Vegas: Math Alive! Exhbit at the Springs Preserve May 2018

The Springs preserve plays host to two large museums on it's grounds: The Nevada State Museum and the Origen Museum. This exhibit was in the Origen Museum, same one we saw the Space exhibit on my birthday in. This time around, the exhibit was focused on Mathematics- not surprising, perhaps, given the name of the event. We caught it right at the tail end of it's run, so it will no longer be available to check out by the time this post is live, I'm afraid. I hope that by preserving it's awesomeness and sharing it with you here now you'll feel inspired to look into and check out future events at the Springs Preserve! There's always something new going on and we've had a lot of fun checking it out over the time we've had our memberships. It's always a family friendly affair, too, so for those of you with young ones it's a great option for a day out with them! Personally, I've always had something of an on-again-off-again love affair with math. I felt it came easily when I was attending a math and science magnet school as a child, and paid far less attention than I should have during lessons. Everything up through geometry made sense, and geometry came easily as my spacial-awareness from years of drawing was already pretty high. It was when we started to dabble in algebra, mixing the letters with numbers, that things started to go awry for me. I think that with the right teachers it would have been no problem, as I had a teacher later in life who explained it all in a manner that clarified things immensely, but for most of my middle and high school career I found myself growing resentful and frustrated by the teachers I had, who made it seem so effortlessly easy and insulted my efforts to ask questions after class...that's right, I legitamately had a teacher make fun of me when I came to her room after class to ask her for additional guidance. She had always been a bit of a nightmare teacher, with a reputation around campus for being a monster, but to mock a student's honest efforts at trying to learn and understand the material? Wow. In the end I needed to seek out outside tutoring and it helped, but it took time to get over the psychological block that I was innately bad at math after her abuses and taunts over the school year.  You may have to plan your visit for earlier in the day, however, if you're planning on visiting the butterfly exhbit, their zoo (say hi to Mojave Max their tortoise!), the Sustainability gallery , Boomtown and Waterworks, or other areas of the Preserve like the botanical gardens...

 

More photos below!

Vegas: Springs Preserve Botanical Gardens May 2018

No visit to the Springs Preserve would be complete without taking some time to explore their gardens! Now, I know what you may be thinking; but isn't it all pretty much gardens? Well...yes...technically speaking, that would be correct, however there's a separate botanical gardens area near the butterfly exhibit full of edible plants and cultivated raised beds where they offer lessons and classes! You can even send the kiddies off to a gardening summer camp to learn about the fun of growing your own. While I've never caught any of the lessons, Antho and I have explored the area and tried to make note of the various new fruits and veggies coming in with the changing seasons. On one visit we might find an abundance of chili peppers scattered among the many bushes near the Sustainability gallery (there's a lot of garden, after all) or mint and basil flourishing. Sometimes there's a bunch of little green tomatoes like on this visit, other times the bell peppers or squash steal the show. It's always quite exciting to me how many different plants and animals can thrive in this seemingly inhospitable climate. Our land is often more compacted sand and pebbles than deep brown loam, but the evidence is right here in the Preserve that in spite of our scorching summers, gardening is absolutely possible. It may pose more of a challenge than other regions, but with enough tenacity and know-how it's possible! Luckily for us, the volunteers at the Preserve, along with the various farmer's markets we have here in Vegas, make it easy to speak to knowledgeable people with experience on how to find your gardening groove with this land. If you're not keen on trying the DIY approach, you can simply stroll the gardens here and admire all the beautiful results of their work over the seasons, or check out the butterfly exhibit, the OriGen Museum, the Nevada State Museum, the Zoo or Waterworks and Boomtown, or come out for one of their holiday events!There's a lot to see here! It's no secret that the Springs Preserve makes the short-list of my favorite things to do in Vegas. 

