We had a nice visit to Hoover Dam, and downtown Boulder City.
Our morning routine was kind of the usual, but the girls, especially Bella, are slacking a bit with their school work. Bia got her work done early, as usual. Bella got her work done around lunch, took a bunch of breaks, but didn’t really finish it all. She only did half of her Social Studies, and I felt she was just distracted and slacking. But, we compromised and got them to a point we felt ok leaving for the day.
I had a busy morning making reservations, trying to get ahead 2 months at least, as places are all booking fast as we approach warmer months on the east coast. Lots of research, emails and calls to make reservations. We are at two months ahead now, but I’ll try to get a few more done especially in the harder to get places, like Key West. I had a work call in the morning as well. When I was done with the last chunk of reservations I wanted to finish to the day, I went for a run. It was a great run here. The view is just amazing of Lake Mead, and the mountains around it. I ran towards Hoover Dam, and went towards the Marina. I ran to the marina and back. I was able to see there is a fishing pier nearby, and also a model airplane area. On my way back, there was someone flying a model plane. After I got back, I started the grill as I was making burgers for lunch. Carol got the buns and cheese and I finished everything outside, while I did some post writing and had a cold beer.
The girls played outside a bit, walked Maggie around and played with her outside. It was a nice day, though a bit windy.
Carol had worked on some video stuff, downloaded files and started editing something. She walked around as well testing her new gimble setup with her GoPro. I saw some of the images in her computer and they are looking awesome. I can’t wait to see the final video.
After lunch, I showered while the girls wrapped up work and Carol washed the few dishes that were out. Then we left towards Hoover Dam.
We are very close to Hoover Dam, so it was about 6 miles and about 10 minutes before we hit the entrance. It is a federal facility, so there were armed guards stopping everyone and checking out a few vehicles. Well, we have a truck and the bed was covered with the toneau cover, so they asked me to stop and open it so they could check it out. I did, and they then asked me to open one of the bins I have back there. I was a bit worried they’d have me open the one that I have all kinds of tools, and even a saw. That one is transparent, but they actually asked me to open the blue one, which has kids books and toys. hahahahaha…. Guards reaction “oh, you can proceed” hahahah. We all had a good laugh at that one. Then we kept driving and stopped at the first stop which is for Memorial Bridge. That is a pretty cool bridge that allows crossing from one side of the canyon to the other, which also happens to divide the states of Nevada and Arizona. The bridge was under maintenance, so we could not walk all the way, but walked into it far enough to get a good view of Hoover Dam from there. It’s pretty nice. The girls had a nice time and Bia was even running around, and raced us on the way back. She took the long handicap way and we took the stairs, and she still won, but barely. She was panting. It was fun.
Then we kept driving towards the dam, and as we got close, there was a sign for parking for $10. I drove into the structure but decided to turn around and keep driving so we could see what was out there first. As we crossed the dam, there is a tower with a clock and under it it says Nevada. Then we cross the bridge and on the other side there’s another tower with a clock that says Arizona. And as we got to Arizona, we drove 1 hour into the future. hahahahaha. As we drove a bit more, I saw some free parking just ahead… Score! Didn’t need to pay in the end, but I bet a lot of people pay because it’s likely usually packed and only paid spots are left. We parked and walked towards the dam so we could walk around there. There isn’t a ton to do there, so it’s a quick visit, but the views are pretty cool. The dam is impressive and big. There was a sign explaining that each of the two spillways could handle all the flow from Iguacu Falls (giant falls in Brazil, bigger than Niagara), and that is massive. It was fun walking to the other side and back, and “traveling through time”. The girls had some fun with the fact that we went ahead an hour than went back an hour. It is also crazy to see the water line from the past, the water level is quite low now compared to the line on the mountain sides. The other side of the dam is the river, and it looks very nice. It’s a long deep valley where the Colorado River runs. And it has the memorial bridge crossing it at the top. Very cool view. On our walk back, the girls needed to use the restroom, and there was one right on the bridge, so I told them that if they peed there, the water would just go down to the river. hahahahaha… they didn’t believe me at all. :). It took us maybe 30 minutes to visit this stop, and I think it was nice to stop there and see the dam.
From there, we went to downtown Boulder City. There is a historic downtown so we wanted to check it out and just drive through and see the city. As we drove through, it is a nice little town, but there’s not a lot there either. We did see a brewery, the Boulder Dam Brewery, so we stopped there. I really enjoy visiting breweries, as we always have a great time. This one is a big indoor area with maybe 8 tables very spread apart. Nevada’s rule is that you need reservations to go to places, so we made a reservation on the spot and sat by their couches. We ordered our drinks and the girls found a chess board right there, so they started playing and being assisted by Carol and I. The brewery’s beer was good. The place was nice and we had a great time. We stayed there maybe two hours, just enjoying and playing.
Then we walked towards the ice cream shop we had seen earlier, but it was already closed. We’ll have to go back another day. They had this alien stuff store next to the brewery as well, so we tried to check it out but it was closed. Right outside they have an alien space craft that kids can go in so we got some pictures there. As the night came, the thing lit up and looked pretty cool. The hole downtown had string lights hanging and when they were on it all looked very nice.
We then drove back home, and had some more awesome views of the area. I grilled some steaks outside, Carol made some baked potatoes and I finished them off outside as well. We had a nice meat and potatoes dinner :). Bella was making some new clothes out of some ripped pants, and was all proud of this top she put together (from pants!). Then we all got ready for bed, watched some TV and called it a day. Hoping tomorrow goes quick, so we can visit some parks around here.
It was a nice visit to Hoover Dam and Boulder City.