Searching for the Fountains of Bellagio

At 11pm our last night in Vegas, we still hadn’t made it to The Strip, so we decided to at least stop to see the Bellagio Fountains.

I had already looked up the schedule, perused the long list of songs played during shows, and found out there was free parking in the garage next door at Caesars Palace.

Leaving the parking garage puts you directly into the middle of a casino (of course) with no exits in sight (of course) where you end up wandering a labyrinth of glowing slot machines, poker tables, crowds and clubs and concert venues in a disorienting blur.

A pedestrian bridge, creepy garden, and near-collision later, we had finally made our way to the Bellagio – via, perhaps, the most circuitous route possible – only to find ourselves in some kind of never-ending shopping mall.

We doubled back, and eventually found our way out to the fountains, just after a show had ended (of course) and hung out until it was time for the next one.

Without warning, Elvis’s “Viva Las Vegas” started blasting and the fountains sprang to life, jets of water illuminated by gold lights shot into the air and twirled to the music.

As the song ended, water crashed back into the pool, and the gold lights shut off. I waited in the dark for more, but the show was over. We turned around and began the long trek back to our car.

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on Nov 2, 2016 at 8:58am PDT

– More Fountains of Bellagio Info –

If you’re not in a rush, there are several restaurants in the Bellagio that have a fountain view. Reservations are generally recommended.
Getting there: Most resorts have property maps online (Caesars Palace, Bellagio), or you can consult Google Maps ahead of time. (I didn’t get very good signal inside.)
Parking: The Bellagio and other MGM Resorts have started charging for parking. There is free parking at (relatively) nearby Caesars Palace, Flamingo, and The Tropicana. Vegas.com has a whole article on parking garages, which is particularly helpful since resorts don’t always make it easy to find their parking information.
Cost: It’s free to watch the fountains outside.

Show schedule –

Monday – Friday:
3 to 8pm, show every 30 minutes
8pm to 12am, show every 15 minutes

Saturdays + holidays:
12 to 8pm, show every 30 minutes
8pm to 12am, show every 15 minutes

Sundays:
11am to 7pm, show every 30 minutes
7pm to 12am, show every 15 minutes

May 21, 2016July 7, 2016

Yuma Favorites: Part 2

It’s only a 3-hour drive from Phoenix to Yuma, but we still got a little punchy.

After one of the signs saying how many miles we had left, I told Phillip, “Yuma sweetie.”

At some point, we ended up singing “Yuma be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for…”

I think we each found our lunatic.

Finally, we got in to our room at the Candlewood Suites Yuma. Even though we were a couple of tired lunatics, we couldn’t resist rifling through the kitchen to see what was in there. They had us supplied with pots and pans for the stove, popcorn for the microwave, and then Phillip made a discovery…

“Ooh! A toaster! I really want something to toast now.”

Even on trips like this when I plan to pick up food at local markets, I still end up traveling with a pretty serious stash of snacks. But I didn’t have anything particularly toasterable. (Chia-pomegranate Clif bars seemed like a bad idea.)

So while I explored Yuma the next day, I would also be on a quest for local produce – and something for Phillip to toast.

Hay Yu(ma)!

A world record holder for sunny days and the Winter Lettuce Capital of the World, Yuma also happens to be located at the confluence of the Gila and Colorado Rivers.

Because of the climate and access to water, agriculture has been important in the area for centuries. Long before Arizona was a U.S. territory, tribes along the Colorado River used the flooding cycle for farming.

Like Phoenix, Yuma has a growing season that’s kind of the reverse of most of the U.S., running from fall to spring. The hot summers mean agricultural workers pack up and move operations to Salinas, California (the summer lettuce capital) – also Yuma Jazz Company’s concerts move indoors, snowbirds fly home, businesses catering to visitors shut down or scale back sometime in the spring.

Yuma Garden Company

The Yuma Garden Company is full of dried herbs and teas in apothecary jars. Outside is a plant-filled patio with vegetables and citrus from the owners’ farm and tables for sitting and sipping tea. In April, there were also heaping baskets of tomatoes and peppers everywhere.

Their rustic boho space felt warm and established, even though they’d only been open 3 weeks when I visited.

I picked up grapefruit and a bunch of purple carrots.

Martha’s Gardens Date Farm

Just east of town is Martha’s Gardens, a date farm with a store/cafe and better date shakes than we had in Dateland itself. They informed me they could even add espresso shots. Sold. It was like a delicious, datey affogato.

