Fence

The heat is on! It’s time to head to the lake, visit the nearest public pool, or simply step foot in your own backyard oasis. With the temps hitting us hard already, there’s no better way to get refreshed than with water.  My son has already been harping me for weeks about needing wanting to go swimming.  We have a few pool parties coming up, so once again we’ll be reviewing our pool/swimming rules.  I know it sounds absurd, but you’d be amazed at how many adults don’t pay attention to the little swimmers at parties.  If I can teach my child water safety, then he can help his fellow party goers.

When we got our pool put in a year ago, we had a few different options for safety compliance.  First was a safety fence and second was an alarm on our backdoor.  I already had been leaning towards a fence.  Many people think that the fence looks a tad cluttered in our small backyard, but when it comes to my children’s safety I don’t care how cluttered my yard is! 

My husband sprays pest control for a local company, so he’s in a lot of backyards all year. He has told me many stories about houses with no fences around their pool, or people with an alarm on their backdoor.  Did you know that a large majority of people who get alarms put in take them off after their home inspections?!? This amazes me! They claim that the noise is annoying.  Some of the alarms even take 30 seconds before they go off!! Thirty seconds is a TON of time for a child to be in the backyard before parents are even notified that their child has wondered.  Too many bad things can happen in 30 seconds for me to feel safe with an alarm. The guidelines state that the alarm should sound within 7 seconds of the backdoor opening, but many people fail to keep their alarm maintained.  That boggles my mind! Here in Vegas where there are a high number of pools, I believe that fences should be required. Not alarms or lasers, but lockable FENCES. Period.

I looked online and found the Clayre Foundation that assists pool owners in buying pool fences.  Clayre died too early in her life from drowning in her own pool. Her parents hadn’t had sufficient funds for a fence, so they started this foundation after she passed.  There’s already been numerous drowning deaths just this year in Las Vegas.  We all need to start doing our part to prevent these unnecessary deaths.

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blue

I caught a tidbit on Channel 5 News this morning! Tomorrow, May 12th, we are all supposed to wear our BLUE apparel.  The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority asks that we do this to help show our support for Las Vegas and tourism. If you didn’t know, blue is an official color of Nevada.  Maybe that’s because the official state bird is the Mountain Blue Bird, or the fact that Lake Tahoe is blue.  I will most likely wear a blue shirt tomorrow when I roll of the bed and slip into my clothes, but I’m not so sure anyone will know the reason! Teehee.

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$12

Twice a year the great Italian festival, known as the San Gennaro Feast, rips through Vegas packing thousands of visitors into the parking lot on Grand Canyon & Flamingo.  Not that I was counting, but there were around 200 vendors selling everything from purses to backyard spas.  There’s LOTS OF FOOD, animal attractions, carnival rides, musical guests, and $2 upscale potties.   Guess who paid the $2 fee to use a “nicer” potty over the regular ‘ol porta potty? ME. It was well worth it, and the $2 fee covers you for the whole day…not just one potty time.  Here’s a picture I took in case you have never seen a place to pee with a fee!

potty

The main attraction, of course, is the feast of food from Italy.  Head to the extravaganza with an empty stomach because you will want to sample every vendor’s delights. You’ll also want to save room for desserts like these:

                 The San Gennaro Feast is open from 4-11pm Wednesday and Thursday, from 4pm-midnight Friday, from 11am-midnight Saturday and from 11am-11pm Sunday.  General admission is $7, seniors are $6 and children under 54 inches tall are free.  I printed out a coupon that gets 2 adults in for $10 and one that gets you $5 off an unlimited ride bracelet (the $5 coupon is only good Wed. and Thurs.) You can print yours out here.  My advice is to wait until the sun goes down to head over.  It was a bit miserable until the sun went down.

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Living in a desert

Growing up in a town full of glitz and glamour leads strangers to ponder my extracurricular activities. “You must live on the strip, and stay up til dawn with a flute of champagne in your grip everyday and every night,” they say.  That statement could be partly true if we were talking 8 years ago.

I used to be the stereotypical “clubber” standing in the VIP line while I waited for the bouncer to spot me.  That isn’t hard to do with my 5’11” slender frame.  Add my rockin’ Gucci stilettos, and I was damn near 6’3”.  If someone were to need a handbook on gettin’ your groove on in the City of Sin, I could have whipped one out in weeks.  I lived the strip life night and day.  Now that I’ve grown up and started a family, things have drastically changed.  Locating child friendly activities out of family fun pamphlets is a complete 180*from how I used to pass the time.  

Having done nothing more than partying in college before my kids were born, I was lost on how to find new adventures off of the strip. Little did I know there was an abundance of new places to go and things to do.  Once we settled into our home on the southwest part of town, we discovered what would be our new place of refuge for making family memories.  A desert!  Conveniently placed directly over our backyard wall.  It’s quite obvious Las Vegas is situated in the middle of a desert, but I never knew how to enjoy it.  What I really never knew was that it was even enjoyable at all!

Wide open

 Look at that place.  So much to discover, so much serenity, so many adventures to go on with my family.  I’m quite content with my new discovery.  We rideour dirt bikes, arctic cat, & sneakers in every nook and cranny out there!  The best part of it all…it’s free to use! Imagine that?!

So my answer to all those questioning my existence in this city’s embrace, no I don’t live on the 30th floor of the Mirage.  I’ve created my own mirage in desert, the one you can all enjoy if you look past the hustle & bustle on Las Vegas Blvd. I’m definitely not saying there’s limited discoveries there, but there’s a lot more to Vegas than that.  It took me 27 years to find the natural treasure here.

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