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by John BiehlerDisclosure: Review — John's experience was courtesy of Travel Nevada. He was not paid to write this recap and it is formed of his own opinions. Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
One of the things I love about Las Vegas is the wide variety of things to do there, aside from the casino floor (which can also definitely be fun). This series will share my recent trip with Travel Nevada, covering some of the fun activities that you can do in Nevada, all within a few hours (or less) from the Las Vegas Strip.
Death Valley and Sandrails
The final instalment in my Travel Nevada series covers a few popular day trip options when visiting Las Vegas. A popular one is Death Valley National Park. At around 2 hours from the strip, Death Valley has lots of sights to see. Just make sure you bring lots of water and have a full tank of gas.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
Our first stop was the Furnace Creek Visitor Center where their outdoor thermometer told us what we already knew, it was hot out.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Our next stop was Zabriskie Point to see some of the beautiful panoramic views of the area with the valley floor in the background.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
Next up was Devil’s Golf Course. A massive lake bed that dried up leaving behind all the salt formations. You can actually hear it crackling in the hot sun…like ice on a sunny winter morning. Desolate doesn’t begin to describe this place.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
Our final stop in Death Valley was Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
We decided to stay overnight in Pahrump, Nevada at Wine Ridge to give us more time in the park. These little cottages made for a great stay next door to a winery and meant we didn’t have to a 2 hour drive back to Las Vegas after a day in Death Valley. Pahrump is also home to the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch where a number of automotive manufacturers test out their vehicles in the extreme heat of Death Valley.
Photo credit: John Biehler
If you’re looking for a different kind of pace, another popular destination is Laughlin, Nevada. With it’s beautiful river boardwalk and easily walkable ‘strip’, a host of hotels and casinos, Laughlin is also a great place for outdoor activities either on the water or in the desert.
Photo credit: John Biehler
We met up with Joe from Dirt Road Tours and headed into the hills to hit the trails with his sandrails.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
With miles of trails for off roading, it was a fun way to spend the morning. You do need to start early before the midday sun kicks into full effect. Expect to get very dusty and dirty…in the best way.
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
Photo credit: John Biehler
These machines are a blast to drive. I could have done this all day.
Cirque du Soleil is celebrating its 30th anniversary and in Vancouver, they’ll host activities at the Pacific Centre Plaza from 8:00am until about 6:00pm today. Mayor Gregor Robertson will also be on hand for a special announcement, proclaiming June 16th Cirque du Soleil Day in Vancouver.
In honour of this festive occasion, Cirque has special (limited) pricing available for TOTEM in Vancouver and I also have a contest to host.
Win Tickets to Cirque du Soleil Totem
Cirque du Soleil TOTEM is currently performing at Concord Pacific Place through July 6, 2014 with its uplifting array of athleticism, comedy, heartfelt emotions and surprising visual effects.
TOTEM – a fascinating journey into the evolution of mankind
Written and directed by Robert Lepage, TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. The characters evolve on a stage evoking a giant turtle, the symbol of origin for many ancient civilizations. Inspired by many founding myths, TOTEM illustrates, through a visual and acrobatic language, the evolutionary progress of species. Somewhere between science and legend TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential.
TOTEM features a unique outstanding cast of 45 acrobats, actors, musicians and singers.
If you would like to win your way into TOTEM, I have a pair of tickets to give away to the performance on July 2nd. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment naming a past or present touring Cirque production (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
RT to enter to win tickets to @Cirque #TOTEM from @LiveNationWest + @Miss604 http://ow.ly/y5CvY
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Monday, June 23, 2014. Follow Cirque TOTEM on Facebook for more information along with Live Nation on Twitter and Facebook.
Update The contest winner is Tim!
Cirque du Soleil Fireworks
On top of today’s activities, there will be a free fireworks show at the Plaza of Nations on Saturday, June 21st, starting at approximately 10:30pm, after the performance of TOTEM that night.
This post has been contributed by Don Enright, Volunteer and Past President with the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”). I have been following SPES since I moved into the West End almost a decade ago and I have been a member for two years. I wanted to offer the team an opportunity to share their news, events, and work so I have created “SPES Saturday” where they contribute and share stories with my audience once a month.
This Ain’t Your Grandmother’s Rose Garden
Stanley Park’s Rose Garden is an ecological laboratory, and the experiment seems to be working.
Photo by Don Enright.
A wise man once said that art lies in the concealment of art. I’m pretty sure he was talking about painting, but he might have been describing the world of rose gardening. Take the Stanley Park Rose Garden, for example. 3000-odd plants fill a beautifully landscaped space in the heart of the park, and right now they are loaded—and I mean loaded—with buds. These plants are healthy, robust, burgeoning. They’re going to be spectacular. A work of art, in fact.
But anybody who has ever grown a modern rose will tell you how very fussy they can be. You toil, you fuss, you prune, you spray, and at the end of it all you’ve got what looks like a bunch of soggy kleenex on a stick. It’s heartbreaking. So what’s the secret of Stanley Park’s healthy plants? Ecology, believe it or not. The Stanley Park Rose Garden is more than just a pretty place; it’s one of the most environmentally progressive rose gardens in Canada.