They offer farm tours, but there’s a fee, a minimum of 10 people, and the schedule IRL may not match what’s online. We thought we were there past tour season, but, apparently, that’s not the case. And the sign-up book had spaces through at least June. (I peeked.) So…I guess…call ahead and keep your fingers crossed.

Field to Feast Farm Tours

The Visitors Bureau offers seasonal, hands-on agricultural experiences where you learn to harvest your own vegetables, tour a farm, and then enjoy a fresh-from-the-field lunch.

North End Eats

Speaking of lunch, here are a few options for food around the downtown area.

Lutes Casino

At one point in the Lutes Casino building’s 115-year history, it was an actual casino owned by R.H. Lutes. Currently, it’s an amiably-divey hamburger joint that claims to be “where the elite meet.” They serve salsa in syrup pitchers and have some weird food mashups. Want a hot dog on a cheeseburger? Or wrapped in a tortilla and fried?

My reply is no, but both are on the menu.

The special of the day was an Angus burger so good it made me think this might be where the elite meet after all.

They probably just don’t order the taco dog.

Das Bratwurst Haus

Das Bratwurst Haus is a German restaurant, apparently catering to the winter visitors. True to his German roots, Der Husband had to go check it out. And then required apfelkuchen, which is like a lovely hybrid between apple pie and cake.

North End Coffeehouse

Situated in half of the historic Gandolfo theater, North End Coffeehouse has their own roasting company, in-house baker, and is a welcoming spot to spend time.

Not only did they have some good, well-crafted coffee to remedy the weak brew from the hotel that morning, they had one bagel left.

I got it to-go, so Phillip could test out the toaster.

Breakfast

Our second morning in Yuma started with an herb bagel from North End Coffeehouse and sweet grapefruit from Yuma Garden Company. I also remembered reading a tip somewhere about doubling up on hotel coffee packets, so that helped to rectify the weak coffee situation.

Once we were fueled up and checked out, I wanted to show Phillip some of the historical sites I’d scoped out the day before.

Yuma-st Remember This

The Quechan Reservation

The Fort Yuma/Quechan Reservation straddles the Colorado River, extending into both California and Arizona – probably because the Quechan tribe was there before these state boundaries, before the need to transliterate their name as Quechan or Kwatsan or Kwtsaan, before the Spanish referred to them as the Yuma.

To learn about Quechan history and culture, check out the interpretive trails in Sunrise Point Park and the cultural center inside Quechan Casino.

I’d seen a sign for crafts (yes, please!) the day before, so Phillip and I went in search of the museum gift shop whose museum had to close due to structural damage.

We never did find it and, honestly, that was partly due to getting in an argument over directions. Real life isn’t all late-night Billy Joel and apfelkuchen.

I now have a better idea how to find the museum gift shop:

Go when it’s actually open (weekdays 8am-5pm).
Follow the signs north of Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge.
Don’t get in a fight with your significant other.
Look for a modular building next to the museum.

The Quechan Senior Center Gift Shop (472 Quechan Drive, Winterhaven) also has handcrafted items.

Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge

When automobiles were still a new thing and Colorado River steamboats a recent memory, a highway across the U.S. was a pretty big deal. The single lane steel bridge over the Yuma Crossing made a crucial connection, which earned it the impressive name “Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge.”

Also, bends in the river/the state line mean that you can go north over the bridge and end up in California without even realizing it.

A few other notes on historical sites in the area…

The St. Thomas Mission on Indian Hill has Saturday and Sunday Masses, or you can call (760) 572-0283 to arrange a visit at another time.

Territorial Prison – A former prison, then high school, now museum.
Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza was recommended for getting oriented. Maybe if I’d gone there first I wouldn’t have gotten lost on the way to the gift shop. Maybe.

Quartermaster Depot Museum – The railroad was also important in Yuma’s development, and trains haven’t stopped running.
The Yuma County Courthouse in my Good Roads book burned down in 1927. Since its blockier replacement was built on the same site, I still had to get a photo.

The Art Deco-ness of the Masonic Lodge catty-corner from the Courthouse caught my eye.

See Yuma Later

We took a different route home through the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Its visitor center is really close to Martha’s Garden but not open on Saturdays. The Refuge itself, however, is always open. There are no gates and only one designated trail (in Palm Canyon, which we visited a few years ago).

