Day 5 - Las Vegas

Hoover Dam...still cant see the bottom of it!

Las Vegas!!!

Lake Meads

Colorado River, towards Lake Meads

Me copying the Statue of Liberty (made out of jelly beans) in the New York New York Casino

So todays been our full day in Vegas...which after a rather late, or should I say early morning last night we were all pretty keen to start off with a sleep in. After a rather laxed out start to the day 5 of us rented a car and drove to Hoover Dam. It was built from 1931-1935 on the Colorado River and has created the desert of the southwest into the productive basin it is today. It is pegged as being one of the greatest enginering feats of the 20th century and also created one of the biggest, if not the biggest, man made lake - Lake Meads. Honestly I know it kind of sounds boring, afterall it is just a dam, but it is massive! And so so so impressive. We paid $11 each for a tour of the dam as well as admission to the visitors centre, so a pretty sweet deal. The tour was really interesting and ended on an observation deck looking back down onto the dam and the Colorado River. Ok if anyone has seen "A Walk to Remember" you will know where I got this from....I straddled the state line between Navada and Arizona today...so can officially say I have been in two places at once :). We headed back towards Boulder (small city very near to the Hoover Dam) to grab some lunch. By this time it was about 4pm so I was absolutely starving. I think the guys were too actually. We were back at the hotel just after 5:30pm so had 20mins to shower, dress, put makeup on and head down to the van. It was a very rushed getting ready period but all good. Mike took us to a hotel for dinner that had an awesome buffet. So so so so much food aye. And a really good price. It was nice to sit down and catch up with the rest of the group and hear about their days and just chill out together over a meal. I must admit that I am looking forward to going back to camping again - as much as I have enjoyed Las Vegas. After dinner we walked to the MRM to buy tickets for the "Ka" show put on by Cirque du Soleil. It was amazing! Like I honestly dont think I will ever be able to explain just how incredible it was. It mixes acrobatics with ballet, drama (kind of reminded me of Shakespare's 12th Knight aye) and special effects. Completely blew me away. So so so worth every dollar of the ticket and a must see! And seeing it in Vegas was soo sweet. After the show Jose, Alex, Maria and I checked out New York New York Casino before heading to the Venitian Casino. Both are hard out crazy! In a good way. I definitely love that the casinos in Vegas have so much more to offer than simply gambling aye. And I cant help but wonder if gambling would simply distract you from all the sweet sightseeing that is to be done. Well its now just gone 1:00am and it will be an early start tomorrow so I better sign off and get some beauty sleep! Its on to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Going to be soooo sweet!!