Hoover Dam

One last post from our Spring Break trip...

Our last stop during our Spring Break trip back in April was Hoover Dam. Admittedly, we hadn't actually planned to visit Hoover Dam until I noticed that it was on our drive back to Las Vegas from the Grand Canyon. We knew that the kids would love to visit such an iconic site so we made sure to start our drive from the Grand Canyon a little earlier than planned to make it to the dam before it got dark.

We had pretty good timing as we arrived at Hoover Dam just as the sun was starting to set. The light was still good when we arrived, and just before we left twilight had set in and the structures were aglow in man made light. It was quite pretty seeing the dam in such different light conditions over a fairly short amount of time.  

The girls were pretty amazed at just how huge Hoover Dam is. To be honest, I'm amazed at how huge Hoover Dam is! That drop is just awe inspiring. I mean, look at it! It's like the world's most extreme skateboard ramp! Ok, no skateboarding down this one!

Kim and I visited Hoover Dam back in 2005 before the kids were born. Back then the road across the top of the dam was THE road across the river and as you can imagine, it was something of a traffic bottleneck. Since then a new bridge has been built taking traffic across the river a little further along and affording spectacular views over Hoover Dam. The views from the bridge were something else, but we were keen to take the girls the see the dam from the top. As it was getting late in the day we chose not to stop at the viewing area by the new bridge and headed straight to the dam itself. I've got to say though, that new bridge is pretty photo worthy itself, creating a frame over the river.  

After being in the car for a few hours the girls were pretty happy to be outside - even if Ava does look kind of grumpy in the photos! Ah, nine year olds. Mathilde was super excited to see all of the water below and kept asking to go for a swim. Umm... no! I explained that she couldn't swim in this water because it's very deep and dangerous - not to mention completely inaccessible! She took this to mean that the water was very hot (her latest word for dangerous at the time) and spent her time pointing at the water while saying "Water hot. Cool down". Ha! 

Ava and Lola found it pretty cool that either side of the dam is in a different state and timezone. They were keen to find the marker in the middle of the dam so they could jump backwards and forwards between states - and times!  Ok, I might have done this too.

One of my very favorite things about Hoover Dam is all of the Art Deco touches. I'm a huge Art Deco fan so I was totally in my element here. I love the simplicity of the details. So simple yet so elegant. I definitely could have spent a lot longer looking at all of the details here, especially in the tiles, but the girls were keen to run about and it was getting pretty late so we couldn't stay too long.

That eagle in the tiles above proved to be a perfect photo prop for my own little American eagle! Of course, me making Mathilde pose like this resulted in all three girls rolling and crawling around on the tiles. Time to go!

Of course, we had to stop for just one more funny photo. Watch out for sneaky looking cartoon spies!

By the time we made it back up to the parking lot and our rental car it was getting dark and the lights had turned on. This gave the towers in the water a beautiful glow. It was lovely seeing them in such different light condition.

Hoover Dam was the last stop on our Spring Break trip to the desert. Well, technically (or "technilly"
as Lola says) Las Vegas was actually our last stop but we were only there for one night before our flight back home to California and all we did was eat and sleep. So, now I'm finally all caught up on our Spring Break trip! Just in time for our upcoming Summer Break trip to Seattle and Canada. Although, to be honest, I still haven't finished sharing about our Winter Break trip back in December. Yep, I'm just a little behind! So expect to see a few posts from our Southern California road trip coming up soon. Followed by Seattle and Canada. Or quite possibly not in that order! Let's just see what happens...