We didn’t have time to hike this time, but we are already thinking about when we can return to the area. Maybe we’ll go back during next year’s ArtBeat or once Candlewood Suites finishes the renovations they have scheduled for this year. (We’ll also have to get in town early enough for the evening reception – apparently, they do a whole dinner on Mondays and Thursdays. I need to investigate.)

For this trip, we did stop along the road in Kofa long enough to listen to the quiet, look for desert blooms, and watch the evening light transform the Refuge’s jagged mountain ranges.

—
Big thank yous to…

IHG/Candlewood Suites Yuma for hosting our stay, especially to General Manager Gel Lemmon and Director of Marketing John Lizarraga, who are both fabulous people who took time to fill me in on the area.
Ann Walker of the Yuma Visitors Bureau for providing a ton of great resources.
Brian Golding, Sr., EDA Director of the Quechan Indian Tribe for providing information on Quechan cultural sights.

Edited: A reference to “Candlewood” was changed to “Candlewood Suites” for clarity and per the request of IHG Corporate Communications.

September 10, 2015

Landmark Routes

When you get to a new city, do you ever find yourself using one particular route as your main reference for navigating the area? It doesn’t have to be the main street, just your main street – somewhere that connects where you’re staying with places you want to go.

It may not even be a regular surface street. It could be a transit line, a freeway, a pathway. It’s where you say, “if I can find _____, I can follow it to where I need to be.”

For example, our Denver-area friends humored us by aways giving us directions – whether it was to the Botanic Gardens or just a nearby drugstore – that started us off on Arapahoe Road. Since that’s how we got to their house, that’s where we felt most oriented.

(Farther north, my Denver street of choice becomes Colfax, because it goes all the way across town and still passes landmarks I remember from childhood, like Casa Bonita and Elitch’s.)

When I spent a summer in Sevilla, Spain, there was a particular bus (maybe the 34-?) that stopped near our dorms, ran by several of the University’s campuses and to the city center. Most of the time, it was the only bus I needed. If I ended up in another part of the city, I just had to find a 34 bus, and it would take me home.

Is there a name for this type of central navigational lifeline? I feel like we need one. Landmark route? Reference road?

I’m open to suggestions.

—

PS Yes, that last photo (probably taken by someone in our group) is a skinnier, not-glasses-needing, 1999 version of me in Sevilla. ¡Viva España!

July 31, 2015

Our Indy Race (1st Lap)

It was just after 1am, and we were passing Indy cars like they were standing still.

Because they were. Phillip and I, on the other hand, were racing through the Indianapolis International Airport, dodging puzzled, groggy passengers.

When we were still waiting to get off the plane, I had called our hotel’s shuttle dispatch. They let me know we could take the one that was already en route – if we could make it to the stop in time. If not, it wouldn’t wait for us, because they were also picking up a flight crew, and we’d have to wait around for the 2am pickup.

Sitting halfway back on a plane with an aisle clogged with impatient passengers, we had just under 15 minutes, directions I’d already forgotten, and only carryon luggage. We decided to go for it.

So we ended up sprinting through the airport, not towards a flight but away from one, relying on ambiguous signage to guide us. Finally, we spotted the words “ground transportation” with an arrow pointing towards exterior doors.

We burst outside with a few minutes to spare, only to be greeted by air thick with humidy and mosquitoes, an empty curb, and a vague sense that we were not in the right place.

I redialed the shuttle dispatch. The same woman patiently explained again where we were actually supposed to be.

We rushed downstairs, out the door and across the street, and finally found our stop with the aforementioned flight crew sitting on nearby benches, waiting for the shuttle.

While I was trying to nonchalantly catch my breath in the heavy air, I realized this could possibly be the crew from our flight. In other words, they may have just calmly gotten off our plane after us and everyone else, strolled through the terminal, and arrived here sooner. Which would mean we could have done the same without all the panic, confusion, and mosquitoes.

But maybe it wasn’t them. In fact, let’s just say it wasn’t.

I didn’t look too closely.

Either way, we all made it onto the shuttle. The woman from dispatch even called the driver to check on us.

“Yep.” she replied, turning onto the ramp that lead from the airport to the freeway. “Everyone’s here.”

– More info –

Watch for at the Indianapolis Airport:

Classic racing cars on display. There is a rotating lineup on loan from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.
Permanent and temporary art (PDF). I saw TBI Prayers by Stephanie Lewis Robertson, which is on display until August 30.
Free wifi.
Confusing signs! Ask for directions or check a map (PDF).

