An Afternoon of Winter Fun in Ely

 

On a recent afternoon, we went to Ely, Nevada. And as most of our trips to town are, we had lots of things to do on our list--take in recycling, eat some yummy Chinese food, and then head to the Art Bank, accessed through the Garnet Mercantile on main street (Aultman Street).

The Art Bank is an old bank building that has been turned into an art gallery. Every time you go in, you see different works of art. I sell some of my photography there. When we go, the kids and I always pick out our favorite piece of art. It's never the same, because there is so much good art!

 

Besides photography, there are paintings, wood boxes, stained glass, jewelry, scarves, and so much more.

 

Here's the Art Bank's website.

It so happened that on that Saturday afternoon, Santa Claus was at the Garnet Mercantile, willing to take photos.  It took the kids a minute or two, but before long they recognized Santa. Benefits of living in a small community--you know everyone! They had a fun discussion.

The resulting photo came out very nice.

Next up was a trip up to Ward Mountain Recreation Area. We go here every January for the annual Birkebeiner cross country ski (and now also fat tire mountain bike) race. It's lots of fun, but why limit it to just once a year? When I saw a Facebook post that the trails had been groomed, I knew we had to go!

The question was just how far we should go. I let the kids decide, and they were soon off on the trail to the warming hut, and I was trying to catch up!

The warming hut wasn't too warm, so after a quick look, we continued on.

Desert Girl was so happy to lead the way. She tried to keep far ahead of Desert Boy.

But in her haste, she fell down. Desert Boy kept going.

Even though it was over 40 degrees, the grooming had done wonders with the snow, and we didn't have any sticky snow.

Before long, we were back at the trailhead, having completed the short loop (1.5 miles) of the Birkebeiner route. I think the kids are ready to move up from the Kid division!

We weren't done yet. Time to shake off those sore legs with a swim at the White Pine County Aquatic Center. They have a small, shallow pool...

...and a six-lane 25-yard long pool.

There's a deep end...

...with two climbing walls. We met friends there and had a fantastic time. We'd like to try and get back once a month throughout the winter, as it's such a pleasant way to spend some time, and good exercise.

Next up was some birthday bowling. We hadn't bowled in for so long, so I was just hoping to bowl an 80. I remember my 80+ year old grandma used to be able to bowl a 160 when she bowled weekly with her friends. I channeled her, and ended up getting a couple strikes in a row and a 117! Woohoo!

There was plenty of space at the bowling alley late on the Saturday afternoon, and it was a fun time.

There's so much to do if you just go out and do it! Click here for more about what to do in Ely, Nevada.

More Fun Things To Do in St. George

 We love going to St. George, Utah. It's warmer, which in the winter is great! We went down on Christmas Day and took our bikes to ride on their amazing city bike trail system. The kids suggested where to go--to the "Physics Park," their nickname for the more commonly known as Cottonwood Cove Park. The playground has a bunch of unique features we haven't seen in any other playgrounds, and many of them use physics to make them work (like in the photo above).

It was about 4.5-mile ride each way, easy-peasy on a nice bike trail. Except that it started to drizzle. And then rain. And we got soaked through. The kids didn't care, but I got pretty cold. Fortunately my husband had packed an extra jacket. The kids played for awhile and then we headed back to where we were staying.

The next day we explored some more urban bike trails, this time in nearby Washington, UT. Somehow I forgot my phone, so didn't get any photos.

Later we went to the Washington Aquatic Center. For some reason it was almost empty. The big water slide was great and we had a good time.

Also in the same building was a climbing wall, which we could do at no additional cost. Since we wanted to do some real rock climbing in a few days, I figured this would be a great warmup. Off they went! There were easy and more difficult routes.

On the way out, we noticed this bulletin board. It really got the kids' attention. "How much sugar are you drinking?" Even the fruit juices and smoothies have more sugar than you might think, and since they're pasteurized, not so many of the nutrients.

We don't have a tennis court anymore in our small community, but I thought the kids might enjoy this activity. We bought some fresh tennis balls (the one we found in our yard wasn't so bouncy!), took our thrift-store tennis rackets, and went to a nearby court. We were terrible, but it was a lot of fun.


My brother Ed was with us and he loves to mountain bike. We wanted to ride Gooseberry Mesa, but found it too cold. So we headed back down in elevation and found some nice trails by Quail Creek State Park.  I learned that Desert Boy is like his dad and makes singletrack look easy. I tried to keep up.

