Day 17 - Las Vegas

My favorite sign from Grand Canyon -- above the toilet at the Bright Angel Lodge it says  "Caution Reclaimed Wastewater DO NOT DRINK"  Does anyone regularly drink toilet water????

Day 17 (June 11) - So we got up early, took showers, and did laundry this morning.  Erin and Bow stayed down with the laundry while it was going and the rest of us went back to the tent to try to break down camp.  The girls had taken their breakfast pastries with them to eat while doing laundry, but everyone else left theirs on the table at the campsite to try and heat them up a bit (by the sun).  When we got back from the laundry room to eat our breakfast Daniel couldn't find his pastry.  We looked around and we checked the receipt to see if we had actually purchased it. Daniel had resorted to eating a Poptart before Bow found his pastry under the table where a squirrel had opened it and eaten part of it.  We convinced him to tear off the squirrel-eaten section and then eat the rest of it.

Elk in our Campsite

While we were breaking down camp one of the neighbors came up and asked if we had seen the big moose wandering through campsite.  When we saw it we realized it was a large elk, not a moose, but it was still huge and hanging out in the camp.  We followed it a bit and took pictures and then went back to breaking down camp.

New Bridge over Hoover Dam

Then we got on the road to Las Vegas.  One interesting place we stopped on the road was the Hoover Dam.  I had been over it several times, but never stopped.  We only got to stop briefly because we were late and had to get to Vegas to see David Copperfield.

Lake Mead side of Hoover Dam

Our hotel was awesome!  We had two separate rooms and separate bathrooms.  We had a shower with 5 nozzles and it was great!  We stayed at the Desert Rose Resort, which is a non-gaming condo complex next to the Hooters Hotel and the MGM Grand.  We barely had time to set everything down before we had to head over to the MGM Grand to see our David Copperfield performance.  It was a great show.  He involved many members of the audience and did one trick right next to our table.  I don't know how he does any of his tricks, but at one point he made a car appear and at the end of the show he made about 12 audience members disappear.  He also did something neat with sending us an email before he did the trick which showed the answer to the trick (a series of "random" occurrences).  That was neat!

Hoover Dam

Colorado River after Hoover Dam with Bridge

New York, New York Casino

Decorative art on underpass in a Las Vegas freeway

Then we ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe which had good food, but it was very cold in the restaurant.  Then we walked the strip a bit and tried to avoid people begging for money, smokers, and people trying to sell us prostitutes on every corner.  So, I don't think that Las Vegas itself was that interesting.  We were just tired and overwhelmed by how noisy and smelly everything was.   Katlin recommended the New York, New York roller coaster, but it was $14 per person and it didn't seem like it was worth it if we were headed to the California theme parks the next day.

 

Chocolate Volcano Dessert at Rainforest Cafe