MONDAY: I forgot to mention that last Sunday we paid a visit to Alex & Linda's church with them, & had a wonderful time of fellowship with lovely friendly Americans.   Yesterday, Sunday, we visited the Hoover Dam, about an hour's drive from Vegas -it was most impressive with Mead Lake on one side then the massive dam wall with the Colorado River flowing on its way, way down there in the valley (photos on FB).  Booger was quite nervous for his photo shoot! We drove back to Vegas, parked in the MGM bldg for free, & tackled the Strip once again. We walked our feet down to stumps, exhaustingly, as there's just so much to see & so many people doing the same thing.  Some of the highlights: a volcano in front of the Mirage Hotel, that erupts once an hour! A splendiferous fountain in front of the Bellagio hotel that explodes dancing water jets like u can't believe, every 15 minutes! A pirate ship that sails in with cannon balls going off & crazy yelling pirates & singing sirens on a ghost ship - that happens every half hour!  All these were the free entertainments out on the street.  We walked thru several hotels to get to each entertainment, not to watch the people feeding their hard earned money into machines in the mostly forlorn hope of getting a little payback, but in order to get some relief from the oppressive heat, in the air conditioned casinos (& to see the sights of course!)  We were totally fascinated by the frontages & foyers of several hotels.....the Bellagio looked like you'd arrived in Italy proper....sumptuously themed, with a massive area of the ceiling covered in colorful Venetian glass flowers with lighting behind them - awesome.  Every reception desk had a massive fresh flower arrangement billowing up, then further into the hotel there was a phenomenal display that defies description! You'll have to check out the photos on FB soon!