Springs Preserve
Last Sunday, luca and I went to Springs Preserve, a new attraction here in Las Vegas. It's the area where the old springs that originally provided water to the new little town and the railroad stop were located. Back in the twenties, the water seemed to be so plentiful that it would never run out, ever; there would always be enough water for Las Vegas. But, of course, it did run out and fairly quickly, but it was enough to get the city started.
The new complex of buildings and exhibits attempts to show the complexity of the areas natural flaura and fauna and also tell the geological history and it does a fair job of it. There is an area that shows the various creatures, (mostly spiny and variously poisonous) in their sort of natural habitats and there is a native village to walk through and some historical tableaux. There's a room that you walk into and experience a flash flood with lots and lots of water. There are also a lot of computer consoles with interactive screens and little games you can play that are supposed to teach you about water conservation, but my guess is that they were payed for by the casinos because they remind one of video slots a bit. The rest of the complex, well, it's hard to say what they were actually going for. They spent a huge amount of money on this, but it's all abit piece meal; the buildings are clumped together and the flow is clumsy. You are left wondering where you should go next or why. The buildings are all attractive enough, they just don't seem to relate to one another very well.
But that didn't bother us much, as we are soooo easily amused!
Luca meets the locals...
And perhaps got a little too familiar...
That luca! He makes friends where ever he goes!
There were lots of graphics about the growth of Las Vegas and how much water is guzzled up.
And the video games that were supposed to be so educational, well, they had a camera so as you were playing, you could see yourselves. We were totally fascinated and took dozens of pictures, but they all look just like this one.
The rest of the area featured a lot of walking around outside through an area that was obviously paid for by a consortium of landscape and construction companies. It looked like an outdoor sales floor for paving tiles and other landscaping materials. There's a nice play area for the kids, a great view of the city, a gift shop, (where they had Elvis on the sound system!), a cafeteria that we did not visit and a small, but nice photography gallery.
This is an extremely radical idea for Vegas; an attempt to tell the natural and social history of the area and they tried to do a good job, they really did, but it seems to me that there were too many people with too many ideas putting up the money. What this project needs to grow is a science nazi to force some ceherence to the whole. But it's a good start. The complex is growing with the Nevada State Museum to open soon.
After, we went to the M&M Soul Food restaurant and had a reasonably good meal. I mean, how can you go wrong with smothered chicken? That's Southern Fried Chicken with gravy, a totally heart stopping combination, but it was good enough, with the sides of mustardy potato salad and collard greens, and some lovely corn cakes to make me feel almost like I was back in the south. These things are done better in New Orleans, but that's a long way off these days.
And then... we went shopping! I had a few things to get and some small wire shelving units to pick up for work, but luca, for a change had nothing in particular that he needed.
Bwahahahahaha! He found some things at Target that he could not live without; a portable Water-Pic unit and half a cart full of other things that would come in handy for his next trip to Hawaii. I love shopping with luca! He restores my faith in my chosen career in retail!
It was another lovely day with my good friend...
durlx 11/10/2007
The new complex of buildings and exhibits attempts to show the complexity of the areas natural flaura and fauna and also tell the geological history and it does a fair job of it. There is an area that shows the various creatures, (mostly spiny and variously poisonous) in their sort of natural habitats and there is a native village to walk through and some historical tableaux. There's a room that you walk into and experience a flash flood with lots and lots of water. There are also a lot of computer consoles with interactive screens and little games you can play that are supposed to teach you about water conservation, but my guess is that they were payed for by the casinos because they remind one of video slots a bit. The rest of the complex, well, it's hard to say what they were actually going for. They spent a huge amount of money on this, but it's all abit piece meal; the buildings are clumped together and the flow is clumsy. You are left wondering where you should go next or why. The buildings are all attractive enough, they just don't seem to relate to one another very well.
But that didn't bother us much, as we are soooo easily amused!
Luca meets the locals...
And perhaps got a little too familiar...
That luca! He makes friends where ever he goes!
There were lots of graphics about the growth of Las Vegas and how much water is guzzled up.
And the video games that were supposed to be so educational, well, they had a camera so as you were playing, you could see yourselves. We were totally fascinated and took dozens of pictures, but they all look just like this one.
The rest of the area featured a lot of walking around outside through an area that was obviously paid for by a consortium of landscape and construction companies. It looked like an outdoor sales floor for paving tiles and other landscaping materials. There's a nice play area for the kids, a great view of the city, a gift shop, (where they had Elvis on the sound system!), a cafeteria that we did not visit and a small, but nice photography gallery.
This is an extremely radical idea for Vegas; an attempt to tell the natural and social history of the area and they tried to do a good job, they really did, but it seems to me that there were too many people with too many ideas putting up the money. What this project needs to grow is a science nazi to force some ceherence to the whole. But it's a good start. The complex is growing with the Nevada State Museum to open soon.
After, we went to the M&M Soul Food restaurant and had a reasonably good meal. I mean, how can you go wrong with smothered chicken? That's Southern Fried Chicken with gravy, a totally heart stopping combination, but it was good enough, with the sides of mustardy potato salad and collard greens, and some lovely corn cakes to make me feel almost like I was back in the south. These things are done better in New Orleans, but that's a long way off these days.
And then... we went shopping! I had a few things to get and some small wire shelving units to pick up for work, but luca, for a change had nothing in particular that he needed.
Bwahahahahaha! He found some things at Target that he could not live without; a portable Water-Pic unit and half a cart full of other things that would come in handy for his next trip to Hawaii. I love shopping with luca! He restores my faith in my chosen career in retail!
It was another lovely day with my good friend...
durlx 11/10/2007
posted by durlx at 11/11/2007 04:10:00 AM
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