As I've mentioned before, the gardens are always changing as a result of the seasonal shift in temperatures. This never ceases to entertain and fascinate me, as I think being born and raised primarily in the city lends a lot of us to dissociate from the seasonal nature of things. I really appreciated the awareness of it I found in Japan, and the use of seasonal produce is obsessively followed and planned for in the cuisine. There's a prime season for each and every fruit and vegetable, and being in tune with that makes it easier to get the best flavors and results in your cooking. It's a secret a lot of chefs know and utilise, which is why it should surprise no one that a lot of the culinary geniuses occupying this city can be found at the farmers markets or any of the specialty markets scouring out the best of the best of that season's offerings. Going into summer, I'm excited for all the tomatoes that will be available! A good tomato sandwich is a gloriously simple and delicious thing. Antho is especially fond of fried green tomatoes, which prelude the big beefy red ripe ones of later days. 

 

More photos below!

Vegas: Springs Preserve Butterfly Exhibit May 2018

For a limited time frame every year, the Springs Preserve converts one of their greenhouses into a butterfly habitat, filling it to the brim with the beautiful little flutterers. The exorbitantly green interior is maintained at a specific temperature and humidity level to keep the precious guests at their happiest, and each guest who enters is inspected prior to entry and exit in a secured secondary environment to prevent any possible hitch-hikers from contaminating the environment (and to keep their guests safely inside)... but even with meticulous work nature will invariably run its course, so if you choose to visit the butterfly habitat please be cautious of where you're stepping! Sometimes the little lovelies who aren't feeling so well, or are having a hard time getting airborne, will find their way to the walkways. We had a butterfly land on my purse, another on my hand, and Antho had one land upon a dread while another found itself attracted to his socks... so we BOTH had multiple butterflies land on us this trip! Given their friendliness, it's best to keep a close eye on kids who may get overly excited and try to grab one of the delicate little things. It's okay, I totally understand the impulse, but the volunteers at the Preserve put a lot of time and effort into protecting their headlining stars. The exhibit can only stay open for a limited time each year due to the fragile nature of the butterflies, who aren't well-adapted to our extreme seasons. This makes it all the more magical to catch it during it's short season of operation! The butterflies were not very shy this time through, with some of them happily landing on us as mentioned above, and others posing for photos with all the leisurely calm of a beach-goer getting a tan. There's a stunning amount of variety among them, too, with small fuzzy orange fellas floating around next to massive blue and brown winged butterfly behemoths. We've visited the exhibit in the past, and made a conscious effort to get to it once more before it closed for the 2018 summer season. 

There will be plenty of photos below!

Vegas: May visit to the Springs Preserve part two

Invariably, another post about my much beloved Springs Preserve rears its head here upon my wee little blog. I apologize in advance for any this abundance of flowers and animals and things may upset, offend or otherwise make grumpy. This place happens to be one of my happy places here in the city of Las Vegas, a real escape without having to go-too-far, an oasis in the city of sin. Long story short, it's pretty here and there are lots of flowers and animals to ogle for your relaxation and optical entertainment. I've found no end to the amount of amusement I've been able to glean from this place, between their butterfly exhibit, the Origen museum, Boomtown and Water works, or the external wildlands where you can hike among the less-tended grounds. There's even a restaurant on site if you grow hungry and want a salad or tasty wrap! Not to mention the endless parade of different events they have going on throughout the year for all the different holidays. Such a fun place and really great to take the whole family! We go for date days out, because it's nice to stroll the grounds together and look at all the flowers and details. The staff has always been extremely pleasant and friendly when we've talked to them, and we've felt welcomed here. 

...at least, when it comes to the human occupants!

This little bird above didn't seem too pleased with our presence here, and while we were able to get some awesome photos of him, we eventually decided to leave him be and move along before he got too fed up with the attention. Thanks for your cooperation, little friend! Cheers.

It was a warm and beautiful day out and we enjoyed this visit immensely. There will be plenty more photos below, thanks in part to our little bird friend above being kind enough to model for us, along with my propensity towards taking an exorbitant amount of photographs on any given outing. Hope you enjoy this glimpse into our life! 

