THis morning's attempt to get out of the hotel room reasonably early sort of worked ... I think we were in the car by 10am-ish, complete with dodgy cup of coffee (I think I've figured out why people drink starbucks coffee here - it seems to be the only way to get a consistent tasting cup of caffeinated hot beverage around here... I can't tell from the coffee-selling place whether it's going to be a decent drink or not before I buy it ...)

Post-parenthetical tangent, the drive to Hoover Dam wasn't that long, but I still fell asleep - there's something about me and sitting as a passenger in this hire car that makes me feel all drowsy. I'm not normally like this unless I've been reading a lot in the car, but the car has fake new-ish car smell in it, and that tends to set me off too... we left the flashy lights and exotic animals of the city, and went to a man-made structure located on the border of the states of Nevada and Arizona, where the main part of the works were finished in the 1930s. When you consider the size of the construction and all the stuff they'd planned in prior to construction, it's pretty impressive ...

We went on a guided tour around the place, and got to look at the inside, where the turbines live on the Nevada side of the structure. We also heard from a number of informative tourguides about different parts of the dam area, including the basic workings of the generation of electricity by the turbines, and the artwork incorporated into the area. We managed to avoid being photographed and then dodgily photoshopped into an image of the Hoover Dam, and we also passed on the 'enticing' souvenirs available for purchase, *ahem*.

After this, we tried to drive to Red Rock, but the map didn't indicate how we could actually get to somewhere we could see stuff, and both Decay and I were getting tired... Maccas was the order of the day for lunch (it was the safest/healthiest option around - how scary is that?), and then we drove back to our hotel.

Tonight, we'll probably nip down to Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas, and attempt to find something to do there... if there's any more shopping we need to do here, we'll attempt do do that as well ... Las Vegas just feels weird ... Decay mentioned that he thought the whole Disneyland-Anaheim thing felt fake, and that here it felt ... displaced? I can't put my finger on it, but the sense of not belonging here, or not being able to ground ourselves and know where we are in relation to things is something ... In New York, we were able to wander about and feel like we got to know a (really really small) part of the place, but here, it just feels like an endless strip of buildings with lights on them ...

Tomorrow, Decay does the drive to San Francisco, while I attempt to keep everyone alert. The third in the Lord of the Rings series opens tomorrow here, so we'll be catching it in the cinemas during our stay in San Francisco, 9 days earlier than back at home ... we're missing being able to cook whenever and whatever we feel like ... congrats go out to B for securing her APA scholarships, and to Stirfry Ninja for completing his secondary education (:

Update: Dinner at the Pink Taco, Hard Rock Hotel.

We took a quick taxi ride over to the Hard Rock hotel to get away from the incessant dodgy Christmas tune elevator muzak stuff being played everywhere except the elevators we were taking ... lost some money we were prepared to lose as a *donation* to what they advertise as loose slots on the slot machines, then walked about watching the blackjack tables, and settled on dinner at the Pink Taco, a Mexican-style restaurant with a modern twist. It was yet another attempt at food that wasn't deep-fried for your heart's dissatisfaction ... and it was good (:

We were led to our seats, and sat down with a glittery pink with goth-style lettering titled menu ... and a bowl of corn chips with three types of salsa to go with them ... Decay chose a beef soft-shelled taco, and I had a turkey chopped salad ... we also got a small serve of guacamole to have with the corn chips and salsa... After failing to convey the concept of a lemon lime and bitters to the person last night at Pink Ginger, I didn't try anything silly today and just ordered a coke. Decay had a tequila, lemonade and lime, which turned out to taste like approximately 50% tequila (Decay reckons about 3 standard shots), one lime slice, one lemon slice, and probably soda water to top up ... no lemonade or sprite or 7-up ...

At the arrival of our meals, we went ... whoa, how much salad do people think I can eat? The serving was ... huge?! I don't think I even made it to halfway through, even though it was really tasty and provided me with a much wanted taste of green stuff... I've been missing having green vegetables since we've been on this holiday... Besides green stuff and turkey, there were also tomatos, some white bean, some apple chunks, something crunchy (like white corn chip thingies crushed up, used like mixed-through croutons), with what was apparently a cumin vinaigrette. Decay's soft tacos came with a corn mini-salad thingy (a tiny tub of the stuff, which I guess denotes it being a relish on their menu) with a wedge of lime balanced on top... this lime was added to Decay's drink (I had a tiny sip of it, but it was too strong for me), and side servings of rice and refried beans. The beef was very tasty, and Decay enjoyed the tacos (without cheese!) ... They did, however, contain some rough-cut salsa type stuff, and Decay added some of the guacamole for some green-ness.

Final bill was about the same as yesterday. Including the taxi trip, this meal cost more than last night, but we weren't prepared to go walking too far in Vegas at night ...

Yes, Two nights in a row we've gone to a restaurant with Pink in its name... both served some very good food, but we paid for it. A similar standard meal could be had by us in Melbourne for a straight 1 for 1 exchange rate switch (making it cheaper in Melbourne than over here), but it's just nice to have a couple of decent meals ...

We probably won't have much in the way of decent/accessible with this laptop type internet access until we get to Vancouver, so we'll be non-contactable for the next few days ... I think I should stop and get some shuteye since tomorrow is going to be an early start...