Garden of de-lights

I love this magical little garden of lights at the Mandalay Bay. I should know the restaurant it is in front of... but I don't. I'm always too captivated by the lights to look up and see the name of the restaurant!
~Christy

Pool time!

Trade Shows are so Las Vegas! This week a friend and I scored some free passes to the POOL Trade Show (Fashion Freedom Worldwide). Not only was there a huge assortment of awesome, eccentric clothes and accessories, but, there was a huge assortment of awesome, eccentric (mostly just eccentric) people!
~Christy

Commandos

Ahh the strange things you see in Vegas. Is it a car? Is it a tank? We dunno. Either way we saw it driving down the street the other day. Surely not street legal.

Hello Sir!

It took me 5 full minutes to figure out if this guy was real or not. What do you think?

Old Chair

We found this old chair at the little village on the way on our way to Lake Mohave. There were a lot of reminants of the life of the miners who settled the area.

Slot Canyon

While at Lake Mohave we found a little slot canyon to explore. This isn't a place for someone with claustrophobia! The blue sky against the red rocks was beautiful.

Water Babes

We may live in the desert but we can still find water! Wendi and Christy went to Lake Mohave today with some friends and some kayaks. It is located about 45 minutes Southeast of Las Vegas and is part of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We had perfect weather, perfect water and now we have sunburns!

Craggy Mountains

One weekend a few months back, a friend and I drove down to Laughlin, Nevada. Laughlin is approximately 1 hour south of Las Vegas and is positioned on the Colorado River. I couldn't get over the mountains right outside of Laughlin, as I looked at them I began to feel like I was in a Lord of the Rings movie.

Smoggy Sunset

When coming back into town I took this picture of the strip. You can barely make out the lines of casinos that are illuminated by the setting sun in the cities smog. -Wendi

Dry Lake Bed

This a photo of the dry lake bed that we were at. Notice the cracked surface. Dry lake beds are formed over time and consist primarily of calcite and gypsum, which will make the lake bed hard(see http://geology.about.com/od/structureslandforms/a/aboutplayas.htm).

Shooting out on the Range

I went shooting for the first time today. We had to leave at 5:30 in the morning to try and beat the desert heat. Here's a shot of a friend doing some target practice. To shoot we travel right outside of town and 4 wheel out to some old dry lake beds. From the look of it, it has been frequented by other sportsmen practicing their aim on anything that is stationary out in the desert. By the way, I think I turned out to be a pretty good shot! ;) -Wendi

Stroll on the Beach

One of the nice things about Las Vegas is it's location relative to other destinations. To our east we have Utah, which has hiking, camping, fishing, and outdoor fun. To our west we have California. which has beaches and theme parks. And to our south there is New Mexico and Mexico. This weekend I took a trip down to Baja, Mexico and stayed on the beach. I could say a lot about the whole experience, but want to keep my comments brief. So I will say Mexico has many issues that make me concerned for their people, but they are blessed like so many of us with a beautiful land. The image of footprints on the sand is a classic Christian image, which reminds me of the poem entitled "Footprints in the Sand" written by Mary Stevenson. The image taken on Mexican shores represents hope for all people in difficult times.
-Wendi

One Nation Under God

We have a lot of very big American flags flying around in Las Vegas. The breeze was perfect today for displaying the Nevada State Flag just under our nation's flag. Although I love travelling and immersing myself in different cultures I must admit that I am proud to be an American and proud to call the United States my home. Everytime I see these flags flying my patriotism rises!
~Christy

Bougainvillea

I first took notice of this beautiful plant while living in La Reunion (Fr) so I was delighted to find them, though not as plentiful, growing in Las Vegas! It is easy to get bored with the desert landscape so these colorful leaves are adored.
Christy

Another Classic

Just across the strip from the Bellagio water show is this classic monument at the Paris Hotel. Unlike the real Tour Eiffel, this 1/2 size replica can get a little lost in the surrounding lights.

Fountains

Back to the Bellagio. My personal favorite attraction on the strip is free for all to see. Just sit out infront of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino after dark and every 15 minutes you will be able to see a fabulous water show. The water is shot off in time to music, the music ranges from Aaron Copeland to Andrea Botcelli. I have watched 5 in a row and each one was unique and different.

LVAM

Speaking of Chuhuly... here's a picture of the Las Vegas Art Museum. The LVAM is not located on the strip, in fact it is attached to the Sahara Library. The building is pretty interesting to take pictures of, each angle presents a new view of the architecture, I wanted to take a few more shots, but my battery ran out! Man!