Vegas: May Visit to the Springs Preserve part one

Another Springs Preserve post! Can you believe it? I know, readers, I certainly like to drivel on about this place a lot, but it's endlessly evolving and so much fun to visit!

This post is, unfortunately, a bit delayed in going live given that it's from a visit last month. It's been a hectic month or so, though, with new jobs and changing schedules, adventures, out-of-town work requiring road tripping, and all sorts of other excitement. I've touched on this outing a little bit already, having shared our visit with the friendly tortoise and the snazzy Gila monster, but these photos will cover more of the open grounds from when you first enter the preserve itself. The Springs Preserve is massive, with a lot to try to take in on any given visit and then it changes with every season and holiday to boot, making it an endlessly fascinating place to stop at while here in lovely Las Vegas. Antho and I got annual memberships after our very first visit in the September of 2017, and we've gone time and time, and time, and time, again since then! There's a museum with rotating exhibits, live animals to check out, then gardens and hiking paths galore. It's pretty epic. Not only is there the animals in their zoo, but plenty of wild animals stop in, too, like this cute little green guy above. Nature doing nature stuff. 

This particular visit took place on a warm, beautiful, sunny day in early May. I guess you'd say that was the tail end of spring by Vegas standards, as we start to get into the high 80's / low 90's (Fahrenheit) by the end of May, if not higher. Once the heat really settles in, it takes hold for months on end with only brief thunderstorms and heavy rains surprising us once or twice, if we're lucky. Those summer monsoons provide much-needed moisture to the drought-ridden desert landscape, along with providing some flash-floods that catch unwitting drivers by surprise. You win some, you lose some. The ground is so hard packed here that when we do finally get that rainfall the land so desperately needs, it tends to collect on the surface and run into the lowest points of elevation before eventually draining. There's an extensive system of tunnels and drainage tubes underneath the city of Las Vegas, because even though our rain is few and far between it tends to come with quite a flash.

  

Despite our drought conditions, life does thrive here. From lizards to birds, spiders to mountain lions, there are plenty of creatures that have adapted to survive the terrain. Plantlife, too, has adapted to these tough conditions. 

More photos below~

Vegas: Gila Monster at the Springs Preserve

In case you haven't noticed from the sheer voluminous backlog of posts I've written thus far involving the Springs Preserve, it really is one of my absolute favorite local spots here in the confines of our lovely little city of Las Vegas. Not only is it an expansive property with acreage upon acres of stunning natural views of untampered wild foliage coupled with immaculately tended gardens but all of these views change with the seasons and there are always some new and exciting events popping up all year long. There are stone-studded pathways leading you through tunnels of foliage and butterflies hiding in a particularly sunny and climate-controlled corner. There are even animals and a museum to get your learning on! It's such a nice escape and it's only a 10-15 minute journey from where we live currently, but even if you're not super-central like we are it's at such a convenient juncture of freeways that you'd be hard-pressed to find an inconvenient way of getting there. There's also lots of good food to be found nearby, as well as inside their very own on-premises restaurant, so you needn't fear hunger while hiking. This post is primarily going to cap-off our little visit to their zoo area, where the friendly tortoise gentleman popped up to say hello to us previously. I'll have more posts about the Preserve up soon, but I've been drowning a bit under a backlog of photos and inadequate memory to store them all... eesh... between the blogging, the tie-dye, and travel photos I accumulate I manage to burn through all available storage on my poor desktop! I have external drives and lots of Google storage, but it's a pain to shuffle things around. I guess it's a bit of digital spring cleaning, though, which was much needed. I literally couldn't import any more photos off of my camera, and I've got a lot of more stuff to show you from the past month! 

Like check out this handsome critter! I've always been fascinated by Gila monsters, the venomous lizard who has to gnaw their deadly poison into your system with their big, impressive jaws. They're definitely a remnant of an earlier, more creative time in nature's history, and they too fall into the flashy-colored stylish ways of their fellow venomous friends in the animal kingdom. Nature's way of saying to frigg right the hell off, mate, if you know what's good for you.

