Monday morning we got up at 7 am--even though Robert laughed at me!--and after a leisurely time getting ready, eating the leftover donuts from yesterday, and gassing up the car, we were on the road to the Hoover Dam (armed with directions from the concierge desk, with a very nice staff) at 9 am. It only took half an hour to get there at this hour, though later on we were told there'd be lots of traffic. The whole time we'd been in Vegas it had been about 105-110 degrees, and we'd tried to avoid walking outside--the heat just hit you, and the sun was so bright, that we sought air conditioning as much as we could. But at the Hoover Dam, it was already hotter than downtown Vegas, and in the afternoon the guide expected it would be 130 degrees at the foot of the dam. The regular tour of the dam was very nice, and there was a good museum area at the end of the tour. If we'd wanted to (if it had been cooler), we could have walked over to look at one of the spill-offs, which have only ever been activated twice, in flood times. When we left the dam it was still morning--we stopped for a Blizzard at a Dairy Queen on the way back, and then went to lunch at the lunch buffet at Bally's. Pictured below are the top of the dam and the view heading toward the dam of Lake Mead.

We had read reviews that said the buffet at Bally's was very good, but it just couldn't compare to the buffets at the newer hotels which opened up this year. The dining room looked a little shabby, and was quite crowded, and the buffet area was a little too much like a Wellesley dining hall. The food was good, though not as high in quality as the Bellagio's--the shrimp were smaller, the prime rib was dryer and not as rare or tasty, the Asian dishes and pizza were straight out of dining halls, decent but not superb in any way. There are definitely cheaper, better buffets at lunchtime in Las Vegas, but still, Bally's was not bad.

After lunch we walked over to the Bellagio, to browse there some more--their stores are very nice, and we were happy looking at the menu at the Las Vegas branch of the Boston restaurant Olive's (though we didn't go--it looked almost as good as Boston, though)--and then we went on to Caesar's Palace. It took us a very long time to walk from the south end of the Bellagio to the Forum shops (one of the classiest malls ever, as long as you get past the casino at its entrance; Robert is pictured at a fountain in its heart) in Caesar's Palace, though the two are connected. We walked around the Forum shops and browsed in F.A.O. Schwarz (they have a wonderful display of Star Wars: Episode One toys) and the Coach store, and saw the little free show there about the destruction of Atlantis. Then we went to the simulator ride, Race for Atlantis, at the far northern end of the mall--we bought a combo ticket for this and for the Star Trek simulator ride at another hotel. The Atlantis ride was great, with very good 3-D effects, and we both liked it a lot. Supposedly, it's the only simulator ride in the world for which you wear Imax 3-D goggles.

At this point it was late afternoon again, so we went back to our hotel to spend a couple hours at the pool. I preferred gently bobbing over the large waves, way out in the deep end, whereas Robert desperately wanted to be one of the many body-surfing young men and boys in the breakers. I tried his way, but didn't much enjoy it. After the pool we went down for a late, light dinner.

One of the things we liked very much about Mandalay Bay as a hotel is that it was designed and laid out very well--each different restaurant or area had a very distinct look--from the Border Grill out near the pool, to the Wolfgang Puck Italian place with cafe-like "outdoor" tables, to the House of Blues, to Aureole with its astonishing wine-tower (supposedly, acrobatically trained people known as wine-monkeys climb up and down to retrieve the bottles), to the authentic-looking sushi bar, to the four different Chinese restaurants (one a noodle shop, one an upscale abalone and shark-fin place, one a mostly-appetizer/nouveau dim sum place, and one a slightly more interesting but still somewhat typical Szchewan place), to the buffet (more on that later), to a Russian restaurant, to Rumjungle, the place we were now going to for dinner, every place looked distinct, and every place beautiful or striking in some way. Robert observed that out of thirty or so of the best restaurants in the country, a significant portion of them have opened up branches in Las Vegas--Rumjungle, as far as we know, isn't a branch of another famous restaurant, but was a very neat place.

Right near the self-park garage, and very easy to get to, its front wall is a wall of fire, with two different walls of water inside. The lighting is low and slightly strobe-effects-y, with lots of blue and flashes. After 10:30, the restaurant becomes a nightclub, with a $15 cover on certain nights, very loud music, and dancing. We arrived around 10pm, though, and dinner was still being served. A Brazilian-Caribbean-Pacific Rim fusion place (as well as a rum bar, with a tantalizing, exotic list of mixed drinks and over 100 different kinds of rum), Rumjungle has as its signature meal an all-you-can-eat selection for $34 which is roughly like a Brazilian barbecue place like New York's Master Grill. A selection of meats and side dishes are brought to your table, so you never have to get up from the futuristic-looking booths to eat all you want. Still, we weren't quite that hungry, and $34 apiece seemed rather like a lot to us, so we decided to have several appetizers, a drink, and maybe dessert.

At first no one brought us a drink menu, and when the waitress came to take our drink order we were baffled. After she brought us one, we chose two different mango blended drinks, neither of which were available (it's sort of an old menu, she explained--the restaurant having just opened in March or so, we were slightly confused by this). We decided to settle on a mango daquiri--simple, but classic. She got confused and brought us two, and when we explained and tried to send one back, told us to keep it at no extra charge (it was actually a very good mango drink, not too strong at all, and we did indeed drink two between us). Then we tried to order our appetizers--we chose a lovely sounding tuna tartare (huge chunks of tuna with creamy avocado, pineapple, and possibly a very light dijon sauce, surrounded by plaintain chips), which was excellent (you can almost never go wrong with tuna tartare at a place like this, we decided). We also ordered coconut shrimp--jumbo juicy shrimp in a coconut batter, with flakes of coconut on the outside, on a bed of mango salsa. Then we tried to order tamarind sauce beef patties, but they were out of that, and they were also out of the Jamaican jerk chicken wings, so we settled on a somewhat similar marinated chicken skewers with a tasty and unusual green mango slaw and a dipping sauce. Everything we ate was wonderful, and we had plenty of food so that we were full but not stuffed. We were thinking about staying for an interesting-looking dessert, but the music was really quite loud by this point and it was getting late, so we decided to leave after dinner. We highly recommend Rumjungle--it was a nice meal and a good atmosphere, and, at $43 with tax and tip for three large appetizers and a drink, not too expensive.

We tried to catch the final show of the Pirate Battle at Treasure Island and the Volcano Eruption at the Mirage, but we were a little too late, so we walked around the Mirage (nice fountains, really pretty), Treasure Island (a little too into their pirate theme), and the Venetian, just across the street (not everything there was open yet, and at night they were still putting the finishing touches on the construction, including paint on an outdoor railing--a nice hotel, but a little too raw at this point--Robert is pictured outside of it), before going back to our hotel for the night.

More. . .