Tuesday, August 12th marks the first day of our trip that we actually stayed in one place for the entire day…

We got up early, and drove to the Hoover Dam…  About a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas, and well worth the trip!  For $7 parking and $12 each for the tour, we got to see a movie about the Hoover Dam, and then tour down to the generating area of the hydro-electric plant.  Afterwards, we went up to the obversavation deck and took some pictures of the dam and Lake Mead behind it.

We then drove back into Las Vegas to enjoy an evening on the strip.  First, we walked over to the Sahara and bought two monorail passes for $9 with a coupon, which gave us unlimited rides for 24 hours.  This was a great deal, as single ride passes were $9!  I highly recommend getting a monorail pass for getting around the strip… Walking it can take hours… time better spent in casinos or seeing shows!  We took the monorail to the Imperial Palace station, and then walked to Caesar’s Palace.  We decided to go to Rub BBQ again for supper (Yeah, it was that good) so we walked to the Rio on the opposite side of I15.  This was a BAD move.  It’s a LONG ways from Caesar’s Palace to the Rio, and in the desert heat, it was not a fun walk.  After finishing supper, we discovered an amazing thing…  FREE shuttles!  From the Rio to Caesar’s Palace (And back again)!  That would have been nice to know a couple hours earlier.  If you need to get around the strip, between the monorail and shuttle service, you are pretty much covered.  After riding back to Caesar’s Palace, we visited some of the casinos in that area, such as the Bellagio.  We stopped to watch the water show in front of the Bellagio, and then headed back to catch the monorail back to the Sahara.   We then went back to our hotel (The Stratosphere) and saw the show “Bite” in the Theatre of the Stars…  A great (Somewhat erotic) show about vampires, mixed with some rock and roll, dancing, and acrobatics.

One more important thing I’d like to mention about Vegas… Watch out for all the Tahiti Village time share scammers… they are EVERYWHERE.  They are like a parasite, as you walk through the hotels they approach you with lines like “Have you received your free show tickets yet?”  “Are you staying at this hotel?”  “Would you like some free slot play?”  “Where are you from?”  They don’t leave you alone…  I’m sure this is where a major part of revenue for these places is coming from.  My question is this… If time shares are such a great deal, why do they use such forceful sales tactics?  Ugh.

Stay tuned, in the morning I’ll write up a story for our Wednesday trip, and you won’t want to miss it!

Categories: Vacation