Chihuly

These aren't colored jellyfish... although that's what I think they look like. This installation by Dale Chihuly, called 'Fiori Di Como' is located in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and is made up of over two thousand blown glass flowers.

The Colorado River Bridge

Although we live in Nevada we get all our water from the Colorado River, which stretches from Colorado to California and defines the southeast border of Nevada. The Hoover Dam Bypass project will reroute US highway 93, the road from Las Vegas to Arizona, from crossing the river directly on the Hoover Dam to crossing 900 feet above the river! Here you can see the beginnings of what will be the Colorado River Bridge which, when completed, will span approximately 2000 feet.

Lake Mead

According to the Southern Nevada Water Authority, Lake Mead's water level has dropped more than 70 feet since January 2000. Las Vegas has been experiencing a drought for as long as I've lived here (six years). Here you can compare the natural water level against where it stands today. No wonder we can only water our lawns at certain times of the day and on certain days of the week!

Hoover Dam

Sorry for the delay friends. I took a road trip to Phoenix (go Steelers!) and wasn't here to post. But, here is a classic view of Hoover Dam from I93- the road from Las Vegas to Arizona. Hoover Dam is located 30 miles (48km) south of Las Vegas and was completed in 1936 (construction began in 1931). I can't begin to understand how they designed this amazing feat in engineering WITHOUT COMPUTERS!
*LVDP trivia- According to Wikipedia.org the Hardhat was first used and invented by the construction workers of the Hoover Dam.

Flying Cranes

The Manhattenization of Las Vegas has introduced the many high rise towers being built in the Valley. The building of these high rise towers requires these large construction cranes. These particular cranes are doing the heavy lifting at One Queensridge Place on the corner of Alta and Rampart. These two 18 story towers will offer 40 floor plans ranging from 2000 square feet to 14,000 square feet and are priced from $1,200,000 going up to $20,000,000!

Watch for Burros II

Here are some of the burros that you would watch for. One night I went hiking up a red rock canyon and found myself surrounded with burros, it was quite the experience. They are pretty docile and used to humans coming around. But in the canyon they have problems with people feeding the burros. So if you pull your car off the road to look at them, they will walk right up to your car expecting food. Watch out for those burros!

Watch for Burros!

As a traveler I have been many places. Each place seems to have it's tradmark animal to watch for when driving in open ranges. For example in Colorado and Utah it is common to see signs that have a deer on them. In Alaska you might find signs with moose on them or in Austrailia you would see signs for the koala(check out the Logan Austrailia daily photo)! But here in Nevada we have our watch for burros sign. When I first moved here I thought it was a joke, but it's not! We have heards of burros that wonder in the open desert around Las Vegas. So watch out for the burros!

Leaving Las Vegas

Las Vegas Daily Photo took a camping trip to Utah this week. So, in lieu of a photo from Las Vegas we present you with a photo of us and our friends around the campfire at the Duck Creek Campground near Cedar City, Utah. The tin foil dinners and s'mores were great! Wish you'd been there!

What's Wrong II

Yesterday's post was of a cell phone tower disguised as a pine tree (so Sally you were correct!). In Vegas we have the pine tree tower, which seems to me to be a little out of place, or the palm tree tower. Some of these cell phone towers are pretty well done. The one pictured above has tons of detail, right down to a textured bark like surface.

What's Wrong?

Las Vegas is booming with growth and sometimes that makes for some pretty interesting sites. Check out this nice tall ponderosa pine growing in the middle of the desert. But wait! Look a little closer and discover that it's not all that meets the eye!

Devoted Clouds

We've seen some interesting clouds in Vegas this past week. I was lucky to snap this photo before these clouds drifted off. Even our clouds have Las Vegas written all over them! Okay, so those aren't natural clouds. A company called Skytype has been advertising in our usually cloudless skies using the smoke of five jet planes. It's quite a trip to see words appearing in the sky!

Early Voting

Early voting is here. The "signs" of it are everywhere. Check out this empty corner lot, it has been overrun with campaign propeganda. Since we live in the desert and there aren't really any places to post signs, we have instead created giant mobile billboards that sit on the ground. If you don't have a mobile billboard you simply put posts on your sign and pound it into the ground in front of the mobile billboards, it makes for a nice layering of color don't you think ;)!

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Unfortunately we missed the theme day yesterday, so better late than never. Here you find us at our favorite place- our DP website. Don't we look attractive? Playing ultimate frisbee does that to people you know.