I'm not saying to frigg off, though, mate!

There's plenty more photos here to gander, so feast your eyes if you're not freaked out by the dinosaurs. 

Vegas: Making tortoise friends at the Springs Preserve

The Springs Preserve, as I've written about several times before, is one of my favorite spots here in Vegas to get away. It's an extremely convenient place to get to, not far off from two of the major arterial freeways and right in the heart of the city, but the expansive grounds are so beautiful and lush that it doesn't feel like the city anymore. A true oasis! You can lounge among the trees and flowers at your leisure, or say hello to friendly tortoises, who on this trip actually turned around and came hurtling over to the glass to greet us when he heard us calling out to him. I'm not the only one who talks to animals, right? This little dude was preparing to retire to the burrow for the night, but I was so happy when I saw him that I couldn't help but say something, and to my surprise, he reacted! He pivoted on his little stumpy dinosaur legs and stomped over to give us some fist-bumps through the glass before deciding that if we had no food to offer we were boring and heading back to bed. We were quite honored by his cordial greeting and appreciated the exchange. Cheers, little tortoise gent. These little creatures are really pretty cool if you think about it; they live for about as long as your modern human (50-80 years) and stomp around in the desert where temperatures can get up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit! They're pretty threatened due to human activity, which is such a shame, as these gentle giants pose no danger to us in any way. They're vegetarians, too, chomping down on tough desert foliage to get their fill, so they don't pose much of a threat to other species, either.  They've got big claws on their little feeties, but those intimidating looking appendages are used for digging those burrows they use to escape from the harsh temperatures of the environment they live in. They're troopers! There are efforts to help conserve and rebuild their populations in the wild, which I'm so, SO happy exist! These little dinosaurs were here long before people were, and I'd like for them to be here long after, too. Is that morbid?  

Las Vegas: Early 2018 Springs Preserve visit

It had been a while since we last popped over to the Springs Preserve for a visit, so we decided to make the trek over recently. It's still a little chilly out, for Vegas standards, but the garden was looking pretty lively with all the sunshine and warmer temps that have been occurring recently. We ended up only spending an hour or two on this visit as we found ourselves growing hungry towards the end, and looking at exhibits we had already spent some time with previously. I'd hoped that we might catch some more activity in their animal exhibits during this visit, but everybody was pretty sleepy so there wasn't much going on. It happens, though! The butterfly exhibit should be re-opening soon, so we're excited about that, and there's all sorts of new exhibits going on now! During this visit they were  still doing the training for the most recent virtual reality experience, so we personally weren't able to experience it but the employees looked like they were having a good time of it. We'll definitely be back to check it out now that it's open to the public! 

There's always so many new exhibits and shows coming through the preserve, and they're always re-decorating for the latest holiday. It's a lot of fun going for a visit when we get the chance and it's really quite affordable after investing in their annual pass. We didn't have to pay anything for this visit!  It's always a great opportunity for photography too as the grounds are quite photogenic, and there's always new flowers coming in to bloom with the changing weather. I'm quite grateful that +Antho Jay  got us the annual passes last year for my birthday, and we've gotten quite good use out of them in my estimation of things. I always look forward to our visits and revel in the opportunity to improve upon my photography skills and understanding of my camera by practicing with all the gorgeous blooms. We've always enjoyed our visits to the Springs Preserve and the employees have always been courteous, even when the girl at the ticketing booth shouted at us to make sure we were paying customer upon entry this time. Poor girl was only doing her job, after all, and was an absolute doll once she knew we weren't trying to sneak in or anything. I can get that. I've got nothing bad to say about the Springs Preserve! 

