Yesterday (Tuesday) we booked a tour to Hoover Dam for today.  The bus picked us up a little after 9 with only a minimal amount of confusion.  (Thankfully, we chose to give them my cell phone number.)  We made several more pickups and were delivered to the basement of Planet Hollywood where we disembarked, paid the balance of our tour fee, and boarded another motor coach.  Our tour guide, Steve, was incredibly well-versed in all things Vegas and the surrounding area.  Our trip was accompanied by a non-stop narrative about the history of Las Vegas and, as we approached it, Hoover Dam.

I have seen several documentaries on the building of Hoover Dam and knew everything they were telling us already.  But nothing can prepare you for the sheer enormity of the thing.  I mean, MY GOD, it’s HUGE!  We took the elevator down into one of the two turbine rooms.  It was amazing to see all the stuff I’d only seen on TV.  As we left the lower levels and were in the elevator, our tour guide (a man with quite a sense of humor) informed us of the following: "If you go out on top of the dam and look down, you’ll see the area you just left.  If you lean over a little more, you’ll RETURN TO the area you just left.  [laughter]  It happens more often than you think.  Usually to husbands."  Then he looks right at Amanda, who is standing next to him, and says, "Weren’t you here last year with another guy?"  The look on Amanda’s face was priceless.

We left the guided tour and walked across the top of the dam, taking lots of pictures.  It’s funny to me that if you decide to go to the top of the Empire State Building, there are all sorts of gates and fences to keep you from plunging to your doom.  But at Hoover Dam, there’s nothing more than a waist-high wall between you and certain death. 

The views of the dam and the gorge were impressive, but as we left the dam our bus stopped at the Lake Mead Overlook.  WOW.  The view there was incredible.  We had clear blue sky and practically no smog.  The view of the lake and the valley was stupendous.  I could have stood there for hours just soaking it all in. 

On the way back we stopped at the Ethel M (as in "M"ars) Chocolate Factory, grabbed a free sample, surveyed the botanical gardens (at a chocolate factory?) and got back on the bus for the hotel.  We rested up and decided to try and track down the "Deuce", a dirt-cheap public bus that runs up to downtown where we thought it would be nice to see the Fremont Street Experience.  Well, it was early evening and that thing was packing the riders in like sardines.  We decided not to pursue that line of entertainment and instead took the elevator to the top of Paris, Las Vegas’ Eiffel Tower.  The views were awesome!  When we got down we caught the fountain show at Bellagio across the street and then went in search of food.  We walked into several places, but ended up at a place called Battista’s Hole In The Wall Italian restaurant.  WOW.  This was my kind of place!  The originator (now dead) appeared to make a habit of keeping every knick-knack he ever came across, bringing it to his restaurant, and either displaying it in cases or nailing it to the wall and/or ceiling.  There were hats, little glass bottles, baskets of all sizes, fish nets, hundreds of celebrity photos, and even a boat.  As if all this ambience weren’t enough, a tiny 80 year-old man came around and serenaded us with an accordion. 

We left there stuffed and resolved to walk all the way back to our hotel (at least a mile, maybe more) in order to burn off some of that dinner.  We made it back and fell asleep quickly.