Friday, May 29, 2009

Hoover Dam (Part II)

Welcome to Nothing, AZ (On the way to Hoover Dam)

Entering the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (about 10 Miles from the Dam)
Approaching Boulder Canyon and the dam from Arizona:

The new Hoover Dam Bypass bridge for US 93 is being build in front of the dam:

Entering the Pacific Time Zone on the Nevada side of the Dam (which is the same time as Arizona for half of the year)

It's Over!!!

School's out!!!  So the last day of school (for the teachers) is over and I have earned a dinner reward.... So I went to Dunkin' Donuts (which is only 1.1 miles from my house!) and got my dinner... 6 strawberry frosted donuts and a large (32 oz) strawberry Coolatta... The best meal ever!

Dinner & Drink:

My massive Strawberry Coolatta:

Coolatta with fork included for scale:


Mmmm, Mmmm, Good!  Now let summer break begin!

Sunday, May 24, 2009

A long day of fun

So today Jenna and I traveled up to Hoover Dam...  I left here at 5:40 AM to pick her up and then we drove the 4 1/2 hour, 280 mile journey to the Dam.  We got there around 10:45 and then after a minor fiasco of spending an hour trying to parkwe were able to explore the dam (I drove past all the parking on the Arizona side thinking there was better, closer, parking on the Nevada side of the canyon, there was not, and we got stuck in the 45 minute, one lane traffic jam to get back to the dam from Nevada...) ... We went on the full tour and explored the power plant, the diversion tunnels, the air shafts inside the dam, looked out from an air vent in the middle of the dam, and the top of the dam and visitor's center...  it was very cool to see the dam up-close and realize just how massive it really is at 640 feet tall...  

Inside the Nevada side generator room at the base of the dam.  Hover Dam's 19 generators produce enough electricity for 1.3 million people (for a sense of scale this room is 600 feet long and 8 stories tall):


View of Arizona side of dam from the observation platform atop visitor's center, the dam is about 640 feet tall from the river to the top of the towers:

Looking 600+ feet down at the power station and Colorado River from the top of the dam, fortunately a gust a wind did not push me over the side....



Me with "Flat Stanley" (Long story...) at the Dam before our tour inside in inner workings of the structure:

More pictures to come tomorrow...

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ok, So it has been a while since I posted here, but it has been super busy with the end of the school year coming up... However, I found this floating around on the internet and I must have been here long enough now because everything on this list now makes sense to me...

You Know You're From Arizona If...

You notice your car overheating before you drive it.

You no longer associate bridges or rivers with water.

You can hear the weather forecast of 115 degrees without flinching.

You can be in the snow, then drive for an hour...and it will be over 100 degrees.

You discover, in July it only takes two fingers to drive your car, because your steering wheel is so hot.

You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.

The best parking is determined by shade.....not distance.

You realize that "Valley Fever" isn't a disco dance.

You can make sun tea instantly.

Hotter water comes from the cold water tap than the hot one.

It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation and yet all the streets are totally empty of both cars and people.

You actually burn your hand opening the car door.

Sunscreen is sold year round and kept right at the checkout counter.

You put on fresh sunscreen just to go check the mail box.

Some fools will market mini-misters for joggers and some other fools will actually buy them. Worse.....some fools actually try to jog.

You can pronounce Saguaro, Tempe, San Xavier, Canyon de Chelly, Mogollon Rim, Cholla, Gila and Tucson.

You can understand the reason for a town named "Why"

You can fry an egg on the hood of a car in the morning.

You know hot air balloons can't rise because the air temperature is hotter than the air inside the balloon.

You see two trees fighting over a dog.

You can say "Hohokam" and people don't think you're laughing funny.

You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River

You have to go to a fake beach for some fake waves

You hear people say "but it's a dry heat!"

You buy salsa by the gallon.

Your Christmas decorations include sand and l00 paper bags.

You think a red light is merely a suggestion.

All of your out-of-state friends start to visit after October but clear out come the end of April.

You think someone driving wearing oven mitts is clever.

Most of the restaurants in town have the first name "El" or "Los."

You think 60 tons of crushed red rock makes a beautiful yard.

Your house is made of stucco and has a red clay tile roof.

Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.

Most homes have more firearms than people.

Kids ask, "What's a mosquito?"

People who have black cars or black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out of-state or nuts.

You know better than to get into a car with leather seats if you're wearing shorts.

You can finish a Big Gulp in 10 minutes and go back for seconds.

You take rain dances seriously. 

When a rainy day puts you in a good mood. 

When you drive two miles around a parking lot looking for a shady place - even in the dead of winter. 

You feed your chickens ice cubes to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs. 

You "hug" a cactus only once in your lifetime. 


When you have to look up "mass transit" in the dictionary.

A hundred ten in the shade is sorta hot, but you don't have to shovel it off your driveway. 

A haboob happens.

Petrified doesn't mean scared.

The temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.

You've lived in AZ your whole life and have never been to the Grand Canyon 

You would give anything to be able to splash cold water on your face.

You can attend any function wearing shorts and a tank top.

You realize that asphalt has a liquid state. 

you realize that snowbirds aren't really birds at all, but just really bad out of state drivers that you learn to hate

there are only two temperatures, hot and hotter

even thinking about not having air conditioning makes you sweat

you travel out of state and any sort of humidity nearly kills you

you have no idea why 48 other states (Hawaii doesn't do it either) insist on changing their clocks twice a year for this thing called "daylight savings time"