Nataliya and Seth's Las Vegas Vacation

What better way to start our weekend with a nice tasty breakfast at the local McDonalds! Does it get any better than this? (Considering my luck at the casinos, though, I might make some money back by spilling hot coffee on my lap and threatening to sue them...)

Anyway, we all headed off to the Hoover Dam and it was an amazing day. We drove through Boulder City and eventually found ourselves at the Hoover Dam. Once we discarded our alcohol and firearms as per the parking garage sign, we made our way to the entranceway to the exhibits and the Discovery Tour.

The dam is truly a spectacular sight. I'm not going to get into the history because it's easily found on other web sites and books, but what I did find interesting is that it was built during the depression years, so many people were willing to do the dangerous tasks associated with its construction because there was no other jobs available during that time. I also found it interesting that the first man and last man killed on the job was a father and son. Lastly, I found it interesting that the Dam only became the "Hoover" Dam after much political nonsense and jealousy.

There's a lot more I could write about The Hoover Dam and the hydroelectrical power that's created, but I will just let you look that up if you're really interested. For now, you can look at some of the pictures we took. I will say that the Discovery Tour was definitely worth taking, even if the tour is less than it used to be because of 9/11. (Thank you, Bin Laden!)

>>Skip photos<<

After touring the Hoover Dam, we drove across it and five minutes later we drove back. Not really much to say about this except that we did it. But by this time we were all starting to get hungry and we all wanted a late lunch/early dinner. We decided to leave the dam behind us as we headed back to Las Vegas.

We decided to eat at the Mirage Hotel, and we were seated at our table by 3 PM. The name of the buffet, cleverly enough, was called The Mirage Buffet. Anyway, it was pretty good, but I don't think any of us were overly impressed. Still, we ate our fill and then some. Nataliya, of course, really enjoyed the desserts.

What was the best thing to do after a full stomach? Well, that's easy to decide! We went to the Stratosphere on the High Roller Rollercoaster on top! This hotel is the tallest in Las Vegas and has spectacular views of the Las Vegas area. Well, we got our tickets for the roller coaster and although it's a slow-moving one, it's wild since it's over 100 stories above the ground. I was the only one who wanted to try the Big Shot, a ride that "launches passengers 160 feet in the air in a mere 2.5 seconds to experience 4 G's of force, and then drops them back down to the launching pad at 0 G's". (reference)

On the way out, Nataliya and I stopped at a photo booth... but it wasn't just any old photo booth! This one told the future, specifically what our child would look like. We both had to sit down independently and line our eyes up so that the camera could line us up. After taking both our pictures, it figured out what our beautiful offspring would look like. I think Nataliya was in shock and I think she missed the part of the picture that read "FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY". I guess it didn't help when I kept giving her a manly voice and asking, "why don't the other kids like me? why do they throw food at me at school?" Anyway, judge for yourself! (Family photo?)

From there, we stopped off by a souvenier store to pick up some souveniers. Actually, Nataliya and I weren't much into it, but we bought a few things just the same. Personally I think Nataliya had more fun making fun of the merchandise rather than buying it!

We then drove downtown to get ourself a graveyard dinner. These are meals that cost significantly less than the normal meal in an attempt to lure gamblers to their casinos. We got there pretty late, but still a bit early for one of these meals, so we walked around. We saw some people with some frozen drinks and we asked where they got them. They pointed to "La Bayou", a little hole-in-the-wall slot machine place which (we were assured) made the best frozen drinks in the downtown area. One guy in this group of people said he'd been coming to Fremont St., for years and the best drinks were definitely in this place. I guess it didn't take much more convincing. We went in and walked to the back where they made these 18" tall drinks.

In a casino with only 121 slot machines, it was easy to find the bar in La Bayou. The bar has pre-made frozen drinks, similar to what you'd find in a Fat Tuesday's, and I had a "Voodo" while Nataliya had a "Hurricane Kamikaze" mixed with a "Pina Colada". (Interesting enough, Fat Tuesdays came out of New Orleans and the theme of this place is New Orleans as well... sounds like hardly a coincidence!) I have to say, these drinks were very good, but cold. At least it was warm inside the casino, so we decided to hang out until we could get our dinners. We started to gamble, so with drink in hand sitting next to the bar, I put in $5 into a nickle slot machine. In five minutes' time, I was up a whole dollar! Maybe my luck was about to change! I asked Nataliya to sit in while I played another machine. The lowest bill I had was a $10 bill, so I tried to put that into the machine but it refused to accept it. After several tries, I tried a $20. Of course you know it accepted that bill right away...

So by the time we were finishing our first drinks, Nataliya lost almost all of the $6 in her machine, while I was down at least another $10 on my machine. Then I hit the progressive jackpot on the nickle slot machine.

Nataliya and Ty both got another drink while I waited for the management to pay up!

With a wallet full of cash and a desire to get an early morning steak, we went next door to the Golden Gate Hotel and got our 16 oz. porterhouse steak dinners for only $7.77 each. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Overall it was a pretty exciting day and we fell asleep right away.