Dam it!

It's been a while since I have posted a blog, but I have been working on them, just not finishing them. So here is the post that was to follow the Vegas post.
On our way to Vegas for our anniversary, Shane and I were driving through Utah County and he asked what I wanted to do while we were there. "What about going to the Hoover Dam?" Shane asked. I have never been to the Hoover Dam despite my many trips to the Southern tip of Nevada, so of course I said "Sure, that sounds like fun." He must know me too well. How can I pass up a trip to visit something like Hoover Dam? It's kind of a dorky thing to do on your anniversary trip, but SO me! Shane had already MapQuest-ed the directions there from our hotel. But wait!!!!!! "I forgot my camera Shane!" As I am calculating in my head that it is going to take away from Tiffany & Co. time if we turn around, Shane says "Well its a good thing that I have mine." What a life saver! I love him! We went to the dam the next day and it was H-O-T!

This is part of the new edition to the skyline a the Hoover Dam. They are building a suspension bridge over the Colorado River side of the dam. Since it will be complete in 2010, you know I will be planning a trip to Vegas again.

We went on a tour of the dam while we were there. It was pretty cool to see how much is inside of the dam and how it works. This is the pipe that moves the water from the Lake Mead side of the dam to the other side. There's A LOT of pressure in there!

This is the generator room where the water rushing through the pipe above is turned into power. They were huge and the room was not as loud as I thought it would be. If I remember right, there are 6 generators in this room, which is on the Nevada side of the dam and 6 in the generator room that is on the Arizona side of the dam. That's a lot of power and water!

As you walk through the dam, there are these Native American designs in the marble that represent how the water is turned into power.

This is one of the tunnels that you have to walk through to get from room to room. If you know Shane very well, you know that he can get claustrophobic when he is in a small space underground. He was a little worried about it right before we went on the tour, but didn't seem to have a problem with it while we were inside the dam, until.......the elevator that is used to get us from floor to floor hadn't arrived at the time it was supposed to. The longer we waited and the more our guide talked about other people that have been claustrophobic on his tours, the antsier Shane got. I don't think that the elevator could have arrived any quicker.

This is the Lake Mead side of Hoover Dam. It was very pretty. While we were on the tour inside the dam, a girl in our group asked our guide why the rock around Lake Mead was white. Without hesitation the guide said "The BLM thought it would look nicer if we painted the white line around to contrast with the blue water." All she said was "oh." We all got a great laugh at her expense. Poor girl!

Now, its time to share Ashley's Hoover Dam Movie Moments with you!!!!!!!

Remember the 90's movie Fools Rush In starring Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry? I have always enjoyed this movie and often wished that I could have a place to go like Salma's character did with the dam.

Contrary to this picture.......you aren't allowed to sit on the edge of the walls around Hoover Dam. This is very dangerous! Duh! Please don't push her Matthew.

In the movie, every time Salma's character drives over Hoover Dam and crosses the Nevada-Arizona border she tosses a silver dollar into Lake Mead for good luck. I was looking forward to standing in the two states on the border line painted in the road, like in the movie. But guess what?!?!?!? In the movie there is a bold line in the road with large "NEVADA" and "ARIZONA" painted on their respective sides. ITS NOT THERE IN REAL LIFE!! All there is to show where the border is is this plaque. So you can't see me in the picture, but to get shot of the plaque I was standing in Arizona and Nevada. My first time being in two places at once!

My next movie moments were from Transformers!!!!!!!! When we were on the tour, a guy actually asked the silly question that was in my brain. "Where is Megatron?" Apparently he is on level 42 in the middle of the dam, about 20 levels below where we were at the time of the question. That's where we could have gone had we paid to go on the more expensive tour.

Since she is one of Shane's new favorite people to search on the internet, I thought while we were talking about Transformers, I would post this famous movie scene of Megan Fox from the movie. And as an Ashley side-note, her earrings are from American Eagle.

I tried to find pictures from the movie of the spots I saw, but I was unable to find any. In the movie, this is where Sam, Mikayla, Josh Duhmel's character and Tyrese are brought to enter the dam to visit Megatron's ice chamber (remember level 42?). They try to block out which side of the dam they are on in the movie, but in some scenes you can see Nevada Time under the clock. This would be the bridge they filmed on. And across from the bridge........

This is the EXACT same spot that Sam (Shia Lebouf) looks over the side of the dam and where the little devil of a robot falls out of Mikayla's purse and slides down to the bottom.

I know what you are thinking.......why would Shane ever want to take Ashley on another trip. Well, we had a blast and visiting sites like this is something that we both love doing together. In the 7 years that we have been together, we have been to places that at least one of us has never been and shared those memories. Yellowstone with our friends, Jackson Hole and Yellowstone on our Honeymoon, Las Vegas just to get out of town, Disneyland so that Shane could say he has at least been there and seen California other than LAX, Mexico on our first cruise, Moab for my first and second times, Arches National Park in the freezing cold on a motorcycle, Hole in the Rock outside of Moab. And there is so much more that we want to do. Make the most of your lifetime with simple once-in-a-lifetime moments that you will cherish forever.