The next day we had a permit for Bloomington Cave, a gated cave near St. George. But due to the government shutdown, we couldn't pick up the permit and get the gate code. 

So Plan B was to go rock climbing. We bought a climbing guide book by Todd Goss at the Desert Rat and went to Green Valley Gap. It took us a little time, but we eventually found the very easy 5.3 (Brazilian Ninja) and 5.4 (Texas Jug) climbs I wanted the kids to start on (they're not on the website, but are in the guidebook). Those are super easy and helped them gain confidence.

Then we proceeded to nearby 5.6 (The Offering) and 5.7 (Hairy Virgin) climbs. The kids did well on those, too. My brother and I enjoyed them as well, dusting off some rusty climbing skills. I used to do this a lot more and would like to get back into it.

Then it was off to the Santa Clara Aquatic Center for more swimming. While I was with the kids, Ed discovered the newly created Sand Hollow Bicycle Skills Park out back. We went to take a look, and even though the sun had already set, we couldn't resist riding some more! This was built starting in May 2018.

The bike park was amazing, with a variety of obstacles, hills, and curves. We all loved it.

We still haven't gotten through our original list of things to do in St. George and are already adding more. Hopefully this gives you a few ideas if you're heading in that direction!

Time to Swim!

 So it was still March, but the kids wanted to swim. My husband had just dug out the settling pond, which is a place for the mountain water to slow down and for sand, sediment, and rocks to settle out of it before the water goes down a pipeline to the pivots to water the fields. We also use it as a swimming hole. And the kids couldn't wait to try it out. The temperature was in the high 60s, which apparently was good enough for them. There was a lot of pond scum, but they didn't care. So we went over and they gave it a try, first on a kayak.

Then Desert Boy had to try to run down the pile of sand (left there by request) and jump into the pond. I had him wear a life jacket because the water was cold and I didn't want to have to jump in after him.

Splash! He got out fast. And then since I didn't get a photo the first time, I had him do it again. Ha!

The other kids were content to stay on the edges or on the kayak.

 The kayak became more popular when the second time we went Desert Boy figured out he could go through the culvert on it. We love our red-neck water slide!



He even cleaned out most of the cobwebs.

Another time we went the excitement was seeing a snake. Of course the snake kids wanted to catch the little garter snake.

Isaac's a pro.

Then his sister caught another one. Garter snakes like water, so we see them by the pond a lot.

We like seeing them, but they don't seem to like seeing us so much, and they swam away and hid.

The day was a little warmer, so the kids got into the water. We can still see the snow on the mountains a few miles away, and that's where this water is coming from. I guess they will be tough!

The boats have been really popular. Desert Boy wanted to make his own raft. So he stuffed life jackets into a pallet. It worked, sort of.

 I can already tell that we're going to be spending lots of time at the pond this summer! Now if I can just figure out how to rig up a hammock, it will be perfect.

Snake Valley Yachting Club

 Years ago, we joked that it would be fun to have a Snake Valley Yachting Club. We don't actually have bodies of water around that are big enough for yachts, but out in the desert, anything that floats can be a yacht! A couple ladies started it up again this year to my delight. Yesterday afternoon we thought it would be fun to have an informal gathering of the Snake Valley Yachting Club. We brought out a shade canopy (we should do that every time, it makes such a difference!), an inflatable kayak, an inflatable rowboat, some floaties, and best of all, a sailboat. It's been years since my husband and I have last sailed. We had a bit of a traumatic event where we rolled the sailboat numerous times and got mildly hypothermic, and that might be why it was in storage for so long.

Yesterday my husband checked the weather forecast and thought it would be a great day to take it out. I'm so glad he thought of it, because the weather conditions were just right for us to practice. That means winds were about 0.5-3 mph.

The lake water was a little cooler than a couple weeks ago, maybe because some snow melt has been coming in. It didn't take long to get chilled.

But the kids and dogs had fun splashing around. I missed getting a photo of this dog doing doggy paddle--it was the funniest thing, with his head held high and his paws going out of the water.

Some of our friends also took the sailboat out for a spin, with directions from my husband. Going with the wind is easy, but making the turns to start heading back can be a little tricky. Everyone did great, although I did manage to tip the sailboat over! Fortunately it wasn't too hard to get back in.

The kids invented all sorts of games.

Even the youngest enjoyed her time outside.

I loved this scene of wild abandon, everyone doing whatever they wanted. The fun times of summer!

We hope we'll be able to go out again soon, it was a really fun afternoon, and we're starting to get the hang of it. To future expeditions of the Snake Valley Yachting Club!