This morning we did the Hoover Dam. I never realized just how close to Vegas the Dam is. It's only 27 miles and didn't take long at all to get there. Scott has wanted to see this everytime we've been here, and we never have. It was one of the few "family friendly" things we could do during our stay in Vegas! The tour starts in the Visitor Center with a brief movie of how they built the dam and then they take you down to what was one of the diversion tunnels for the river during construction. Today, they run water through it in big steel pipes. They take you in a room built on top of one of these pipes. The whole time you are in there the room is vibrating from the force of the water flowing through the pipe under your feet. A little claustrophobic. They then take you back up a level to the hydroelectric plant. Once your back on street level your free to roam the dam on your own. We went up to the observation deck to look down. It definately gives you a feeling of vertigo. It is one serious dam! While we were on the observation deck we "observed" these two half dressed pregnant women. I thought you all might enjoy seeing some of the wild hippy types out here on the West coast. I didn't want to appear too obvious with the camera, but we did manage the above pic when they took their "belly shots." Since we're in Vegas....I'd lay 10 to one odds the one on the right in the crochet "maternity" top has a natural home water birth! Not that there's anything wrong with that...I myself prefer a hospital with lots of epidural meds!

After the dam we drove down the strip to pick up mine and Thomas's tickets to the Elvis show. Traffic down the strip looked like this...

After parking back at our hotel we walked through New York, New York and over to M&M world. Mandy was very excited about this. She's a HUGE M&M fan, in fact, our family calls M&M's "Mandy Candy." She kept yelling "Candies!!!" We were so miserably hot, that we decided to go back to the hotel and rest for awhile. Here's a picture of the temperature gauge on the mirror of the Tahoe...Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, so naturally we are headed to the Grand Canyon.

Tonight Thomas and I went to see the Trent Carlini Elvis show at the Sahara. Scott kept the girls and they went shopping and had ice cream. Thomas and I had a great time. The show was a history of Elvis's songs. He started dressed as young Elvis in that gold lame jacket, then in an Army uniform, then Elvis in Hawaii...you get the picture. The guy sounded just like Elvis and looked an amazing lot like him too. I know it sounds cliche that we came to Vegas and saw an Elvis impersonator, but this guy was great. I must admit there was a moment when he was singing,"Love Me Tender," that I understood why women used to stand at the stage screaming and crying. There is something about Elvis that defies description....

He did a segment in the show where he explained that he was a huge fan as a kid and his intention is not to replace Elvis, but to carry him on for the next generation. Two or three times during the show he'd be singing and he'd point at Thomas and I. We were in the 6th row and the seats on either side of us were empty. I couldn't figure out why until after the show. He signed autographs and took pictures in the lobby. When he came out Thomas and I were looking at his cd's and tshirts and Thomas was trying to convince me to buy him something. You ccould have your picture made with him for $20 and he'd autograph it. Just as I was telling Thomas we should do that, he saw Thomas and told the girl to let him come on back. I was paying for the picture and he was down on one knee and he and Thomas were deep in conversation! When I joined them he was asking Thomas if he knew the words to every song he sang during the show. I finally realized that he saw Thomas singing along during the show and that's why he kept pointing at him. I told him that Thomas was a huge fan and that his birthday was next month and he was having an Elvis party. He and Thomas had their picture made together and he told Thomas not to go anywhere that he had a birthday present for him. He went over to the table and grabbed a copy of his cd and one of his head shots. He autographed the head shot and then gave it and the cd to Thomas. He was so cool with him!! Of course, Thomas was on cloud9 and practically floated back to the hotel!Prepare yourselves because I'm sure that next time you see Thomas you'll hear all about it in great detail! Tomorrow we are leaving Las Vegas, or "Lost Begas" as Mandy says, for the Grand Canyon.

Blessings,

Leslie