Hoover Dam

Well... I didn't go to Nevada just because of the gambling and partying across the casinos (which I had of course plenty!). I also did some trips to the countryside which is basically a dessert. But some engineering marvels can be found here too... like the Hoover Dam.

Grown up myself at a huge dam I was really looking forward to this part of my journey even though it was 43 degree Celsius and my face nearly melted of (as my flatmate predicted). But I have to say that I still prefer "my" Edersee dam back home!





As part of my flight over the Grand Canyon I also caught this amazing view of the Hoover dam. More amazing is that it was finished in 1935, 2 years ahead of schedule and well under budged. Things like that happen not that often anymore. I know it is not really fair but I had to think of the M50 toll-bridge and the Luas (Irish readers will understand and hopefully forgive me to mention that here) :-P

Glitter and Glamor I

Las Vegas is the world capital of glitter and glamor. It seems like every company has to have a hotel or casino or better both over there. One prime example is MGM which has an impressive copy of their lion in front of their hotel.



More impressive are the theme hotels/casinos over there. The Excalibur looks like an medieval castle where every night knights are fighting for you while you are dinning. I kept wondering if they keep treating you as a king even though you lost everything in their casino ;-)


Right across the street you'll move a few centuries in time to get to the New York New York. An impressive roller coaster is going in between the skyscrapers.

Huge Screen

I stayed downtown Las Vegas just a few blocks from the famous strip with all its glamorous casinos which are well known all over the world. But here on Fremont street they have a very nice construction too... at the first glance it looks like a big rooftop with some sparkling lights which is nice but not that amazing. But every hour this big roof is becoming the dream of every couch potato of this world...


A nearly 500 meter long screen! I never saw something like this before and it is quite amazing to see videos on such a long screen. The video I saw was a specially created one, where aliens are taking over the world (see left) and the humans are fighting back. Especially the stars and spaceships flying over your head are very nice effects.


And this 10 min clip ends like expected... the aliens get kicked ass and a big explosion is covering the biggest screen on this planet. A very nice experience brought to you by 12 million LEDs and over 200 speakers.

But that was just one of the amazing things I saw in Las Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas

As most of you already know I went to Las Vegas last weekend. To be straight forward with you, Vegas is a fantastic place, so much to see and do that I don't even know where I start my story. Maybe with the welcome sign on the left ;-)







And with the hotel (and casino) El Cortez where I stayed. The name was a bit confusing for me... was Cortez not the Spanish fella who was after the gold and treasures of the Aztecs a couple of centuries ago? Not that great name for a casino you would think... but on the other hand, maybe they meant a different Cortez... one who gave the treasures to the Aztecs in the first place!


And another surprise waited for me at the airport... my rental car. It was exactly the same car I am driving at home just in a different color. Not that big of a coincidence you might say but I got the same car as a rental an Florida too (same color this time but smaller engine). It seems like I can't live without these Sonatas.
This picture I took of it looks a bit like out of the adds, maybe I should even start to sell these things ;-)

The 1000th visitor

Well... I am still amazed that so many people around the globe are interested in my adventures in the New World but now it is official! 1000 times in the last few month you were accessing my Blog and I want to say thank you to all of you! And to mark this special day with a special post... here are all countries from where you are connecting too:

Thanks a million: Ireland

Merci: to France

Vielen Dank: to Germany

Arigatou: to Japan

Grazie: to Italy

Thank you: to the UK

Danke sehr: to Switzerland

Aciu: to Lithuania

Cheers: to the US

Gracias: to Spain

Danke: to Austria

Dankzegging: to the Netherlands

Gan Xie: to Honk Kong

Rrofsh: to Albania

Thanks to all of you for your support and friendship!

The duck race

This weekend I went to the annual Longmont Duck Race fund racer which also was sponsored by Xilinx. We sponsored seven contestants this year which were decorated by Xilinx employees and you can guess which one I have decorated!




And here is the duck race itself! You can clearly see how the Xilinx Zombie duck is leading the race. But unfortunately it didn't win... maybe next year ;-)




And this is the race of the small ducks for private persons (the bigger ducks were for the sponsors). It was quite an impressive sight seeing all this ducks washed away for a good course. Quack, quack!!!

Murder Mystery

"The cause of his death remained a mystery for commissioner Gordon. But for what ever reason he felt that the answer is not far... in fact it lay there in front of him somewhere and he just had to read the sign."

If you expected a more serious 50th post I have to disappoint you... and I also survived the chocolate shock and doing just fine ;-)

Happy 4th of July

Most of you will be shocked to hear that July the 4th is not our victory over evil aliens trying to destroy the world... so was I. Over here they are also celebrating Americas birthday. To be honest... it is still looking good for 230 years ;-)
I was quite lucky to meet Mr. Sam in person, and I have to admit he is much taller and and funnier then I thought.


As you can see I went to the Colorado Rapids for their 4th of July celebration. Apparently they have the biggest fireworks in Denver. While singing the national anthem we even had jet planes flying over our heads. Amazing! Have a look at the video linked on the right!



This was the official 4th of July ice cream called "Taste of Freedom" in red, white and blue ice cream pieces. Its strange taste explains why they have it only once a year ;-)




And then we were waiting for the fireworks sitting on the pitch in the stadium. The fireworks were amazing! I just took a short video (see link on the left) of this 30 min show!

Happy Birthday America :-)

BBQ in the US and A

Finally I convinced my flatmate that we need a proper grill for having some BBQs at our house. And here it is... and I am not kidding when I tell you that we went for the smallest one in the whole shop. To get an better understanding of the dimensions of it... these white blobs on it are massive (!) American burgers.
I guess everyone of you is invited for a BBQ at our house now. This weekend we had 100 degree... ehem... I mean 38 degree Celsius. And I will personally take care of burning the meat ;-)