American Thanksgiving on Thursday, and it appears that all but retail workers take the Friday off as well making it an incredibly busy travel weekend. A good one to stay off the roads… We had a four day weekend as well, with the Americans disappearing home and some of the international students off touristing in LA and San Francisco, both within comfortable driving distance (or a quick flight).
Mahi Mahi for Thanksgiving Dinner (Canadian Thanksgiving was the first day of classes here!) but the pumpkin tart had long since disappeared (delicious it was too, with sweet potato in the recipe). Very quiet on the roads as I headed down to south Las Vegas Thursday a.m. to check out the only thing resembling a real botanical garden showing up on google. Interesting, as growing conditions are great here and there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of water (at least by the behaviour indicators). The rose garden was tiny and more like a community park, but deserted and lovely to sit in the sun there with the scent of roses – surprisingly there were still some out despite the chilly nights. Having just spent 1 1/2 days trying to recreate one in sugar, I studied them carefully! Kasha would have loved the park which had a big open green space but all fenced in, as did the golden doodle and his buddy that arrived to chase balls. Told off by the city employee who came to check the washrooms as the dogs were off leash – Kasha would have been too, I have to say, with almost nobody else around…
The next day was Black Friday, a shopping nightmare but also a retail day where the Mon-Friday chocolatier shops were accessible for us students so I organized a visit with a classmate to Jean-Marie Auboine Chocolatier to get some more ideas. This classmate (from Australia, originally Kazakhstan) was without a vehicle and hadn’t been to Red Rock Canyon so we headed there first for a short hike – good thing we went earlier in the morning as it was already busy when we arrived, and when we left we were constantly harassed for our parking spot in the small lot. Lots of people on the trail, but many didn’t make it to the top so it was relatively quiet there – the small amount of scrambling involved put a lot of people off I guess. Lovely rock! Nice views, great temperature and good conversation so we knocked it off in pretty quick time. At the top, which had some spectacular dropoffs, one poor dad was being encouraged by his two small kids and wife to come up for a picture – he had a fear of heights and conquered it to get there but the kids pointed out that he was shaking and he certainly clung to the rock, poor guy.
We had a couple of other stops on the way back to take in the view, and more weird rock formations (willow creek loop). Lovely temp, sunny and warm. Lots of dogs on the trail.
The chocolatier was interesting – good sampling opportunities, and there were some lovely flavours. The Earl Grey tea flavour with Kalamansi jelly was a particularly good combination, with the tea uncommonly coming through (the recipe we used at the school with Earl Grey tea was unimpressive). There are a couple of other well known chocolatiers I’d like to visit, but unfortunately they generally don’t open on Saturdays. A majority of sales are done on-line now.
Bike riding on the wetlands preserve trail the next day was also very quiet, perfect temp to ride in short sleeves after a chilly start – it warms up very quickly. The ups and downs of that trail are fun and no vehicular traffic is an added bonus. Quick trip to the Indian market (love that shop!) to stock up for the next couple of weeks and home to tidy up.
Sunday I explored a local park and got to pet some dogs (I miss my pest!) and the evening saw a trip down to the Strip to see a magic show, Shin Lim. He is fantastic, and works with a Scottish side kick (Colin Cloud) who does mindreading tricks – also very impressive, and witty. Worth the admission.