April 22, 2014April 17, 2014

Arts and Flowers 2014

For four days every year, flowers sprout up throughout the Phoenix Art Museum. Okay, they don’t literally sprout. But fresh flowers do appear one Thursday afternoon.

Leading up to the Arts & Flowers event, floral designers create works of art from natural materials – flowers, tree boughs, baskets, stones, and even vegetables. Each piece is inspired by and in response to a work in the museum’s collection. This year also included a floral couture show (Savage Botanicals) and a bonsai exhibit.

I’d originally heard about it from my friend Karin, who has participated the last few years, but I just hadn’t made it over there. So I was excited when my Craft Hack group decided to go during Phoenix First Friday. There’s nothing like having a set time and people to meet to actually get you to go somewhere.

I took the light rail over and met the group at the cafe just as they were finishing up there. Then we started winding our way through the museum, enjoying all the Arts, but also scanning for the & Flowers like we were on safari.

Some of them were very literal interpretations of the original work, others more abstractly captured a certain aspect of it. There was also this interesting contrast between the solid permanence of the paintings, ceramics, and sculpture – some which had lasted centuries – and the organic and ephemeral nature of the arrangements, which could only exist for a matter of days.

I did my best taking a few photos, but it was tricky to get good ones with the lighting, crowds, etc. If you want to see more photos, my friend Eileen posted a bunch on Facebook, or you can check out the Instagram hashtag #artsflowers14.

Phillip had planned to meet us after work. By the time he got there and found parking, we were on the second floor. I’ve been to the Phoenix Art Museum several times, but not often enough to ever remember that there are two parts to the second floor, and they don’t connect. It’s a statement on our modern digital lives and the disconnect with past generations – or some artsy reason like that probably. I actually have no idea why the place is so hard to navigate, so I made that up.

Anyway, while I’m on the phone with him, wandering around, trying to figure out where he is, I totally lose the group. I finally flag down a guy in a museum polo, who explains how to get him to where I was. The Craft Hackers probably thought I ditched them for my man. I love Phillip, but that was not my intention. I’m not a ditcher. I am, however, pretty good at getting lost. (Have I mentioned that here before? That could be a post of its own. Maybe more than one. I’m adding a getting lost tag now.)

So I showed Phillip the highlights of my wing of the second floor. I said hello to Karin for the second time that evening and spent more time checking out the details of her miniature Italian garden. Then we worked our way over to the second second floor, where there didn’t seem to be any flowers.

We did find more in the Asian collection on the first floor. We also talked with a couple more of the floral artists. They were eager to chat about their work and answer questions.

Around this time, we decided we really needed food. We’d checked out the menu of the museum ahead of time, and it had some solid, clearly marked gluten-free options. The thing we didn’t realize is they close at 8:30 pm, but they stop serving food at 8:00. From 8-8:30 (when we got there), you can only order drinks and prepackaged cookies. Sad trombone.

We wrapped up at the museum, and then finished off the evening at Pita Jungle, which is open until 11pm on First Fridays, has reverse happy hour starting at 9, and is awesome with dietary restrictions and substitutions. (They’re not paying me to talk about them. I was just super excited to finally eat!)

Anyway, I do wish a few things had gone differently. That’s life, though. It’s not perfect. But any evening that starts with friends, flowers, and an art museum, and ends with my husband, a plate of hummus, and perfect patio weather is not a bad one in my book.

—

P.S. If you’d like a heads up on awesome cultural events like this, that’s exactly the kind of thing that goes into our new monthly newsletter. You could have even met up with us at the museum for this! And then I could’ve lost you while I was looking for Phillip. See? Fun times!

You can sign up on the sidebar on the right or on our newsletter page.

Things to know about visiting Phoenix Art Museum:

Photos are allowed (without flash).
First Friday evenings are always free, so they’re especially crowded.
Parking can be a hassle during big events. The light rail is your friend. (Post on this coming soon!) There’s a stop across the street from the museum.
Check the museum’s events calendar to find out what’s going on when you’d like to go. If we’d had time, we could have also bought tickets to see the Hollywood Costume exhibition, which was going on at the same time. Or you might choose to avoid big events and go when it’s less crowded.
The museum restaurant, Palette, has a menu that includes gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options, but they close before the museum and may stop serving food earlier.
The upper floors are in 2 separate wings that don’t connect. Walking from the North Wing to the South Wing on the second floor/upper level is not a thing you can do.
During Arts & Flowers there are tons of museum staff (or are they volunteers?) around, and they are super helpful!