Cynz Travel Blog

On our way to the Grand Canyon,  we stopped by Hoover Dam to take a tour. Hoover Dam is a 700 foot tall concrete arch gravity Dam. It is on the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona.  The river had to be diverted before construction using 50 foot diversion tunnels, two on the Nevada side and two on the Arizona side.   Lake Mead is the man made reservoir for the Dam. It is the largest man made reservoir by volume in the U.S. Snow melt from the mountains will cause the lake to rise. The volume of the lake is watched carefully and controlled using the spillways.  The Dam opened in 1936. But it was known as Boulder Dam.  In 1947, it was renamed Hoover Dam for President Herbert Hoover who was instrumental in getting the Dam project built. The long tour takes you to see the power plant,  the humongous pipes that are 10 inches thick, and also takes you 560 feet (I think) below to see the tunnels....

Unfortunately,  I woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep.  So I took my new camera for a walk.  I tried to use the knowledge I learned in my photography class.. I think I got some good shots of the art around the hotel. This is the chocolate fountain at The Patisserie (sweet shop). It had really weird lighting. It took a minute to figure out what it was at first.  The other picture is the decorative glass along the ceiling.  I walked back to the Conservatory and Botanical Garden to see the display again. This display celebrates the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rat. The display is made from more than 32,000 flowers and is meant to create a serene environment using the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui. The huge flowers are actually made up of smaller flowers.  I spoke to a few of the workers and they said they replace flowers daily. The display was beautiful.   ...

Curtis and I are off on another adventure.  This one was a gift. A friend of mine gave me free airline tickets that she couldn't use. We tried to go to Fairbanks to see the Northern Lights,  but couldn't work out the flights unless we wanted to go for three weeks...which sounded great to me. But pretty sure my boss might not agree. So we decided to go to Las Vegas.  I was a little unsure what we would do in Vegas for a week until I realized how close Vegas is to The Grand Canyon,  Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. And let's not forget the engineering marvel that is Hoover Dam!  Thank you Google Maps!! We started our adventure in Las Vegas. Our flights were really good for free tickets. The weather is great! We stayed at The Bellagio for our first night. I was very excited about seeing the strip. The Bellagio is very impressive.                        ...