July 5, 1996: Rafting the Colorado River
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On the first day of our four-day trip to Las Vegas, we spent the morning on our flight to Las Vegas.

Getting to Las Vegas

In case you are geographically-challenged:

We left DFW on an American flight at about 9 in the morning, if I recall correctly, and what with the time difference, got to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas about eleven.

The flight was pretty uneventful, except that Ron Mathis ran into a group of friends of his from Texas Instruments sitting near us on the plane, and he had a chance to talk to them (while we remained discreetly quiet, not knowing whether his work friends know much about his personal life).

We came into the Las Vegas area almost directly over Hoover Dam, so I have no pictures of it from the air.

We did take a few pictures during the flight, but most of them weren't worth including here because east of the Las Vegas area there were quite a few clouds.

But as we came into Las Vegas, the skies cleared and we had some good views out the window. The best of the pictures we took was of the area outlined in the red box on the map above.

As we were coming down into the Las Vegas area, we began to get some good views of the Colorado River and Lake Mead. Lake Mead, of course, backs up above Hoover Dam. Fred and I have driven by the lake before, and actually crossed the top of the dam. It is always interesting to see the contrast between desert terrain and the blue of water- something you don’t see naturally occurring in the West.

The Colorado River, of course, is dammed up in a narrow canyon, and much of the river course above the dam is also through deep canyons. Thus, when the lake was created, much of it filled up these deep canyons, and, as a result, the lake can be quite deep but not very wide, and the shoreline can be very steep and relatively inaccessible. Just above the dam there is a good deal of flat terrain where the water has come up out of the canyon and spread out across the flat bluff tops on either side, giving easier access to the lake itself.

I thought it might be interesting, since I have the capability now as I write this page, to show you an aerial view (courtesy of Google) of the area covered by the picture above. You can see that aerial view here.

Our Afternoon in Las Vegas

We got to Las Vegas with no problem, and then rented a large car to haul us all around. We drove into the city (with Ron and I acting as guides), and went to our hotel on the Strip.

Of all of us, I, not surprisingly, have been to Las Vegas by far the most frequently. I suppose that, all told, on business and for pleasure, I have been here somewhere between fifteen and twenty times. Since some of that time was spent searching around the city for Baskin-Robbins stores, I am pretty familiar with how the city is laid out- particularly the Las Vegas Strip.

So I was the one who coordinated with the travel agent we used to choose the San Marino Casino/Hotel. The San Marino was not one of the largest hotels in town, certainly not in the league of the MGM Grand, the Tropicana, Excalibur or the Luxor, but definitely in the second tier, but with all the amenities of any of the bigger properties. It was located right across the street from the MGM Grand and right next door to the Tropicana, so it was in a real good position.

I keep using the past tense because the property where we stayed is no longer called the San Marino. Some years after our visit, the Hooters restaurant chain bought the property and put their own brand on it. The buildings were the same, though, so the aerial view at left is still applicable.

The San Marino was also cheaper than the big-name hotels; we didn’t want to invest a lot of money in the room, as we didn’t intend to spend much time in it. But the hotel was quite nice in all respects. Ron and Chris and Fred and I got rooms in the tower, while Lowery and Ron got a ground-floor room in one of the four low-rise buildings at the south end of the property.

At Las Vegas Dive!

Only Ron and Chris’s room was ready, so we all went there to drop off our stuff and change to go out and start seeing the sights. Mike had already arrived at the hotel, so the seven of us were together.

It already being after lunch, that was our first priority. We drove up the Strip to a restaurant Fred had seen in the city guide- one that was built on a nautical theme to simulate a submarine. The restaurant, called “LV Dive!,” (the "LV" standing for Las Vegas) was the creation of an Academy Award-winning director and a studio head. Here we are (L-R Ron Drew, Lowery Evans, me, Ron Mathis, Chris Young and Mike Racke) having our picture taken by Fred outside the restaurant we'd chosen.

Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks' partner Jeffrey Katzenberg's built the first Dive! restaurant in Los Angeles in 1991, and two years later they built a second one here in Las Vegas. The restaurant was built to look like, and inside to simulate, a submarine, complete with periodic sound effects and water effects.

