A BUZZ IN THE AIR - Double Dutch at the Bellagio Conservatory - Spring 2012

A HUGE buzz, as a matter of fact...

Easter weekend brought about a change in the air at the Bellagio Hotel/Casino Conservatory - the new Spring 2012 display.  Spring flowers as far as the eye could see...8,283 flowers, as a matter of fact.  Tulips, Hydrangeas, Poppies, Daffodils, Lilies...add to that a full-sized windmill, OVERsized Dutch wooden shoes, a gorgeous carousel, large "umbrella flowers", and beautiful, gigantic bumblebees - everyone was ABUZZ!

A bed of Poppies that would have made the Wicked Witch of the East proud...

I do think that the upper right photo of ruffled edge Tulips, before blooming, are slightly reminiscent of the carnivorous Audrey from "Little Shop of Horrors"...

A chocolate waterfall, and it could have almost been Wonkaland...

All this splendor will be on display through May 13 - did I mention FREE? It IS, and not to be missed if you're out Vegas way...we're not all sand and slot machines.  Happy Spring!

BELLAGIO YEAR OF THE DRAGON DISPLAY - PART DEUX

As promised, more shots from the Year of the Dragon Botanical Display at the Bellagio, this past month.  These flowers are maintained and changed out on a daily basis (stock coming from the huge on-site greenhouse), as they wither and turn brown. They changed out this entire display just about a week ago, and my daughter and I drove down and took in the new one, yesterday.  Spring at the Bellagio has brought gorgeous tulips, a large windmill, and huge wooden shoes - pictures to follow in a few days.  For now, enjoy the rest of the lovely Chinese New Year display...

Above the 18-foot ceiling of the hotel registration lobby is a coffer filled with the most extraordinary glass sculpture, a chandelier called Fiori di Como by glass sculptor Dale Chihuly.  This stunning piece is comprised of 2,000 hand-blown glass blossoms.  The red lantern and fan displays sat behind the registration desk.

No attention to detail has been overlooked at this fabulous attraction...from the gorgeous hand painted bouquets gracing the ceiling above the chandeliers in the hallway leading from the Conservatory, to the larger than life, equally fabulous poster in the window of the ritzy Omega store on my way out.

2012 SW Travel Destinations - BELLAGIO HOTEL BOTANICAL GARDENS - YEAR OF THE DRAGON

While renowned for gambling establishments and pure, unadulterated decadance (ah, how we love our Sin City shenanigans), there are a few lovely, and inspiringly serene spots to be found right on the Las Vegas Strip, believe it or not.  One of those is nestled away inside of the beautiful Bellagio Hotel and Casino, famed for its spectacular Fountains of Bellagio that so many of you are familiar with from television commercials, if nothing else.

Inspired by the Lake Como resort of Bellagio in Italy, Bellagio is famed for its elegance.  The hotel also contains a Conservatory and SPECTACULAR Botanical Gardens…and it’s one of the totally free attractions in the city, leaving more cash in your pockets for the tables – win win!

There are five seasonal themes that the Conservatory undergoes, each and every year: Chinese New Year, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.  From January to mid-March, Chinese New Year is celebrated with a display dominated by gorgeous flowers (Bromeliads, Orchids, & Mandarin Oranges, to name a few), as well as the animal of that particular year that the Chinese Zodiac celebrates.

This year’s display featured six large fire-breathing dragons, two entwined in the center of the display; a large pond of beautiful Koi fish, huge pots of burning incense; and six delightful Chinese children statues, adorned in vibrant, floral clothing.  A second set of photos will follow in a few days…no more narrative, just enjoy the colors here...Happy Easter!

2012 SW Travel Destinations - HOOVER DAM and the MIKE O'CALLAGHAN - PAT TILLMAN MEMORIAL BRIDGE

"Welcome, everyone. I am your dam guide, Arnie. Now, I'm about to take you through a fully functional power plant, so please, no one wander off the dam tour. And please, take all the dam pictures you want. Now, are there any dam questions?"...VEGAS VACATION

Right in our backyard...there's a tiny bit more to NV than just the gaming.  Named one of the Top 10 Construction Achievements of the 20th Century, Hoover Dam continues to draw crowds of nearly a million visitors a year, more than 70 years after its creation.  Considered to be the world’s largest dam and an engineering marvel at the time of its construction in the 1930s, Hoover Dam brings much-needed water and power for public/private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California.  Located in the Black Canyon, about 30 miles SE of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam straddles the mighty Colorado River, which forms the border between Nevada and Arizona.

