Back to Las Vegas!

And so we're heading back to Las Vegas for a few days before heading home again.

The scenery is beautiful!

Ah yes...must stop at the Hoover Dam, an engineering marvel. When it was completed in 1936, it was the world's largest concrete structure.

There appears to be some kind of traffic jam...the cars are lined up in both directions.

The new Colorado River Bridge. It's supposed to be completed this year after five years of construction, and will be 2000 feet long.

It's really hard to get the whole dam into a picture. It's huge!

From the dam towards the new bridge...the bridge is 900 feet above the ground.

We parked the car and went to check out the visitor centre. Jim couldn't get through security because of his Swiss army pocketknife, so guess what won out...the dam or the pocketknife? So I toured the visitor centre on my own...

So interesting! Yuma played a part in the construction of the dam. In 1905, torrential spring rains caused the Colorado River to flood breaking through canal headworks near Yuma. The Imperial Valley was flooded for two years and the push for a dam to control the river intensified.

Farmers, miners, businessmen, politicians...everyone had an opinion on what should be done.

Construction began in 1931 and over 5000 workers were employed. Initially they lived with their families in temporary camps, but eventually Boulder City was built for them. Within one year, the barren desert landscape turned into a city of 5000 people. Drinking and gambling were not permitted in Boulder City during construction and, to this day, it is one of only two places in Nevada where gambling is prohibited.

The model shows how the dam was constructed section by section...

Working 24 hours a day and 363 days of the year, the dam was completed more than two years ahead of schedule!

It's a long way down...

The visitors centre...

The winged statues guard the flag pole in the centre.

Like the Timothy Eaton statue at the Eaton Centre in Toronto, rubbing the statue's foot supposedly brings good luck. So I headed over and gave it a rub...the toes are gleaming from being rubbed repeatedly.

All part of the visitors centre...it's huge!

The statue represents the "high climbers," the men who risked and lost their lives to build the Hoover Dam. This was during the depression and the job paid three times the highest salary of any job in the country.

And with that quickie stop, we arrived back in Las Vegas. Ahhh...here you see everything. This guy walking down the street looking like something from an alien movie hardly got a second look.

The Fashion Show Mall near the Encore Hotel. We decided to stay off the strip this time so everywhere warrants a taxi ride. But the price of the Hampton Inn which includes free breakfast, free internet and free gym, more than makes up for it.

Sign for Garth...seems like it was ages ago that we saw him. It was so good...

The gondola rides at the Venetian. It was a beautiful day for it.

Harrah's...we stopped in to pick up tickets for the Legends show we were seeing.

And had lunch at Toby Keith's Bar & Grill...

Looks like the post margarita glow!

Food was good...margaritas were better!

This was a really good show. The Cher look-alike looked just like her, but couldn't sing. Jay Leno was really good. He had his mannerisms down pat. Aretha Franklin was excellent. Elvis was just plain good looking and Michael Jackson was scary real. This guy must have had plastic surgery to look that much like him. It was a fun evening!

Lots of lights and lots of people...

We headed over to watch the "volcano" at the Mirage. It was good, free entertainment.

Having done it once, I wouldn't feel the need to do it again, but it was fun.

The strip is so pretty at night...

The next night we went to old Las Vegas to check out the Fremont Street Experience. Fremont Street was the first paved street in Las Vegas in 1925. The Experience is a pedestrian mall and attraction which was built to bring people back downtown. It's a canopy 90 feet high and 1500 feet long. More than 12 million LED lights illuminate the canopy with a light show every hour. There are also two stages where free concerts are held.

The canopy encompasses all the old casinos...

One of the light shows...

I think it would be a totally different experience on the weekend. We heard it's extremely crowded so I wasn't sorry to miss that part.

The old Golden Nugget hotel and casino has spent $30 million on this pool called The Tank. It has a waterslide that you can see through as you zoom down the slide looking out at the sharks. I think it would have been fun just to relax in one of these loungers.

We heard the casinos downtown are "looser" but we still managed to lose some money!

We headed back outside to watch the Kiss show and then it was time to head home!

It was a wonderful trip! We learned alot about what we would and would not like to do in the winter...would love to head back next year...

Yuma...Round 2!

So we headed on back to Yuma and checked into the same hotel and ended up with the same room. Deja vu!

Barb had mentioned that they had toured the jail and found it worthwhile, so we thought we would check it out.

Hmmm...it really wasn't in use as a jail for that long! Through the dedicated efforts of the people of Yuma, the abandoned prison was turned into a museum with the cornerstone of the visitor center being laid in 1940.

Here is an old picture showing its location on the Colorado River. The first seven inmates were incarcerated on July 1, 1876 and were locked into the brand new cells which they had built themselves!

This looks like a scene from Keystone Kops!

The entrance through the wall is called a Sallyport which was built to enclose a wagon when the gates at either end were closed.

A mini version!

A model built to show the original expanse of the prison...

They had 3069 prisoners over years for the following crimes...

Most people served their full sentences...

What?? No dessert...now that's a crime!

One of the early comic books...

Many westerns were filmed at the prison and the front gates became a familiar scene...

I have no idea what the significance of these are, but it was an interesting step back in time...

Once the prison was no longer in use, the Yuma High School occupied these buildings between 1910 and 1914. High school athletic teams are still called the Yuma Criminals or the "Crims."

Empty cells provided free lodging for hobos riding freight trains in the 1920s and sheltered many families during the Great Depression. Townspeople then considered the abandoned site a source for free building materials and ended up destroying most of the prison walls. This is what remains...

Jim checking out the facts!

Electric chair? Nope! It's the barber...

Despite the horrendous heat in the summer and lack of plumbing facilities, the prison was humanely administered and was a model institution for its time. The only punishments were the "dark cell" for those who broke the prison rules and the "ball and chain" for those who tried to escape.

Once the door to the dark cell was closed, it was indeed dark!

Not bad enough that you were in the dark cell, but you were also inside a cage which was 5 ft high and 10 ft wide and you were chained to the floor. At one time, 14 prisoners were housed in the cell at the same time.

The only light was from a small airhole in the ceiling. I cannot imagine what this would have been like in the 120 degree heat with other prisoners and no plumbing. No wonder some people went directly from the dark cell into the lunatic asylums!

Corridor between the cells...

Schooling was available and many convicts learned to read and write in prison. The prison library...

Twelve cells were dug into the hillside in 1900 to relieve overcrowding and it was called the "new yard."

"I'm free!"

One of the few prisoners who successfully escaped...

Here's an effective method of punishment...the iron ring in the floor was used to not only chain the offending prisoner to the floor, but all of his cell mates. This wouldn't have gone over well!

A platform was built over the granite-walled 85,000 gallon water tank to reduce evaporation. A roof was added to it and it became the guard tower. After the prison closed, the tower served several other functions, including a defense lookout in WWII.

The water tank which was also built by the inmates.

The view from the lookout...

Part of the museum...

We dropped into the casino once (okay...maybe twice). We liked this one because it had a non-smoking room. At least you can breathe while you're losing!

The desert was blooming due to the unusual amount of rain they had experienced...

We really did enjoy our time in Yuma. Could we spend the winter there? I don't think so, but we would definitely go back. Goodbye to the lettuce fields...was great to have such fresh produce!

We're heading back to Las Vegas!