Vegas, Baby

Mara at the beachMara. In the water.

Mara. In a dam tunnel.

Just a dam picture!

The dam water flow

Mara, Sara and Penn

Sara and Teller

Mara and Teller

The Luxor, our comfy pyramid

A sphinx

On our way out of L.A., we went to an IN-N-OUT that was all drive thru. Someone came to our window to take the order as soon as we pulled in. By the time we got to the window, they had already made our burgers and we had already paid. So off we went. We stopped again at a Starbucks so that Mara could write her post about L.A. We were so relaxed hanging out with the smell of coffee, that we lost track of the time and we only had 4 hours before our Cirque de Soleil show. So we packed up and sped on to Vegas. We found our hotel 45 minutes before the show, parked, found the front desk, checked in, found our room, performed a quick change and then ran to the MGM. Everything is over sized and maze like in these casinos, so none of this was easy. We made it to the performance only 7 minutes late. The show, Ka, was amazing. The first half was more like a modern dance performance, but the second half included lots of awe inspiring circus skills. The most amazing part was actually the stage itself. It was on hydraulics and could tilt to any angle while the performers hung on to arrows or sticks coming out of the wall/floor. After the show, we leisurely walked back to our hotel, the Luxor. It's a giant pyramid. The elevators go up and over at the same time, so you feel like you are falling when ever they start. Our room looks out over the sphinx and an obelisk from the windows that slant out, because they are the outside of the pyramid.

In the morning we saw workmen rappelling down to clean up the roof of a "smaller" building (that holds both the Bodies and the Titanic exhibitions) in the center of the pyramid just outside of our room. Late in the morning, we drove to Hoover Dam to go on the Dam tour. We got there at 12:15, just in time for the 2:00 Dam tour. So we had some time to kill. We ate some lunch at the Dam restaurant, and took our time in the Dam air conditioning. The Dam temperature outside was about 112. Finally, we were ready to join the rest of the Dam tourists and get ready for our Dam tour. Our Dam guides were Frank and Hal. They told many good Dam jokes. It was pretty interesting and amazing to see all that Dam cement at work. When we had finally had enough Dam fun, we headed off to see more of Lake Mead. We made a short stop at a beach and walked a bit in the water, but it was still about 110 and it was very windy, so we headed on back to our comfy Pyramid. That evening, we had tickets for Penn & Teller. We drove to the show, and did not need to do any running to get there on time. The show was very funny and entertaining. They had lots of audience participation, but we did not get to take part. It was still lots of fun and we had a perfect view from our seats. After the show, both Penn and Teller came out into the entrance area and signed autographs and let people take pictures with them. I told Teller about how I use their Behind the Scenes videos in my classes and he said he had just been thinking about them. They were made about 20 years ago. Maybe it's time for them to make some new ones.