A sense of scale

You know the Hoover Dam is big before you see it, but once you're there, you start to get a sense of just how large the whole construction is. 

Here's a view of the bottom of the new bridge from the dam.

As always, click on the image to see a larger version.

If you look very closely at the structures on the right and left, you can see trucks that give you a sense of how enormous even the outlying structures are.

Now, here's a view of the dam from the top center of that bridge.

Yeah, we're talking really big. 

Small parts of the inside of the dam are huge.  Check out this one section of turbines. 

I didn't expect to have a great time at the dam, but I ended up finding the entire experience not only informative but oddly compelling.  I definitely recommend a visit to it. 

On the road again: Las Vegas, day 2

Today began entirely too damn early for my taste, because we wanted to make sure we hit the Hoover Dam in time to catch an early tour.  We did, and that choice proved to be wise, because not longer after our tour the lines were long, but I hate getting up early.

The Hoover Dam itself was impressive indeed, a huge structure that stands as a monument to what humans can accomplish when they work in large groups. 

I worked for a big chunk of the afternoon, though I took a break with our group to grab some food.

Evening brought an outing to the new Cirque show, Zarkana, which I hugely enjoyed.  It focuses heavily on acrobatics but makes more use of projection technology than any other Cirque show.  Very cool indeed.

Dinner was our traditional great steak meal.

I'd write more, but I'm exhausted; Vegas is fun, but Vegas while doing a full day's work is an odd mixture of fun and exhausting.