Vegas: the Springs Preserve Sustainability Gallery

Have I made it clear yet how much I love the Springs Preserve? Whether we're talking about their seasonally-limited but wonderful butterfly exhibit, their live animal exhibits, the Nevada State Museum, seeing where the city and our water came/comes from in Boomtown & Waterworks, hiking the trails along the expansive grounds, wandering the gardens in summer or late fall, getting spooky during the Haunted Harvest event for Halloween, or scoping out one of their limited exhibits like the Space Exhibit in the OriGen museum last September we always have a blast when we visit the Preserve! Antho and I are both members and have been since shortly after our very first visit. It's been well worth it- even though the cost of admission is quite reasonable, we've gone so many times that the memberships have more than paid for themselves. 

During this visit it was a cool, crisp December day and the Springs had gotten themselves gussied up for the winter Holidays. There were very few other visitors on this day, probably because it was pretty chilly out. We found our way to the Sustainability gallery, which we had walked by several times but never ventured into- a shame because we had a lot of fun! It was a wonderful surprise and we enjoyed exploring the exhibits. Upon exiting the Sustainability Gallery we found our way to the actual food gardens where we were pleased to find tomatillos, peppers and broccoli all going strong- though the broccoli was covered in aphids. Creepy little buggers...we didn't realize they were even bugs until we got closer and inspected the broccoli, at which point we were both a bit skeeved out. Antho went in for more photos trying to capture a good close-up of the little crawlies, though! I kept a safe distance and looked at the other plants while he did that... it's not that I'm terrible with bugs, if need be I can catch a spider, I would just rather not interact with them unless I really have to. I've handled tarantulas and various roaches in museums and biology classes, things of that nature, but I'm good with that being the end of it. Luckily there were plenty of other plants to enjoy! 

Yuck!

More photos below!

Vegas: Springs Preserve Late Fall visit

The Springs Preserve here in Vegas likes to get dolled up for different holidays throughout the year and they try to be inclusive of the multitude of different cultures living together in the valley too, which is great! Whether you're a member like Antho and I or just a regular visitor going for a spontaneous outing you can expect to stroll up to occasionally discover a themed entrance appropriate for the most timely celebration, and during this trip out we found the Preserve dressed up for Dia De Muertos, an event celebrating beloved ancestors and family members in Latin cultures. The decorations are not the only way they celebrate as there are also fun activities and live events, music, food and crafts going on during the 2 day celebration! This year the event will be November 2nd through the 4th and you can learn more here. It's advised to get your tickets ahead of time! We didn't go for the paid event as we aren't particularly familiar with the celebration and we weren't there at the right time, anyhow. During our visit, the decorations were the only thing really going on and the preserve was pretty quiet. This was fine by us as we enjoyed strolling around in the late-afternoon light and checking out some of the hiking trails we hadn't yet ventured out to in prior trips. There's several routes you can take through the more open and natural side of the preserve, and we enjoyed our visit quite a bit. We definitely didn't see every trail or every thing there was to see out there, but it was a lovely use of an afternoon. I hope you enjoy the photos! Cheers.  

 

Vegas: Springs Preserve Haunted Harvest 2017

For the record, we love Halloween. I don't know if I've spoken about this enough in previous posts, but Halloween really is THE best holiday in my opinion. It's one of the only times of year that it's socially acceptable for you to dress up and personify yourself as someone else- whether that means channeling Frank'n'Furter and not just dreaming it but BEING it, or cramming yourself into the tightest sexiest attempt at bombshell you've got in your armada, it's that magical time of year when you can be the spookiest personification of yourself... AND eat candy. Lots of candy. And the day after Halloween? ALL the discount candy! Woohoo!!!! While we've had a couple of rough years- last year I spent Halloween alone in Korea, for example- we are definitely making up for lost time by making the best of it while it's here now. I was really happy with this Halloween season and we spent it with some really good people and at some fun places. It was a good year.

The Haunted Harvest at the Springs Preserve is a family friendly affair that would kick into gear after the sun goes down. The gardens would be open during daytime hours as usual for all guests to partake of the non-spooky fun, then after closing time they'd switch over for the spooky spectacular and re-open a few hours later. This gave us time to eat, relax, take a breather and freshen up before venturing back out into the cold and spooky fun. There was a petting zoo, several haunted houses, funnel cakes, goats, free candy, a train ride and so much more! 

