USA 2006: Las Vegas & California
(continued)
The gardens of the Flamingo hotel
(above and left)
The viewing platform at the top of The Stratosphere provides views of The Strip and Las Vegas's location
in the desert
We drive out from Las Vegas and join the Hoover Dam Discovery Tour which has replaced the more extensive tour we experienced in 1991
and 1995. The current heightened security following September 11th 2001 restricts the guided part of the tour to the Power Plant Generators
and the Penstock Viewing Platform.
President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the dam
on September 30th 1935
The 650-foot-long Nevada wing of the dam's power plant,
which we access via a 250-foot-long tunnel
Winged Figures of the Republic - one of the two 32-foot-tall
bronze monuments commemorating the dam's construction
This amazing statue illustrates the highly dangerous method
used to drill the canyon walls during the dam's construction
Prior to leaving Las Vegas, we visit two museums dedicated to two music personalities famously associated with the city:
- the
Liberace Museum has been enlarged and
refurbished since our previous visit; and
- ELVIS-A-RAMA where we meet Jimmy Velvet, and
the
'King' himself, who performs solely for us
June 5th: Mojave National Preserve, California, part of the Mojave Desert that separates Las Vegas from Los Angeles,
is a very dry
area dotted here and there with the shaggy form of Joshua Trees