a table and smoothing it out. That's actually more pictures than I took of the three beautiful chocolate sculptures on display. Speaking of beautiful chocolates, they had a new line of gourmet chocolates that were filled with fruit, liquor, etc, and each one was topped with a picture of what was inside.
One the way home, the tour guide told us that to truly say that we've been to Las Vegas, we would have to visit Fremont St, as the Las Vegas Strip wasn't technically in Las Vegas. It was located in Paradise, Nevada. Besides, the food and drinks were much cheaper on Fremont.
After returning to the Strip, we headed to the cheap ticket place to get tickets for a Cirque show, any Cirque show. To no one's surprise, the only on available was Mystere, the oldest Cirque show in Vegas. Also to no one's surprise, what we got was a voucher for the tickets. So, off to the Mirage we go. After we get the tickets, things get a little blurry. I can't remember if we go to an early dinner or head to the Bellagio for the Ansel Adams exhibit.
[ rummage through digital photos ] It was dinner. So ... we went to Maggiano's, which is a place recommended by Vegas Nicole, and very close to the ticket place. I ordered fried calamari as an appetizer and the waitress recommended that we get the "half size" ... for the both of us. We took that as our cue and ordered one entree for the both of us. They might as well have served it to us in a bucket. The "half size" was about 3 - 4 times the regular size anywhere else. We could have just eaten the "half size" appetizer for dinner and been quite full, but somehow we managed that and the entree. The sensible group next to us ordered one spaghetti entree for three people and I'm not sure if they finished it. Dessert was absolutely out of the question.
After dinner was Cirque, and right off the bat, we were bothered by one of those roaming photographers. Obviously, we weren't allowed to take any pictures of our own. All I can say about the show was that it was pure Cirque magic, a wonderful combination of acrobatics, humour, and audience participation. The best audience participation was actually prior to the start of the show when a clown was acting as an usher and randomly taking people the room.
After the show, we went to get some postcards. In the gift shop where those pictures that they took of us while we were in the show. The lady who took the picture must have seen us coming because she picked up our picture, but when we ignored her, she slammed it back down on the table. I thought that was funny too, but Anne was too distracted to notice. She was making eyes at a Latino kid, and then she suddenly realized that it was one of her students, who had come to Vegas with his parents. Small world. Shake hands. Make small talk. Go pay for postcards.
Then we headed out to the interactive wax museum at the Venetian. We posed with various famous waxen celebrities, debated about whether or not one of them looked remotely like Julia Roberts, and generally goofed around. What makes this museum interactive was that you could play golf with Tiger Woods, wear a wedding dress next to George Clooney, play basketball with Shaq, and otherwise touch and interact with the celebrities. By the way, you know your wife loves you when she allows you to stick her head between Jenna Jamieson's boobs, and you know your husband loves you when he allows you to get into bed with Hefner. We skipped the horror exhibit, as we were both chickens, and we are guessing it was extra interactive, in that some of the wax figures are live. I almost stuck my tongue in Britney's mouth, but then decided against it as I hadn't gotten my shots yet. Though, much to my chargrin, I did like Michael Jackson get behind me.
After that, I remember being tired out of my skull and almost nodding off in the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Bellagio. No amount of stunning landscapes was going to change that. (I hear you asking, "Frank, are you that whipped? Why didn't you put your foot down and say, 'No!'?" Well, I wanted to make sure that I got my money's worth from the Power Pass. Without that, it would have been easy to convince Anne that it wasn't worth $15 each to see the pictures, especially since the Belliago is such an amazing place already).
It was close to American Thanksgiving, and all around the hotel were displays of falling autumn leaves. Each one was a piece of art in itself. The Conservatory smelled like pumpkin pie and the floral displays were absolutely breathtaking. Words fail me here, partly because I was so tired.
posted by Frank Yao | 8:35 PM
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