I've never been a beach person - nor much of a water person for that matter - there are only lakes and rivers in the land-locked Prairies scoured out of the ground by the glacial action of the last ice age and the meltwaters of the Rocky Mountains .

But, I think I could be...

Place name links like Carolina Beach, NC go to Wikipedia. Place name links like Carolina Beach use the local tourism or government website.

2013.05.05	Hoover Dam
Comment	After an evening in the midst of consumer engineering, today we go see what makes all those machines and lights and sounds possible out here in the desert: The Hoover Dam . A couple final shots through Vegas.             And then back into flatness.                         about to drive over     the dam to park walking back over     to the Visitor Center     spillway         Lake Mead     Arizona Intake     elevator     Art Deco style is everywhere.     Nevada Intake         memorial tribute Now we take the $11 tour. There's a more-detailed $30 tour, but we go cheap.   Aerial map     1 of 4 30' diameter feed tubes original schematic   Turbine Hall ----->             Floor tiling in the Turbine Hall   model of construction     old turbine model   From the top of the Visitor Center             Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge opened in 2010 to reroute traffic away from the top of the dam. 2nd- highest bridge in the US, and widest concrete arch in the Western hemisphere.             Below: The Slenning Sculpture: Seven 3.5x7-ft bronze panels depicting the various facets of life in Arizona, California, and Nevada that the dam made possible.   Nevada Recreation     Nevada Industry   Arizona Landscape   California Industry   California Aqueduct   California Agriculture   Arizona Cotton and Copper Now we walk back to the car, from Nevada to Arizona, on the other side of the dam. In time for skies to clear and the desert sun to warm things up. It's amazing that the dam road, 2 narrow lanes, used to be the only way to cross on Highway 93. I was struck here by how the dam wall looks slotted into the surrounding rock.             floor tiling Even the men's room on the NV side of the dam walk was Deco stylish, polished black and green slate with a type of urinal I've never used before, 700' above the Colorado River .             looking back at the Visitor Center     Lake Mead   Water higher than the curved wall will bypass the dam         I missed taking shots of the old Visitor Center but I found this pic of its very-large old-school model of the Colorado River watershed.   We drove over bridge but couldn't see much over the barricades, and didn't want to park and get out - it was very windy and we had some hours of driving ahead.