Vegas & back

If anyone out there is still reading, the bride and I just got from Las Vegas. Wockhardt Hospital contacted us and asked her to come and speak on their behalf on "the patient experience. Just about anytime someone wants to pay for you to take a trip somewhere, do it. We arrived early on Friday, rented a car, stopped at Walmart for food, drinks, snacks and a styrofoam icechest and headed away from Vegas. After WM, we went and toured Hoover Dam. I'd always wanted to see it and it is worthwhile to see. We took the extended tour which takes you to the power plant and deep within some of the tunnels in the dam. We navigated an "inspection tunnel" deep inside the dam to look out on the river below. Very cool and to think that it was all built in the early 1930's. From there we headed to points south down the Colorado river, through Kingman. Its all desert mountains except for right on the river. Hot and dry and there's nothing really green except for cactus, mesquite and stuff that's by the water. We stayed the night by another lake on the Colo river in Lake Havasu City, AZ. http://www.golakehavasu.com/

On Sat we drove farther down the river and found a nice place and spent the afternoon at La Paz County state park watching folks boat, jetski, and play in the 55 degree water. I got in the water but just briefly to cool down and I mean cool. We both got sunburned but had a great time, picnicing and relaxing.

We drove on further south and made a Uturn around the river at Parker, AZ, and drove the edge of the Mohave desert on the other side of the river, up through Needles, CA, through Bullhead City, Laughlin, again on the river, and eventually back to Henderson, outside of Vegas for the night so we could pick Jared up at the airport on Sunday. We found a nice church there, about 75 folks, in Henderson, picked up Jared, checked into the hotel after touring around and seeing some of the sights. We rested a bit in the afternoon, then went out to see The Blue Man Group show which we all enjoyed a lot.

Monday I spent with the bride and her speaking at the Medical conference. She and another patient from near Reno both spoke on their patient experience at Wockhardt. The other lady had just gotten back from climbing Mt Kiliminjaro. Went back out to Hoover Dam on Monday afternoon cause Jared wanted to go, then back to Vegas and a little more sight seeing that night. J visited some tatoo shop in the Palms, no he didn't get a tat, then to the Hard Rock for a cup. (he's got lots of Hard Rock cups) We all turned in relatively early LV time and left for the airport at 5:30 am on Tuesday. Truth is LVegas is not really our kind of town, neat to see but I didn't gamble one penny and the shows are pricey. It's ok with me if I never leave another dollar in Vegas, but lots of other people certainly are.

latr, de