Vegas: Opportunity Village Magical Forest

Opportunity Village is a well-loved Las Vegas destination and a fixture of the community. Funded in 1954 the not-for-profit organisation have been working to help members of our community with various disabilities through a wide variety of services- from arts and crafts classes to vocational training, community employment and more. They claim to be Las Vegas's favorite charity and they might very well be right. For the holidays Opportunity Village opens it's doors to the public and goes all out with their Magical Forest extravaganza, a festive holiday experience for the whole family! It's a lot of fun and there's so much to see and do, from carnival rides to a psychedelic 3D maze (it was intense and really fun, my kudos to the people who made it happen)...there's even a train! We had a lot of fun wandering through the illuminated corridors together. It was a brisk night out so I wore a unicorn onesie for warmth, which entertained a few people. Better warm than sick, right? #Unicornlife

🦄🦄

The Magical Forest is only open for the holiday season, so if you'd like to visit you'll have to time it for then. It makes sense, of course! It's beautiful and I would recommend dropping by if you happen to find yourself in town in time. Since Opportunity Village is a not-for-profit organisation the cost of admission goes towards helping the people who need it, which is a nice feel-good perk. There's also ample hot beverages and food available both inside and outside the village, so if hunger strikes while you're out never fear! We had pretzels and hot cocoa along with some fancy cashews with a sweet and crunchy coating. It was all pretty tasty and fuelled us up to continue our adventure!

More photos below!

Vegas: Springs Preserve Zoo

After checking out the Space exhibition and experiencing a space walk with the magic of virtual reality, we were ready to get our feet back on solid Earth ground and partake of the freely available oxygen of our atmosphere under the rays of our sun kindly shielded somewhat by our little planet's atmosphere...and then we found the cute fluffy things!! YES!   

And the cute scaly things, too! 

I find tortoises to be absolutely adorable, do you? Maybe it's because I grew up pretty pro-turtle thanks to the awesomeness of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, coloring books, action figures and cartoons, but they're such interesting creatures. Not only do they live for 50-80 years (about the same as a human life span) and prefer to eat flowers, but there's something to be admired in their doggedly patient lurch from point A to point B. Time and time again the tortoise really does beat the hare in the race simply by plodding it's way forward one stumpy step at a time. Plus they're like nature's perfect introverts; when they get spooked or feel shy they can retreat into the safety of their shell, the home that goes with them everywhere for as long as they keep on trudging. They're like tiny dinosaurs! Tortoises are pretty freaking cool. Unfortunately, the Desert Tortoise has been bordering on endangered for quite some time now so there are concerted efforts in place by conservationists like The Defenders to try to protect their natural environments and conserve the populations. Keep on keeping on, little hard-shelled friends and their guardians. 💚  

Surrounded by all these awesome animals and the soothing gardens, it's hard not to find your zen.

More photos after the cut!

Boulder Beach campout 2015-10-01

Back in Nevada, we set up base on Boulder Beach!

We were able to park reasonably close to the water, which was lovely.

While we stayed up for a few hours after leaving Willow Beach it was simply too dark for photos...

 Sunrise, however, was a whole different story.

A shame, too, because we witnessed a coyote prowling the beach a stone's throw away!

Louie had played his guitar for us, which seemed to incite the coyotes into yipping. 

I thought that was pretty neat, but our neighbors down the beach packed up and were gone within moments! Scaredy cats. :P Coyotes shouldn't be brazen enough to attack humans unless extremely desperate. There should be plenty of bunnies for them to enjoy by the lake!

More photos after the cut~