Visiting the Springs Preserve

Ever since we started coming to Las Vegas, the Springs Preserve has been on my “to-see & do” list, but we never seem to make it. The tickets are $17/pp for Seniors and about half price for resident Seniors (that's us). We, however, are Bank of America customers and the first full weekend of every month BOA sponsors “Museums on Us”, free admission to about 150 museums across the country, including the Springs Preserve. We figured it was time to visit. You can tell when you're getting close to the highway exit for the Preserve. The resident critters catch your attention and invite you in.

Built around Las Vegas' original water source, the Las Vegas Springs, the Springs Preserve encompasses about 180 acres of land within sight of the Las Vegas Strip. Owned and operated by the Las Vegas Valley Water district, the Preserve is dedicated to celebrating the history and culture of the Las Vegas Valley and encouraging environmental stewardship. The sprawling facilities offer two museums, galleries, outstanding botanical gardens, interpretive walking trails and so much more … definitely more than we could absorb in a single visit.

We began our visit at the Nevada State Museum. Christopher the Columbian Mammoth greeted us on arrival. We learned about dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals that roamed the Las Vegas Valley tens of millennia ago and we found it fascinating

We wandered through exhibit after exhibit, taking in not only sights, but sounds. From the desert animal cries of coyotes, owls hooting and rattlesnakes hissing to the sounds of miners working their claims and steam trains chugging and slot machines spilling out coins. The history of the Las Vegas Valley was recounted before our eyes … and ears.

We headed to the botanical gardens for a guided tour by the Preserve's volunteer Master Gardeners. We had a mission here. We're in the process of planning the landscaping for our backyard and are, of course, especially interested in native plants and certainly desert tolerant plants. We currently have a rather uninteresting collection of cacti, yucca and aloe in the front yard, and we are searching for a bit more variety in the back. The three tour guides were excellent. I wish we'd brought notebook and pencil, but we did the best we could with our poor memories and photos of plants that would fit well in the yard. Brochures were offered and accepted and ongoing classes and gardening events might well be in our future.

We walked along some of the interpretive trails, listening to mockingbirds sing and watching butterflies and hummingbirds flit about. We ended up in Boomtown 1905, a new exhibit that has just opened featuring a streetscape of Las Vegas at the turn of the 20th century. We took a peek inside the bank and the Wells Fargo stagecoach then progressed down the street to the mercantile, movie theater (showing silent movies), the Arizona Club, the hotel and the train station.

An old operating player piano was being demonstrated at the Arizona Club and the kids were thrilled to take their turns “pumping” out out WWI tunes. Several small houses lined the opposite side of the street and it was interesting to view the period furniture and furnishings.

We never made it to the Origen Museum nor did we tour the galleries nor suss out all the garden art that's placed throughout the grounds. Many trails were left unwalked. Too much to see, too little time, but there's always another day. We'd rate the Springs Preserve an “A” place to visit.

A Weekend on Solomons Island

We have been working non-stop lately (read that David) trying to get as many projects and as much boat work done as possible before we head back to Las Vegas at the end of the month. There's the alternator project and varnishing and installing new batteries and … the list goes on and on. My anti-all-work-and-no-play philosophy kicked in and I convinced the captain that a weekend in Solomons Island, Maryland would be a fine diversion. After nearly 35 years together, my coaxing methods are well honed. With a $9.99/day weekend rental from Enterprise, we set off before the break of day on Saturday. We wanted to make the most of the daylight hours once we got to Solomons and it's about a 3.5 hour ride/200+ miles ride away. Road trip!

It really didn't matter much because although the forecast called for “partly cloudy”, it turned out to be foggy, misty and raw … none of which dampened our spirits in the least.

Solomons Island, Maryland is located at the mouth of the Patuxent River just off Chesapeake Bay. Apparently part of a land grant dating back to 1680 when it was known as Bourne's Island, it's also been known as Somervell's Island and Sandy Island until it was purchased in 1865 by Isaac Solomon who renamed it … you guessed it … Solomons Island. Solomon built and operated an oyster packing plant here for many years, one of the main industries of the island until the oyster beds were depleted. Today the island is best known for recreational boating, charter fishing and tourism.

Part of the reason for our visit was to explore the possibility of finding Nine of Cups a temporary home in the Chesapeake for the coming year. We had originally thought we'd head to maritime Canada this summer, but family commitments will preclude us from spending much time there. So instead, we're rethinking the possibility of spending more time exploring the Chesapeake and its many rivers, tributaries and unique ports. There's so much to see and we've seen so little of it. Having a home base for Cups will allow us to come and go as we please. Plus we'll have a nice place for folks to visit if they're so inclined.

The island is only about 1-1/2 miles long, so we parked the car at our hotel and walked from marina to marina, taking in the town as we went. We ventured to several marinas, four of which were of interest. No decisions have been made yet, but Solomons Yachting Center is a likely candidate.

One benefit of walking all over the island was checking out what it might hold in store for us if we decide to keep Cups here. There's the “world famous Tiki Bar” which surprised us with its life-size Easter Island moai. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season until mid-April.

