Photos from Las Vegas

These photos were taken in Las Vegas, in August of 2008.

We arrived on a Thursday evening, and decided to walk around for a while right away. We stayed at the Sahara, so the first thing that we saw was the Stratosphere. The Stratosphere is pretty high, about two-thirds the height of the CN Tower in Toronto. We decided to go up the tower on a different night.

The base of the Stratosphere.

Las Vegas, contrary to popular belief, is not just about the show girls and gambling. There are options to please the ladies too!

The next morning, we had more energy to do some proper walking around and sight-seeing. Here's a sign advertising the Tropicana hotel.

The MGM's New York hotel complex.

The MGM's Excaliber hotel complex.

A statue of the MGM lion, with the hotel visible in the background.

A better photo of the MGM's sign.

Walking down the Strip. The proper name for the Strip is the Las Vegas Boulevard.

Despite the huge number of hotels around the Strip area, there are quite a few more enormous hotel complexes currently under construction.

Can you imagine owning a pair of these?

A statue outside of the Paris hotel complex.

The Eiffel Tower replica at Paris.

Trying to help with the drink.

A statue inside one of the hotel complexes - possibly Ceasar's, if I remember correctly.

A display case inside Ceasar's forum shops.

More statues.

And even more statues.

Now this was interesting. This little powered cart thingy was designed so the security officer can stand on it and ride around the mall in an upright position. It was pretty neat watching him coast by. It looked pretty effortless, so I'm not sure if it was hard for him to balance.

It is important to make sure that your outfit matches the color of the tennis balls.

A sign outside the Mirage advertising a Cirque du Soleil show with a Beatles theme. I really wanted to see this, but we ran out of time at the end of the weekend.

The Harrah's hotel complex.

Outside the Venetian hotel complex.

Another photo of the Venetian.

Another photo taken on the Strip.

The sign out in front of the Treasure Island hotel complex.

The Wynn and Encore hotel complex.

A boat in the moat outside of Treasure Island.

A plaza used for fashion shows.

Inside the Riviera at DefCon. The DefCon 16 Hackers' Convention was held this weekend, with over nine thousand attendees. A bunch of my friends were there, and I played a show at the convention on Friday night. Here we see a group of people setting up one of the Skyboxes for a party. I won't lie - I could have been quite happy going to all of the talks at the convention all weekend. I plan to go again next year, but I'll try to do all my touristy stuff before the convention next time, so I can concentrate on the convention all weekend.

Helping Roberto behind the bar.

On Saturday, we decided to take a tour to the Hoover Dam. Here's a photo of the desert nearby, taken out of the bus window.

My ticket for the Power Plant tour.

A photo of the dam itself. It's pretty huge. It's on the border between two states, so the left side in the photo is Nevada, while the right side (which people can walk to) is Arizona, in different time zones. Well, at certain times of the year anyway - Arizona doesn't follow Daylight Savings Time, so it's a bit out-of-sync with the rest of the country.

A sign showing how tall the dam would be if it was free-standing - almost as tall as the real Eiffel Tower.

A photo from the observation platform, taken straight down toward the Colorado River.

Another photo of the Colorado River.

Transmission towers built to lean purposely over the canyon, so the power lines could run down into the canyon without grounding against the walls.

The intake towers (huge filters) for the dam. There are four of them, two on each side, and although they look like they are as tall as the dam, they are actually built on the side of the canyon inside the Lake Mead reservoir. They're only about three hundred feet high, I think.

A photo of the reservoir itself. The white line that you see around the cliffs shows where the water level has decreased significantly in the past twenty-five years. The water was at its highest in 1983, and has gradually decreased since then due to a combination of drought, irrigation, and other water usage. Even though the water level only appears to be decreased by about 20 feet or so, think about the effect on the entire lake (which is pretty big, with 500+ miles of shoreline). The lake is currently at only about fifty percent of its capacity, threatening to make the Las Vegas valley's primary raw water intake inoperable. If the lake doesn't receive enough inflow this year, problems may arise very soon. The primary raw water intake at Lake Mead could become inoperable as soon as 2010 based on current drought and user projections, Las Vegas could suffer crippling water shortages in the interim.

A plant on a rock wall. It's amazing how this plant can survive. Some people can't even grow a plant in a pot of soil in their living rooms.

A view of the marina at Lake Mead.

Another plant in the desert near the Lake Mead overlook. I think this might be the plant that is used to produce creosote.

We went on a short tour of a Mars (M&M's) chocolate factory in the afternoon.

Chocolates.

More chocolates.

A cactus garden outside the chocolate factory.

A Joshua Tree (yes, this is the plant that inspired the name for the U2 album). This "tree" is not really a tree - it's a type of cactus that looks like a tree.

A photo of Elvis inside the Sahara. We only made one sighting of Elvis during our trip.

On Saturday night, we went to a concert at the Orleans Arena. Here's a photo of Joe Cocker performing. His voice has not changed a bit in all these years.

After Joe Cocker's show, we saw the Steve Miller Band. Their performance was pretty rough around the edges, but still quite enjoyable. Their "Greatest Hits" album has always been the very best rock album for summertime on the beach, in my opinion.

The Rio, at night.

On Sunday, we decided to be complete tourists and just spend the day walking around, and looking at attractions on the Strip. Here's a photo of the Stratosphere Tower during daylight.

A palm tree of some sort.

A ship in the moat at Treasure Island.

A photo of the Sunday afternoon crowds.

A statue at Siegfried & Roy's Secret Gardens.

A photo taken from the entrance to the Dolphin area.

A tour guide talking about the dolphins. There are not traditional shows where the dolphins are made to do tricks - it is more of an observation area.

Trainers feeding the dolphins.

A sign leading to the "Bare" adult pool, designed for those who don't want tan lines.

An urn outside the Forum Shops at Caesar's.

A sign outside the Caesar's Palace hotel complex.

A statue in front of Caesar's.

Fountains in front of Caesar's.

The Bally's hotel complex.

There were lots of tasty-looking options at this gelato shop in the Bellagio.

A walkway in the mall of the Bellagio hotel complex. This walkway is just outside the fine arts museum, by one of the pool entrances.

The entrance to the Bellagio's fine arts displays. Sorry, no cameras allowed inside.

A coffee shop inside the Bellagio mall.

The Bellagio's pool area.

We went up into the Eiffel Tower next, and this photo is taken from the top of the tower.

Looking down on the south end of the Strip.

Another shot from the tower.

A photo of the Bellagio Fountains, just as they were starting one of their shows.

The Treasure Island hotel at night.

A pretty funny t-shirt in the Gift Shop.

And finally, a view of the Strip at night. The Stratosphere is at the north end of the Strip, so this photo, facing south, shows just about the entire Strip.