a three state day! :-)

soooo, so much for the thermometer... today had other plans for us.

we started out headed for california -- the state line is just 30 miles south of vegas on I-15. at the state line is buffalo bill's casino, which has a crazy roller coaster... apparently when it was built, it had the steepest drop of any roller coaster in the world or something... it was pretty crazy, going through tunnels and up and down faster crazy turns and drops... it was a rush to start the day :-)

next, we planned to drive the 45 minutes into cali to see the world's largest thermometer, but got caught in bad traffic and decided to turn back and do other things -- at least i was in the state? :-P, even if i did nothing but look at it and get caught in traffic -- then again bad traffic, that's california-y right? ;-P

soooo, having not seen the thermometer, we headed for the other nearby state -- arizona... we parked on the nevada side of the state line and walked across hoover dam, taking pictures of the colorado river, the dam, and lake mead -- mighty mighty impressive! :-P

that done, we headed into town -- went to the bellagio for a bit and admired their conservatory, picked up our tickets for tomorrow night, and watched the fountain show at 6 and at 6:30 -- absolutely incredible! :-)

finally, after dinner, (mexican fast food), we went to a local club where eric's brother marc's band (the quitters), had their first gig... it was a lot of fun... even eric's 80ish year old grandma came, with ear plugs, but with a huge smile on her face.... that woman's already giving *me* hugs every time i see her, it's great :-)

tomorrow, not quite as exciting til later in the evening -- eric does have to pack after all :-P however, there will be fun too... arlene, of budapest semesters fame, and her boyfriend adam are coming down from seattle and meeting us at eric's place around dinner time... we'll say hi and then leave them because we've (eric and me) had reserved tickets for "O", the current cirque du soleil show at the bellagio for months, whereas they decided to meet up with us about 2 weeks ago :-P... after we're back, sleep time, then the four of us head out on day one of actual roadtripping :-P woohah!

the great out west = lots of fun :-)

later dudes :-P