The two-lane main street is lined with shops and restaurants and a very pleasant boardwalk runs along the shores of the Patuxent River. The damp, overcast day scared away all the tourists and we pretty much had the places to ourselves.

There's a gem of a museum in town – the Calvert Marine Museum. Once the business of marina exploration was complete, we couldn't resist a visit.

The museum is modern, well-laid out and very informative. The highlight for us was the tour of the Drum Point Lighthouse which was decommissioned in 1962 and saved from extinction when it was moved to the museum back in 1975. It's not your usual tower lighthouse, but rather a “screwpile” lighthouse, a style unique to the Chesapeake Bay.

We stopped at the small craft shed where the local small craft guild work on traditional wooden boats.

There's a wooden marsh walk and a live river otter exhibit. Watching the otters was fascinating and the otter tank was quite popular with the little ones. There's even a live webcam of the otters which is pretty cool.

Inside, the varied exhibits explore the history, geography, fauna, flora and industry of the Chesapeake Bay area … and so much more. We wandered through at a leisurely pace, each caught up in our own interests. David spent time learning about this area's involvement in the War of 1812. I enjoyed learning about fossils and the flora and fauna of the area. The seahorses caught my attention.

We enjoy discovering something new when we visit a museum. For instance, we learned the differences between a skate and ray (the tail tells it all at a glance). We observed a skate nursery and finally identified the weird natural objects we'd seen on many beaches as skate egg sacs (and some sharks, too), aka mermaid's purses. That's another of the differences between the two – rays have live births vs. the eggs of the skate.

We learned that a “bugeye” is a type of distinctive sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. There's a sculptured plaque illustrating a bugeye located along the river walk, a monument to fishermen and watermen who have died plying their trade in the Bay.

Who would have expected (or given it any thought to it at all) that it was Benjamin Lewis who first invented and patented the crab pot?

All and all, we had a great day, walked our dogs off (16,000 steps!!!) and retired to our hotel room exhausted, but satisfied. Sunday dawned dark, grey and dismal with a forecast of heavy rain and thunderstorms. Ah, well … so much better than snow.

Will Nine of Cups end up here in the Solomons? We're not sure yet, but you'll be among the first to know.

Off to Florida - Fun and Friends

It's been a hectic, crazy whirlwind of a time in Florida. We took a red-eye, non-reclining seat, uncomfortable Frontier flight from Vegas to Orlando. The usual … it sounded cheap, but by the time we paid for baggage, reserved seats together (in the back of the plane, no less), it ended up being fairly expensive. Bleary-eyed and tired, (although I still had time to pose with Snow White… after all we are in Disney territory), we picked up our rental car and made our way to Davenport, just south of Orlando to visit old cruising friends, John and Nicole, whom we'd first met in Tahiti.

Nicole and John are most excellent hosts and very hospitable folks and excused us early the first night so we could catch up on our zzzzz's, and we did. They live in a gated community with lots of walking paths lined with live oak trees, draped with Spanish moss, aka old man's beard. We walked each morning we were there. The inhabitants in these marshy wetlands and lakes are a bit different than we're used to seeing in the Las Vegas desert. We saw a sign warning us not to swim, feed or touch the alligators. As if!!!

Then we saw the alligator. Yikes! Watch out, poodles!

Our visit centered around eating, chatting, drinking, eating, drinking, eating and local exploration. Recovered and rearing to go, our hosts whisked us away first to lunch at the Cherry Pocket, a local, well-known hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served up excellent seafood in a rustic sort of atmosphere.

We ate on the deck, enjoying the warm Florida sun and watched anoles and geckos skitter across the floor. A big turtle dawdled near the water's edge and wood storks plied the nearby waters for lunch.

One day we visited Winter Park and took the scenic lake tour on a pontoon boat. There's lots of old money here and the “cottages” spoke to early 20th century wealth and luxury. The shallow-draft boat wended its way through circuitous, narrow canals lined with lush trees and foliage that connected one lake to another.

We were surprised, as was the tour guide, when David spotted a bald eagle perched on a treetop.

Lunch was at Bosphorous, a Turkish restaurant that John and Nicole knew well. The surroundings were Turkish antiques and the authentic food was awesome. The desserts looked tantalizing, but the appetizers and mains in which we indulged didn't leave room. Maybe next time?

Not far away was the Morse Museum, the foremost collection of Tiffany glass in the world.

We waltzed through the galleries of exquisite stained glass windows and lamps and art deco creations. The lighting was perfect to take advantage of the rich colors and intricate designs. It was almost dreamlike.

We headed back to John and Nicole's in time to watch the election returns together. In years past, David and I had a tradition of ordering in Chinese food and sitting in front of the tube to watch the news coverage of the election and our hosts were only too happy to oblige us. We noshed on Chinese and watched as the results of this most contentious contest rolled in. Though unhappy with the results, we were oh so happy it was finally over.

And then, just like that, it was time to leave and head to the upcoming SSCA gam. Our presentations were still not completed and we were feeling a bit of angst as we hugged John and Nicole goodbye and caught up with reality during the drive to Melbourne, Florida.

Stay tuned for more angst as we “gam it up” in Melbourne.