The Desert Escape | Las Vegas & The Hoover Dam

In August, only a week after I arrived back in the U.S. from my trip to Korea my family and I took a much-needed family vacation to Las Vegas and Northern Arizona. I call it the Desert Escape. For the sake of not bombarding readers with a 15-page blog post, this series will have three installments, Las Vegas & the Hoover Dam, The Grand Canyon, Prescott & Sedona. Here, loyal readers is the first part.

LAS VEGAS:

Our first stop was Las Vegas, and it was everything you would imagine a trip to Vegas to be. During our drive in, we stopped in Baker at Alien Fresh Jerky, an eccentric and interesting beef jerky store, where we stocked up on strange dried flavored beef which we consumed for the rest of the trip. I’m pretty sure one day my lunch consisted of pineapple beef jerky and potato chips, but I guess that’s just how road trips go. Alien Fresh Jerky had many flavor choices as well as some questionable hot sauce combinations, and fun yet somewhat terrifying alien decoration around the buildings and outside. It’s a must hit spot on your way to sin city.

During the drive, we played Along with a radio game and “won” some tickets for a Vegas show. I felt pretty good about getting the answer correct, even though it’s was painfully simple. We finally got into Vegas and checked into the South Point Hotel, a massive hotel on the south end of the strip. We ravenously ate dinner at the buffet after checking in. This was my brothers first Vegas buffet experience and I’m not sure if he even realized it, since we ate so quickly.

The next day we started our morning by collecting our tickets that we had “won” and then spent three hours in a time-share presentation to receive two free tickets and a two-night stay at the Disneyland hotel (which we have yet to receive). We were hammered by countless sales reps before being released back into the Vegas heat. It was then that I broke up with a very drunk man on a bridge who confessed his love for me and proceeded to scream “no” as I told him it just wouldn’t work out.

We grabbed a quick lunch and then we saw him…Guy Fieri. He walked by me, his son sneezed, I said, “Bless you” and then I realized who that was. But he was gone before I could say anything. It was tragic.

We wandered around a few more hotels until my mom purchased me my first very large and excessive Vegas alcoholic beverage. Needless to say, the 3D show at the M&M store has never been so interesting. We explored the Venetian, people watched, and watched the ‘moving statues’, at Caesars Palace before going back to our hotel.

The South Point Hotel, is nice, not too quiet and just far enough off the strip to avoid all the crazy youths. We lounged in the uniquely shaped pool, even though the water was nearly as hot as it was outside, before deciding upon seeing a comedy show at the hotel. We laughed, cringed, and hoped that my father wouldn’t pass out. Our day was finished off with a late dinner at the cantina in the Hotel and a disappointing game of roulette.

THE HOOVER DAM:

The next morning we left Vegas for Hoover Dam, a trip my mother and I have done before. The Hoover Dam is beautiful even the second time around. Previously my mother and I had only toured the power plant, however, this time we bought tickets to go deep into the dams heart. We took a very cramped and suffocating elevator ride down and toured the power plant again before 20 of us broke off.

During the smaller tour, we went into some hallways and saw some measurements and names that were scribbled on the walls from the construction era. We were lead over a six-story hole in the ground (which was horrifying) and to a vent in the middle of the dam, where we could take pictures. We saw a few other things before going back ‘above ground’. It was actually a really cool experience, seeing the inside of this huge and marvelous structure. If you’ve never been or if you have and you haven’t done the whole tour I recommend doing it, it’s a bit more expensive but totally worth it. We also viewed the old presentation in a small room at the top of the dam. It was from a time long ago and put my father to sleep, but I loved it. A large 3D map lit up as the story and facts of the dam and the Colorado River were told.

Finally, we drove into Prescott Arizona where we were staying at a friends vacation home…

Stay tuned for the next post in this mini-series. It’s all about the Grand Canyon, and the Grand Canyon Railway.

Explore on,

-Ashlee