Viva Las Vegas!
Posted on March 29th, 2005 @ 10:52 PM EST
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I returned home yesterday from a five-day trip to Las Vegas. I met up with my sister and parents in Charlotte, NC then we all got on a plane to Vegas.
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We arrived around 10 AM and immediately drove down to the Hoover Dam after picking up our rental car. The dam contains enough concrete to build a 16 foot wide highway from San Francisco to New York City and is one of America’s Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders. It would have been nice to be able to go inside the dam, but unfortunately, they no longer give tours because of 9/11. After we got back to Vegas we went to the lunch buffet at the Bellagio. For only $17.95 they had just about anything you could possibly want to eat and everything I had was superb.
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The next day we took a two-hour helicopter tour. We flew over the Hoover Dam then went through the western rim of the Grand Canyon and landed on the floor of the canyon. We also saw some extinct volcanoes, the road that was used at the end of Thelma & Louise (when they drove off the cliff), a couple of old gold mines, then we flew over the Las Vegas strip before landing. It was my first time in a helicopter and was definitely a real highlight of the trip.
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Later that day my sister and I went to the top of the Stratosphere and rode the Big Shot which is the highest roller coaster in the world and also the XScream which is the third highest thrill ride in the world. The tower is 1,149 feet high and is the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
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After it got dark we went to Fremont Street to watch the VIVA Vision light and sound show. It is a $17 million creation and is the biggest big screen on the planet. This is a must-see if you’re ever in Vegas, although it’s in a rough section of town.
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We had dinner at the Hofbräuhaus Las Vegas which was one of my favorite breweries to ever eat at. It’s an authentic replica of the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, Germany that was built in 1589 by King William V. A German band was playing who sang nothing but German songs and they would pause every now and then so everyone in the restaurant (including them) could tip their beers. All of their beer is imported from the location in Münich. I ordered a liter of Münchner Kindl Weiss beer along with Ofenfrischer Leberkäs which is a Bavarian grilled sausage loaf and is served with potato salad. The brewery had great beer and food, and a very entertaining atmosphere and was a lot different than a typical American microbrewery. I’m just disappointed that it isn’t close to where I live.
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Friday, we drove out to Death Valley, CA which was roughly a two and a half-hour drive from Vegas. Death Valley is the largest National Park in the United States outside Alaska and covers over 3 million acres. It also once held the highest temperature (132°F) in the world in 1913 and it also has the lowest point (-282 feet below sea level) in the Western Hemisphere. Due to a high amount of rain over the past few months the wildflower bloom was unusually high this year. Many locals have said it is one of the best in modern history. The rain also caused extensive damage on many of the park’s roads so we were unable to go to places like Titus Canyon, Artist’s Palette, and Zabriskie Point. We did manage to see Badwater Basin, Devil’s Golf Course, Mushroom Rock, Salt Creek, Devil’s Corn Field, the Sand Dunes, and Rhyolite Ghost Town. It was a lot of driving for one day and it would have been nice to have another day to see some of the other attractions throughout the park.
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The last day there we drove around Vegas most of the day and walked around the strip. We walked through the Venetian and New York, New York then went back to the Bellagio for their buffet. After lunch we returned to the hotel so we could pack our things up because we had to leave at 3:30 AM for our early flight home. We then went back to the strip so we could see the city at night and watched the volcano show at the Mirage.
I was really surprised at just how large Vegas is as it was a lot larger than I had imagined it would be. I took over 400 photos while I was there and will post them to the site as soon as I can get around to it.
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