In 1999, you may be interested to know, their location in Los Angeles' Century city- whose submarine sandwiches, salads and pizzas once attracted the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Pamela Anderson and Sharon Stone- closed (for financial reasons, it was reported). However, this location remained open- but for only another year or so until it, too, closed.

The exterior of the restaurant was certainly striking, and Fred chose it because it was something different. In the picture at left, you can see that there appears to be water "leaking" from the building, and indeed there is. But it was intentional, meant to enhance the feel of a leaky submarine, even before you entered.

We had to wait a bit for a table, but the food (pretty typical for a restaurant like this, with a fairly large menu geared towards sandwiches (submarines, of course) and salads) and conversation were good.

We did have one mishap that occurred when a waiter came to set Ron's dish in front of him without telling him the plate was very hot. Ron reached up to take the plate from the waiter and recoiled when his fingers got burnt. The burn wasn’t serious, but still we thought the restaurant would make amends. They wanted to only give him a free dessert, rather than a free meal, which we though pretty inconsiderate. We ended up taking the dessert but leaving only a very small tip.

We took the car back to the San Marino and left it there, and for the rest of the afternoon, we walked The Strip. It was very hot, but the humidity was not too bad. Even so, Lowery and Ron Drew wanted to go to their room and rest for a bit, so the rest of us went on by ourselves for the afternoon, going in and out of the big hotels and gawking at the over-the-top architecture. Subtlety is not a characteristic one associates with Las Vegas.

We walked through the MGM Grand across the street; this is a recreation of a scene from The Wizard of Oz that is set up in the hotel lobby. Apparently, this display used some of the actual props from the 1939 movie. Of course, it’s legendary the way the hotels in Las Vegas compete for the tourist dollar with attractions that are more and more costly and extravagantly designed. We left the hotel by its entrance onto The Strip.

The MGM Grand is one of the “new breed” of Las Vegas hotels. Its design and attractions are all pointed towards luring family groups to the hotel. Here, the entrance, set up to look like the lion from the Wizard of Oz, presents an inviting and spectacular face to the Strip (although the actual main entrance is on Tropicana Boulevard around the corner). I took the picture above of Mike, Chris, Ron and Fred at the entrance.

The New "New York, New York!" Hotel Under Construction

The 18-acre site at the northwest corner of Tropicana Boulevard and Las Vegas Boulevard (the "Strip") was the last corner at this major intersection to be developed. In 1992, Kirk Kerkorian bought the site for $31.5 million and gave a free two-year option to buy it to MGM Grand Inc., of which Kerkorian owned a 76 percent stake.

The idea of a casino modeled after the New York skyline was conceived by a former United States Ambassador to Iceland, and he took the idea to Primadonna Resorts. They approached MGM and a joint venture was formed. Construction began in March 1995. The hotel was still under construction when we were here; it actually opened on January 3, 1997.

The exterior of the hotel is a triumph of "trompe d'oeil", in that the hotel tower is not as tall as the exterior decoration seems to show; the facades representing iconic New York buildings are entirely artificial, designed to look taller than they are. I understand that avoiding room-view obstructions took some careful planning.

You can see in our picture that there is still construction going on. The pedestal for what will be a half-size copy of the State of Liberty is almost complete, as is the main casino. Construction has not begun on "The Manhattan Express" roller coaster, which will be one of the property's signature creations. It will travel through the property's interior and exterior, and have trains designed to look like traditional Checker Cabs. Plans call for the coaster to be over 200 feet high, with an initial, stomach-churning drop of almost 150 feet; it will reach speeds just under 70MPH. I, for one, look forward to a return trip sometime to give it a whirl.

At the San Marino, we made reservations for a river-rafting trip the next day; again, Lowery and Ron demurred so there would be only the five us on the river.

All of us went out on the Strip in the evening and ended up, I believe, having dinner at Circus Circus (at their buffet). Las Vegas hotel buffets are also legendary, and Circus Circus was no exception, but there was quite a line and it was very crowded. Those of us who had been here before seemed to agree that, while perfectly adequate, the buffet here was not so good as at some of the other hotels.

That night, Lowery and Ron went back to the hotel early and the rest of us went out to the casinos. Ron Mathis is the only avid gambler, although we were all doing at least a little bit.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	July 5, 1996: Rafting the Colorado River
	Return to the Index for Our Las Vegas Trip