Viva Las Vegas | Day One

We were packed and up early for our flight to sunny Las Vegas! Neither of us had been, so we were excited to Viva Las Vegas! When BSG won the Nevada Magazine photo contest, part of the grand prize was a guided photo tour of the Valley of Fire, located just outside of the city. The perfect excuse for a vacation!
Like we need an excuse, right!?

We listened to the Ipod - sharing the ear buds and BSG worked Sudoku puzzles.
Somewhere around 30,000 feet we realized what we forgot...{because we always forget something}...the gosh darn certificate for the tour! *curses* 

We arrived in the morning, too early for hotel check in, so we headed to Hoover Dam. 

The Lake Mead side of the dam. The water level is currently very low, as the reservoir can hold water up to the top of those water intake towers.  We passed on the underground tour in favor of staying topside...I do not do underground, claustrophobic, cave like spaces - thank you very much.

The down side of the dam. The entire thing really is an engineering marvel. 
The bridge in the background is the Hoover Dam Bypass and should be completed this year.  The bridge will connect Arizona & Nevada - it towers 900 feet above the canyon and is 2,000 feet long.

According to legend - if you rub the toes of this bronze statue it will bring good luck! 

We'll just see about that... 

After the dam & a bite to eat, we headed to our hotel.

As an official welcome to Vegas...

we waited in line,

behind 60 or so people,

 for an hour,

 just to check in!

Our Treasure Island suite.

Beautiful, clean & comfy!

Time to get out of the traveling clothes & hit the strip!

See you soon for day two!