The aptly-named Easy Going rose. Look at that foliage. Photo by Don Enright.
Modern roses are the product of hundreds of years of cultivation. As far back as Roman times, people were selecting roses for their scent and beauty and cross-breeding them. Improving them, if you will. But to achieve the unparalleled beauty of the modern rose, some real sacrifices were made along the way. Disease resistance was the biggest: black-spot fungus and powdery mildew, in particular, are the modern rose’s nemeses. They show up as a powdery grey coating on the leaves, or hideous yellow and black spotting. Eventually the leaves just fall off. Vancouver’s moist climate, as you can imagine, is a fungal paradise, and by the mid-twentieth century, very few varieties could get through a season without being heavily and repeatedly sprayed.
Sweetness is a multi-sensory delight with terrible disease resistance. Photo by Don Enright.
Fast-forward to a more enlightened age—one in which we see our honeybee populations crashing, among other alarming trends—and dowsing a cosmetic garden with chemicals just doesn’t cut it anymore. Environmentally-conscious gardeners around the world have begun to demand low-maintenance, no-spray roses, and rose breeders are stepping up to fill the gap. Our garden in the park is a showcase of the very latest in disease-resistant varieties.
To breed a disease-resistant rose is a fairly simple exercise in Darwinism, really. Cross-pollinate your roses, throw the seeds in the ground, and simply choose the best of the survivors. No coddling, no spraying, no special treatment. Painstakingly repeat the process over many generations, and you’re in business. Kordes of Germany was one of the first of the big European houses to adopt a no-spray policy, and their roses—Eliza, Beverly, and the gorgeous Fairy Tale series—are among the finest in the Stanley Park collection. Other breeders are following suit—rumour has it even David Austin and his famous English roses are going organic.
Zaide by Kordes. Photo by Don Enright.
Of course it takes time and expertise to research, plan and pilot these cutting-edge roses, and Stanley Park gardening staff have teamed up with Langley’s own no-spray rose breeder, Brad Jalbert of Select Roses, to plan out the display. It’s a process of trial and error, because disease resistance can be a very regional phenomenon. There are at least a half-dozen different strains of black spot fungus across North America, and a rose that proves invincible to Ontario’s strains might fall apart in a single season here in Vancouver.
Livin’ Easy rose. Photo by Don Enright.
I have been visiting the garden regularly for a few years now. I enjoy watching tourists and locals alike take time to smell the flowers. And I really enjoy watching the honey bees and mason bees at work harvesting pollen (and the swallows harvesting the bees), knowing that they’re doing so in a pesticide-free park.
The garden dates back to 1920, when the Kiwanis Club established it to “demonstrate the possibilities of rose gardening in Vancouver.” It’s exciting to imagine what possibilities still lie ahead for the Stanley Park rose garden.
Busy as a pesticide-free bee. Photo by Don Enright.
A table set for over a hundred, a snow-capped mountain in the background, and the bounty of a valley farm served up by one of the best restaurants in the province — that was our Araxi Longtable experience at North Arm Farm in Pemberton a few summers ago. This year, Whistler-based Araxi Restaurant and Executive Chef James Walt will be bringing that incredible outdoor dining experience to three locations for the Araxi Longtable Series.
Photo credit: John Bollwitt for Miss604
Each longtable event has space for 300 people and will feature local ingredients served up into a four-course menu thanks to Chef Walt and his team. Each event will have a cocktail reception followed by dinner with wine pairings by Araxi wine director Samantha Rahn, 2013 Sommelier of the Year, and service orchestrated by renowned restaurant director Neil Henderson.
Photo credit: John Bollwitt for Miss604
Date: Monday, August 4, 2014
Location:Bard on the Beach at Vanier Park
Details: New this year, the inaugural Longtable Dinner in Vancouver will be the largest dinner to date and will provide a dramatic oceanside setting. Chef Walt leads the charge and as a special treat, welcomes his Vancouver-based Toptable Group counterparts Andrew Richardson from CinCin, Frank Pabst from Blue Water Cafe, Quang Dang from West, and Thierry Busset from Thierry Chocolaterie Patisserie and Cafe for guest appearances.
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2014
Location: North Arm Farm, Pemberton
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2014
Location: Whistler, Lost Lake Park
It was once the tallest building in the British Empire and you have the chance to tour a renovated floor of this iconic building during Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s “City Drinks at the Sun Tower” event this month.
Pender, East of Cambie. Archives Item# Str N164. Photographer: W.J. Moore
Enjoy music, drinks, history, and a tour of an upper floor of the Sun Tower. Guests can purchase raffle tickets to win some great prizes including a chance to visit the roof of the Sun Tower, normally closed to the public, and a professional photo shoot of your home by architectural photographer, Martin Knowles.
1913: Archives# CVA 371-728. Photo by R. Broadbridge.
The Vancouver Heritage Foundation also welcomes Daniel Francis historian and author of several Vancouver history books including LD: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver. Local jazz musicians James Danderfer and David Blake will set the mood as we enjoy a Sun Tower inspired cocktail from Bambudda bar manager Buck Friend.
This post has been contributed by Don Enright, Volunteer and Past President with the 