We were both happy to have gone and had a lot of fun. We're both members of the Springs Preserve and go fairly often...there's always something new and exciting to discover or see and with all the holiday themed events it's always changing. It was pretty neat seeing the preserve at night since we typically only ever get to explore the grounds during the day. It's a whole different vibe, especially with all the spooky decorations! While it wasn't too bad during the day, it might be a -wee- bit spooky for the youngest ones at night. To take some of the edge off there were live performances with young musicians and dancers on the main stage along with friendly volunteers aplenty to put you at ease if need be. We had fun and definitely enjoyed the free candy since at our age we're not really able to trick or treat anymore without a small child accompanying us... since we don't have any munchkins yet, it's a lot of fun to be able to channel that nostalgic joy of Trick Or Treating with the accompanying sugar high again. There were also funnel cakes and plenty of food vendors for when you need real food, too! Antho even discovered that goats, much like puppers, enjoy a good scratch behind the collar and will raise a hind foot in fake-scratchies to show their appreciation. Now we know!

More photos after the cut!

Vegas: Nevada State Museum at the Springs Preserve

On this particular visit to the Springs Preserve we found our way to the Nevada State Museum! We were pretty excited to find out that it was included in our admission with our annual passes, which we both highly recommend getting if you're in the Vegas area for any substantial amount of time. There's just so much to see and do at the preserve, especially if you're a local that enjoys gardens, museums and the out doors but wants to stray away from the crowds at the Bellagio's conservatory or other top tourist destinations. We were both quite happy with our time in the museum and found it an excellent use of an afternoon together. There's a lot of exhibits and information to absorb! Personally, I'd say my favorite displays have to be the skeletons as it's so fascinating to see the prehistoric remains of beasts that roamed the lands eons ago. On the topic of dinosaurs there's a really cool painting inside the museum that was painted by super talented local artists! Photos will be included below.

It might seem silly that we're so enthusiastic about museums and gardens and the like since Vegas is a city that thrives on it's nightlife and high class dining, shopping, and entertaining...but both Antho and I are locals who grew up in the city and we both just generally prefer to stay off the main boulevard when we go out to play. There's a lot of fun and exciting things to see and do on the Strip, that's for sure, but with traffic, parking, the crowds and everything else it can be too much sometimes. We have fun when we play tourist but it's not something we do every day... at the preserve, however, we feel at peace. Everyone we've interacted with has been pleasant and friendly for the most part, the crowds typically thin and the gardens beautiful. We've gotten a lot of use out of our annual passes and expect to get several more trips in before they expire. It's been especially fun to see how the grounds change through the seasons. There's always something new coming in to bloom or going out for the season. 

As always, more photos after the cut!

Vegas: October Springs Preserve visit

Happy Holidays everyone!

Hope your Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus/Saturnalia was an awesome one, full of good food and good company. Antho and I both had to work because the economy keeps churning even on celebratory days, but we got to spend it in the same country and actually see each other which was nice. Christmas Day last year I was making my way back to the US from Seoul, a process that was rather complicated due to the fact I missed my originally planned flight and had to arrange a last minute one for the next day. Lucky for us we were able to find a flight, and one year later I was here to spend the time with my love...after work, anyway.

 This post, however, is not about winter holidays- more of an autumnal one. I don't know about you but as far as I'm concerned Halloween is the one true holiday to rule them all, and when we popped over to the Springs Preserve one pleasant October day we were quite pleased to discover that the grounds were decked out in festive decorations! The evenings are when the real haunting begins, of course, as the ghouls all crawl forth from their graves when the moon begins to rise so never fear those of you with young ones who might fear the frights too fearsome: you'll find that the harsh light of day makes it plenty safe to walk the grounds and enjoy the flowers, even with a few spooky scruffigans loafing about. As usual we had a lot of fun and discovered some new spots we hadn't explored previously, so there will be plenty of photos ahead- even though Antho did have to leave at some point to go pick up Vanticore from the shop, leaving me to my own devices (a lot of wandering most aimlessly taking photos of flowers for the most part). After seeing all the fun decorations throughout the grounds we knew we'd have to come back for the actual Haunted Harvest- the Springs Preserve's own spooky celebration for the whole family. There will be a post of it's own about that, so don't worry! For now enjoy the sunny gardens pictured below and after the cut... 

