Written February 2019
Day 1
Even though the plan was to wake up early to go to Red Rocks, we were fairly certain that that wouldn’t happen, because the forecast for today was 100% rain. So we decided to just let the light from our windows wake us up – and yes..it was gloomy and rainy. Since we checked-in late the night before, we didn’t have a chance to go to the concierge desk to pick up our free stuff. So I made my way down there, got a couple “free tickets” (after a $10 service fee) to a mentalist show, and then the lady convinced me to do go to a vacation ownership presentation – since it was only 2 hrs and raining all day anyways, and we’d get $150 out of it.
So Norina and I made some avocado toast for breakfast, and then went down for the presentation. Before joining the presentation, we talked to another concierge, and somehow managed to get 2 more “free” tickets to another show at Planet Hollywood – a hypnotism show for later that night…so that was good! The presentation…terrible. It had to be the longest one I’ve ever been to…it wound up taking over 3 hours!! Our guy talked soooo slowly, and walked so slowly too when taking us around to check out the different suites. Although I do have to admit, the presidents suite that he showed us was super impressive! Still…not sure how many times I could say that there was no way that I was going to buy anything that day. Then…I got a call from the Kayak Touring company. Even though tomorrow’s forecast was sunny, it also called for 30mph winds down on the river…and unfortunately…they would be headwinds. So we had to cancel the trip, and unfortunately, the NPS boat launch permit fee part of the reservation was non-refundable. Great start to the day!
Well we finally got away, picked up our $150 gift card, and got the heck out to find some lunch since we were super hungry by now. We decided to head back to Seafood City to check out a place just outside of it called Toto’s Grill, which serves up street food satay sticks for your to grill up on your own. All of our choices were good – with the exception of the dinuguan, which was terrible! That was probably the most ‘adventurous’ stick that we got, as we didn’t go for intestines, livers, or anything like that. The pig ears were probably my favorite…but they were all tasty! It wasn’t quite enough for me though, so we went into Seafood City, and I decided to get some more from another fast food restaurant, Grill City. I went with the combo plate of grilled liempo (pork belly) and fried bangus (milkfish). I ate up all of the fish, but was getting full, so only ate about half the liempo to save for later. We checked out the rest of the supermarket for a little…and it truly was a Filipino supermarket with everything needed to make some delicious meals!
Filipino Lunch
So after lunch, it was still pouring out, and we decided to head out to Hoover Dam, since that was probably the best place on our list to see while it wasn’t sunny out. It took about an hour to get out there, but just beforehand, we decided to stop off at the Lake Mead Visitor Center. We talked to one of the park guides there, and she told us of a place to stop first before the Dam, where we could walk on the bridge to get a nice view of it. She also gave us a tip to park for free at Hoover Dam. Oh, and she also said that even though the boat launch permit was non-refundable, we’d be able to get inside of Lake Mead Park with it the next day without paying the entrance fee. She was really nice in helping us ‘brighten up’ our day!
So we followed our guide’s directions, and made our first stop at the Boulder Dam Bridge parking lot. We would’ve never seen this turnoff without her. It was about a 1/2 mile walk up some stairs to the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which spans across the Colorado River – taking you from Nevada into Arizona. Rain was coming down…but it wasn’t terrible… it was the winds that were really killing us. Especially up on the bridge itself, it was really gusting. We wound up only going halfway across the bridge to give ourselves a centered view of Hoover Dam, and then made our way back to the car before we got TOO soaked. Nice view from there though – never saw that before!
Then we made our way to Hoover Dam itself, and again, followed our park guide’s advice to drive a little bit further up the road into Arizona to park. It was only a half-mile walk to the Visitor Center from here – which unfortunately was closed by that time…although we likely weren’t going to check it out anyways. The dam itself was alright…nothing too special…decent landscape views…and thankfully, the rain started to let up a little bit as we were making our way back to the car. But we checked off this Vegas ‘must-do’ off the list!
To the Dam
Dam – Bridge
From here, we made our way over to the Lake Mead entrance to double-check about whether we’d be able to get in tomorrow – unfortunately, our guide was wrong about this one thing, and we wouldn’t be able to use the boat launch permit to get in..oh well. We drove back up, stopped real quick at a viewpoint of the lake where it was howling windy…and then made our way back into Vegas.
Lake Mead Viewpoint
When we got back, we (maybe just me) ate our lunch leftovers, and got ready to go see the hypnotism show. It was a later show, I think 9pm, but we needed to go early to exchange the vouchers for actual tickets. The line wound up going pretty fast though, so we walked up the strip some since it the rain and wind had all finally stopped! The show itself was entertaining enough. I think 2 people were really in a hypnotic state, and a few others somewhat were… but he actually had people gradually leave the stage, as he was able to tell they weren’t under his spell anymore either. Norina didn’t believe any of it though, and wasn’t too impressed. Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel since the shuttle wasn’t running anymore, got our stuff ready for the next day, and called it a night.
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The Dating Life of Norina and Jonathan 