We heard rumor that you make a mean plexiglass bridge with fountain. Is this true?

I desparately need to do a retaining wall to get rid of the slope I have in the yard so my boys can go out there and play.

How, whom and cost are big factors can you direct me whom to contact....

We live on a small lake and it is hard to grow grass b/c of the shade trees. It would be great to incorporate terracing in the wall, along with a path from the house to the lake. Unfortunately, we are not young anymore, so we have to pay others to do the work.

RE comments by Mike Pettit: As an engineer, I'm impressed with his attitude-I assume he's a contractor or works for one. From my experience, it's hard to make a blanket statment - no two sites are the same. Soils are very important, especially on high walls. We have loess soils in western Iowa, a very fine, wind-blown silt, which stands 200-300' on a near vertical basis along the Missouri River flood plain. I know gabion projects, for example, that did not have the correct fabric behind the walls where the backfill washed out through the stone in the gabion baskets. In my opinion, since loess is such a well drained soil, I don't think select backfill is necessary for walls 6' high, then I would definitely stick with manufacturerer's recommendations on granular backfill and drainage. For the average homeowner, I think a series of terraces is better than a tall wall, just in case something goes wrong, in a deluge, settlement, combination of things, etc.
There are both kinds of walls where we live. We had a wall fall in a storm that turned out to be a 100 year (1% recurrence interval) event, where some of the block ended up on the neighbor's utility shed roof. In rebuilding the wall, I found mole runs in behind the old wall. Once water started following the mole runs, the wall washed out. Smaller walls are more forgiving and can be repaired easier. Like most things, maintenance is required. Irrigation in the yard is a consideration. You don't want the backfill continually saturated.
To make a long story shorter, most any project takes some engineering and a good contractor. Regardless how good the design is, if the work is not done properly, there will be problems down the road.
This is the 1st time I've entered into any of these type of discussions, and hope it may be of some benefit to someone.

I'm sure it's like this in other areas, but in DC there's a lot of desire to put in a rock wall, whether or not it's actually needed. It's very trendy, granite counter top, stainless steel grill, and "now I'm going to get the yard redone so I need to put in a dry stack wall somewhere." Certainly there are places for the retaining walls, but for the umpteen number of people that may have a couple feet of rise over a 50' spread, I think it's a disservice. In fact, where the soil is clayey and can certainly hold the varying heights on its own without wash, instead of trying to flatten the space into terraces, I like to propose designs that highlight the contours. That way, when they're standing in their yard, they can look at some showcased plants instead of looking at their showcased rock wall.