Vegas: Springs Preserve WaterWorks and Boom Town attractions

Ahoy there mateys!! Welcome to another rousing rhetoric from your Capt'n of this here blog and first mate Antho! In this edition we'll be bombarding your eye holes with a bounty of photographic booty from the Las Vegas Springs Preserve's WaterWorks and Boom Town exhibits! We spent a lovely afternoon stretching out our sea legs and scoping out all the landlocked locales.   

Now that's a big cactus!

Enough pirate puns? Debatable if such a thing is possible, but I'll relent for now. 

We'd already been to their animal exhibit (which could be called a zoo) and the butterfly exhibit but there was still some time yet before we had to leave for the day's end. We caught the little train over to the station in Boom Town and hurried over to WaterWorks to see if we could fit it in first. Being that this is a desert, after all, water is an essential resource for the population of Las Vegas. Despite all the glam and fancy fountains of the Strip, we've actually been in a drought for quite some time- something evident with any trip to Lake Mead to see the ring left from where the water level has plummeted. There's been an ongoing campaign to inform residents of our fair city about water conservation and in a lot of places it's working: people are switching to "desertscaping" instead of lawns, replacing water-hungry grass with hearty desert plants that thrive more readily without requiring as much hydration, but the effort must continue as there are always new individuals moving in who might not be as aware of the water situation.  The Water Works exhibit is a good way of getting families informed and involved without being too preachy. There's no cost of admission to enter Water Works beyond the initial cost of entry to the Preserve itself, so it's a fun and cost effective way to spend a fun afternoon learning and exploring with the whole clan! We had a lot of fun... so much fun, in fact, that we missed the last train ride back from Boom Town! Womp womp... no worries, though, for despite how big the Springs Preserve itself is (180 acres) the walk back from Boom Town was relatively short and easy. We even met some out of town visitors along the way and stopped for some photos with the friendly folks!

More photos after the cut~

Vegas: Springs Preserve Butterfly Exhibit

Have you ever wanted to feel like a Disney Princess? Standing somewhere green and lovely with the gentle light filtering through the shrubbery as you gracefully stretch out your arms to welcome your animal friends, who greet you by entering the clearing or landing upon your outstretched limbs.... well, at the Springs Preserve you'll get your chance during the right time of year! Unfortunately, the butterfly habitat is NOT an all-year-long attraction as the delicate little pretties have sensitive temperaments and the colder months are not kind to them... This was why it was so important to us that we make it to this particular exhibit when we did, as it shuts down in November and won't be available again until spring! This unfortunately means that it is now, as of this post going live, closed for the season but during the spring and summer you can visit the habitat during the day, and we highly recommend it. The staff were friendly and informative as they usually are throughout the Preserve but in the greenhouse the butterflies reside in it's especially important as the space is so confined.  All entry and exits are supervised to ensure that no unwanted hitchhikers are tagging along to try to eat their residents. As tempting as it may be to reach out and pet the butterflies it's actually very bad for them as their wings are fragile and even a gentle stroke could leave them permanently disabled and the staff are there to help remind overenthusiastic visitors should they try to get handsy. During our visit an unwanted guest was taken care of, and one poor butterfly showed the unfortunate side-effects of rough handling as she fruitlessly flapped her wings atop an attendant's hand. The attendant was very kind and explained the situation with us and anyone else curious on top of being gracious in allowing photos. As far as I'm aware many of the people at the Springs Preserve are volunteers, so they're there because they love it and that shows in how passionate they are in sharing information when the opportunity arises. We absolutely had a blast and look forward to when they reopen in the spring! 

More photos after the cut!