Since 1900, the Black and Boulder Canyons had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project, and construction began in 1930.   Despite the remote location and harsh working conditions, it was completed in less than five years - two years ahead of schedule, and well under budget.   The lowest wage for a Hoover Dam worker was 50 cents an hour - the highest was $1.25.  “High scalers”, the workers who hung from ropes on the canyon walls as they drilled with jackhammers and packed dynamite, included circus acrobats, among others.

Hoover Dam is 726 feet high, 45 feet thick at the top and 660 feet at the bottom, and is larger than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.  The dam is filled with 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete, or enough to pave a strip 16 feet wide and 8 inches thick from San Francisco to New York City.  If the heat produced by the curing concrete could have been concentrated in a baking oven, it could have baked 500,000 loaves of bread per day for three years.

Holding back Lake Mead, the dam is located near quaint Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed solely for workers on the dam project.  Boulder City is the only town in Nevada to prohibit gambling, a regulation imposed in the 1930s.

The Bureau of Reclamation has offered tours of this National Historic Landmark since 1937.  Tourists are not only intrigued by the immense size of the dam and its huge hydroelectric generators, but also by the elegant Art Deco designs on the dam’s four towers, spillways, and power plant. The Nevada side plaza features two Modernist-style bronze sculptures called the Winged Figures of the Republic and a polished terrazzo floor. Here you’ll also find a plaque commemorating the 96 workers who died during the dam’s construction. Contrary to a popular myth, however, no workers are buried in the dam’s concrete.

Two tours of the dam are currently available, and are well worth the time and money spent.   The view from the dam also offers a breathtaking look at Lake Mead, the country's largest man-made reservoir. Although water levels have been low recently, Lake Mead can store up to 9.2 trillion gallons of water, equal to two years of the river's annual flow. It also has become a popular recreation area, sought out by more than 9 million visitors each year.

A spectacular four-lane highway bridge arching across the Colorado River opened in late 2010 and carries traffic between Nevada and Arizona. Completed in October 2010, the "Mike O' Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge" offers breathtaking views that were once only available by helicopter.  The original two-lane highway across the dam could no longer handle the 14,000 vehicles that travel here each day. Construction on the 1,900-foot-long structure began in 2005. An impressive feat of engineering, the supporting twin-rib arch span echoes the elegant curves of the dam itself.

The bypass bridge, located approximately 1,500 feet south of the dam, is 1,900 feet long. The arch span stretches 1,060 feet, and the deck stands 900 feet above the river. The bridge’s pedestrian walkway gives visitors expansive views of Hoover Dam, Black Canyon, Colorado River and Lake Mead.  Visitors have access to drive to the bridge and then take a walking path.

We did this trek in mid July, so were very appreciative of the drizzly weather that day, when our summer heat can hit highs of 127 degrees.  The brighter pictures here were taken yesterday (April 3rd).  I had heard that there is a spectacular shadow cast by the bridge across the face of the dam, in the late afternoon...not knowing exactly how to gauge the exact (or close) time, I arrived about 2 hrs. too soon for the full spectacle - two hours before sunset should just about do it, for anyone interested in some spectacular shots of their own.

Visitors can cross from Nevada to Arizona on the 1,900-foot-long bridge - informative placards mark the path before and during the bridge walk. The construction of the bridge was an idea that evolved in the 1960s, but didn't actually come to fruition until 40 years later. This bypass was created not only to reduce traffic (which anyone who has driven along the old road knows all too well), but to protect Lake Mead and the Colorado River from hazardous spills and explosions.

You can learn more about the bypass construction project at Hoover Dam Bypass US "93".  For info on Hoover Dam itself, click on USBR Hoover Dam.

COSMOPOLITANS AND CRYSTALS...

