Vegas and Beyond...

Since we last posted, we have explored Las Vegas up and down the strip, and inside many of the popular hotels. We spent SOME time in the casinos at the tables and slots, but didn’t lose too much! I think Renee had more success than I did, but in the end, we still ended up on the overall losing end… pretty sure that’s the story most people have to tell when they return as well.

We did see a couple of shows while we were there. We saw Mesmerized, which was a hypnotist show in a smaller venue. Then we saw KA, which is a Cirque du Soleil show that is running in the MGM Grand where we stayed. It was a really cool show and we definitely enjoyed our time there. The acrobatics and stunts are amazing! Speaking of the MGM Grand, you’ll also see a photo of the Lion Habitat which is within the hotel, and is really neat. The shot I got was of the lion playing a game of some variation of volleyball with the trainer… he’s in mid-spike!

While we were walking on the strip we did see the construction progress that has been made on the huge City Center project (see http://www.citycenter.com for more info) which is really cool (for architecture/design nerds like me). When visiting some of the other more opulent/newer hotels, it’s amazing the amount of money and detail that is spent to create these places as you can see in a few of the photos.

Some of the other photos below are of the Hoover Dam which we stopped by on our way out of Las Vegas. We didn’t take the tour, because we were a little tired of all the walking and tourist things, as we’ve gotten our fill over the last few weeks. It’s still a pretty cool site to see though. In one of the photos you can see the new Hoover Dam/Colorado River bridge project that they are working to complete. The new bridge should help reduce the traffic that we experienced getting to the Hoover Dam.

We got to the Los Angeles area yesterday evening and had some drinks and dinner with my mom’s cousin and husband in Arcadia where they are kindly hosting us for a couple of nights. Then today they played tour guide and took us around LA and downtown to see the various sights. We didn’t really take many photos but we saw Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Dodger Stadium, the Rose Bowl, the USC campus, and the photos we did take were at Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall which is a really neat building. Now we are relaxing around the house and will be traveling to Irvine and San Diego to have lunch with friends and finish our last few days of our road trip… until next time!