Las Vegas

We spent some time at the Bellagio pool, but it was too windy & hot to stay long …

We spent more time touring the strip, including trying to see what the new Wynn hotel would be like:

But eventually, we had to leave and head back to Massachusetts …

 

We left the cabin and headed past Lake Arrowhead – the plan was to drive down the “other side” of the mountain and head for Las Vegas; however, recent heavy rains apparently washed away many roads (see “The Rim Of The World Highway” and a Google Map). So we were forced to turn around and retrace our steps back the way we came – but at least we did finally get on the highway back to Las Vegas:

The highway looked basically like that the whole way – very distant visibility but not much to see. When we did see something in the distance it would take an amazingly long time to reach … but we finally got close enough to Las Vegas to see the mega-hotels in the distance:

For our return stay in Las Vegas, we will be at the Bellagio – still my very favourite hotel! Of course I chose a room with great views out to the Bellagio Lake, and the strip hotels; we spent the rest of the day admiring views from the room:

An evening walk along the strip took us past Caesars Palace and the Venetian, to the “volcano” at the Mirage hotel; then heading back to our room, a final stop to watch the Bellagio fountains from ground level:

Today we left Las Vegas and headed south, over the Hoover Dam and into Arizona. The dam area was chaotic with traffic but we grabbed a couple of pics, showing how low the water level is. After lunch at Mr.D’z diner in Kingman we reached Lake Havasu City, where an old London Bridge was transported and set up across the lake, back in 1971 – supposedly the American buyers thought they were getting Tower Bridge(!) but I don’t believe it.
There is a lot of tourist trap stuff around the bridge and apart from the bridge, Lake Havasu City does not offer much – so I guess it was just a marketing gimmick:

 

From there we headed west towards California, and visited Parker Dam which was devoid of traffic & people and much nicer to visit than Hoover Dam; there was a huge crane / machine there used to raise & lower the dam sluices (note Margaret standing dwarfed at the base):

After Parker Dam we continued west, into California. We found somewhere to stay in Indio, near to the Joshua Tree National Park where we plan to go tomorrow …