Well I have to admit that Las Vegas was not anywhere on my radar for this journey. Although I have wanted to experience the shows and food of Vegas, I just couldn’t imagine strolling through smoke smelly casinos to do it. Kimberly made it clear that she wanted to have a stop in Vegas, so I scheduled 2 weeks there.
We left Grand Canyon Railway Park in several inches of fresh snow and happily left Winter behind us.
We both were surprised at the beauty of Nevada as a whole. I expected a flat desert that suddenly turned into sin city and then back to flat desert again. So so wrong we were. Nevada is stunningly gorgeous with views similar to Sedona in Arizona. We checked into the Las Vegas RV resort on a Sunday and we knew Kimberly was not traveling the first week. Mollie and I would be on our own for week 2. Yolo was situated 7 miles from the strip and close to lots of parks and restaurants.
We were about an hour from Hoover Dam and headed there on day one. What an awesome site. The tour taught me all the things I hadn’t paid attention to when I was in school.
Wikipedia says:
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. It was referred to as Hoover Dam after President Herbert Hoover in bills passed by Congress during its construction, but was named Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. The Hoover Dam name was restored by Congress in 1947.
Both Mollie and Kimberly had beauty parlor appointments in Vegas and, for the first time, we had Yolo professionally washed by a local RV detailer. We even sent the TOAD through the wash and, for just a minute, everyone/thing was groomed…well, except me.
We went to see the Cirque show called Mystere and it was hysterical and breathtaking at the same time. The venue is inside Treasure Island so we ate there and Kimberly played a few slots and we made a Vegas night of it.
We also met up with old friends of Kimberlys from Florida that reside in Las Vegas now. Jennifer and Tony shared local knowledge that was so helpful. They told us exactly where to go for Sunday brunch to be able to see the fountains at the Belagio from our patio seats. So we made reservations and did just that. We walked the strip that day with 400 million of our close friends and acted like tourists. It was stimulus overload for me and I’m pretty sure I needed a nap after all that.
It was nice to have great nature to hike so close by. We made it to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and to Valley of Fire State Park which we both imagined is how Mars and Jupiter must look.
We took Mollie in her stroller to Lazy Dog restaurant and met many many dogs while enjoying time with friends Jennifer and Tony and their dog Angel. Angel was MUCH more chill about the whole restaurant scene than Mollie was. We ordered her dinner off the doggie menu which she gobbled down like a champ. We have since had a few regrets about that. Mollies belly had a few choice words to say about it. As a side note, I am writing this post from our new location in Orange, CA and there is a Lazy Dog within a 10 minute walk from the campground. Weighing the options…
Myself and our camp neighbor, Walter, hung out some when Kimberly traveled. We hiked together at Wetlands Park and could see the Vegas skyline from there. Although we experienced some desert winds, the weather was really perfect. I can’t imagine doing Vegas in the Summer!
We enjoyed Las Vegas. Kimberly made her $100 gambling budget last until our last night! I’m ok not going back to Vegas but if I did, I could manage. I will say that I found Chinatown and had some of the best and most authentic dim sum I have ever eaten. If you know me…you know how huge that is.
CoBro + 1 with Yolo and the TOAD 