This past Saturday evening, we had the immense pleasure of being treated to a night's stay/dinner & drinks at the newly opened Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino, at the City Center, in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip...and yes, I had a Cosmopolitan at The Cosmopolitan - it just seemed like the thing to do.   This is a project that has been five long years in the making - my husband's elevator company (Thyssen-Krupp) installed all of the escalators and elevators in this fabulous building - lots of blood, sweat and tears in this project, and a well deserved evening out for the guys, who did not have to ask the wives a second time to tag along.  I'm sure the write-ups in the papers will far surpass my little blog about it, but I snapped a few pictures and wanted to share the decadence of it all (make sure you click on the pictures to enlarge)...

This greeted us in the lobby of the hotel - they've taken a beautifully modernistic, artsy approach, for lack of a better sounding description...OK, artsy fartsy maybe, but absolutely jaw dropping!  Most of the things I tried taking pictures of were SO massive in size, it was hard to get it all in, so even harder to put it all in perspective.  These LARGE, four-sided LCD screens (there are people in the second photo - this was taken at check-out the following morning, hence the lack of bodies) are constantly changing their displays, and the displays are perpetually in motion.  These beautiful flowers were actually moving like they were real.  When we checked in, there was a different show on these, and I was told one of the more interesting ones involves a woman who appears to be trapped inside the columns.

One of the many escalators in the building - this was stunning!  The globe sculpture actually had water cascading over the screen behind the balls, while the whole display changed colors - it was blue just the second before I snapped this.

A glass drape ceiling display and the entrance, back down the hall, to the casino, were just a hint of what lay ahead, but first things, first...

Our incredible room was located on the 60th floor - very beautiful, minimalistic, and soothing styling in a room with a king sized bed; two (count em, TWO) 42" flat screen TVs; a sitting area with a full sized wrap-around couch; and wet bar.  The walk-in closet housed the greatest wallpaper.

The second picture here is of the wallpaper in the gorgeous bathroom - at first glance I just thought it was beautiful scroll work.

The most fabulous part of the room was the view of The Strip, facing South, towards CA.  I am uncomfortable with heights, so the fact that I crawled between the two railings on the balcony (walk out balcony with patio furniture) to take the photo looking towards Planet Hollywood, was no small feat on my part, and perhaps it could be attributed to that Cosmopolitan I had before we actually got to the room.  Final photo is looking down at one of the pool areas.

The showpiece of this grand resort is undoubtedly the 3-story, Chandelier Bar, in the middle of the casino.  I was standing with my mouth open at the sight of the bar with the crystals in the first picture, when my husband grabbed my arm, told me to close my mouth, and prepare to be amazed - that I hadn't seen "nuthin'", yet!  I don't think I've ever seen anything as truly fabulous as what I beheld when I rounded the corner.  The bar is swathed in crystals...SIX MILLION crystals, according to the concierge I spoke with at check out.

Crystals as far as the eye could see, and then some...

There was a faint color change, ever so slowly, throughout the evening, casting a different glow every so often - absolutely stunning, and obviously, in just letting the pictures speak for themselves, I'm still speechless.

Vegas has something for everyone, and who would have thought that I would have found what I did after dinner that night (which was at STK - an unbelievable steakhouse with amazing ambiance, helped by a live DJ in the middle of the room).  Allsaints Spitalfields had HUNDREDS of antique sewing machines in two LARGE front windows - attached to steel, threaded poles - believe me...HUNDREDS!  Probably the best window display I've ever seen, even if I wasn't a seamstress!  The inside of the store was done totally in greys, and was reminiscent of a turn of the century sweat shop - sewing machinery and antiques as far as you could see, past the fabulous clothing line they carry.  I'm taking my daughter and going back, without the boys, for some serious looking around.

And then there were these...the lighting in the hallway made these pictures next to impossible to take, true to color.  These three glass chandeliers were Pepto Bismol pink, in color - truly, decadently gaudy, and more than likely outrageously expensive, if I only knew the story behind them...which brings me to one of the million dollar, round glass elevators at the side of the bar...

...and out the door, back to my humble little abode.  An amazing evening out - many thanks to my husband, his company, and his employees that put in many, MANY long hours on this incredible project.  Truly the most fabulous place I've ever stayed, and I have them to thank for it.  Don't miss it, even if it's just to go in and gawk at the crystals - all 6 MILLION of them...I think I was impressed!