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Since it’s still a little warm here in our favorite city, I thought I’d share a great way to spend an indoor (and air-conditioned) art-filled afternoon in Las Vegas.

At The Artful Potter all you have to do is show up – they have everything you need to create a ceramic masterpiece, including over 600 ceramic pieces ranging from practical to whimsical, paint, brushes, stencils, stamps, sponges, patterns and friendly staff with helpful advice.

After you’ve completed your piece, they glaze and fire it for you. In 5-7 days, your finished piece is ready to be picked up. The glaze they use is food and dishwasher safe, so you don’t have to worry about putting your creation to use (Andrea painted a set of plates and bowls several years ago that she subjects to the dishwasher often, and they have held up great).

Andrea and I have spent many relaxing hours at The Artful Potter (my hours may be more relaxing than Andrea’s, since I make her fix it when I mess up). The staff is always upbeat and ready to help (in case you don’t have a daughter to straighten up your lines), and I think they are why the place is so much fun.

The people at The Artful Potter make sure painters of all ages and experience levels (including no experience) have a great time creating something they will be proud of. For more information on The Artful Potter and their two area locations, go to

A day spent at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve is a great way to learn about the history of Las Vegas and our favorite city’s desert environment.

The area that the Preserve is located on is known as “the birthplace of Las Vegas” because it was at one time the site of bubbling springs that were the water source for Native Americans living here thousands of years ago, as well as travelers of the Old Spanish Trail and Western settlers. Now it houses the 180 acre Las Vegas Springs Preserve and its museum galleries with state-of-the-art interactive exhibits (make sure you don’t miss experiencing the flash flood exhibit), desert botanical gardens, outdoor concert and event venues, 1.8 miles of walking trails, and one of the best kids' play areas we’ve ever seen (the jungle gym shaped like mammoth’s bones proved too irresistible, even the adults in our party had to try it out). And, to round out your day of exploration, you can get a bite to eat at the Springs Café by Wolfgang Puck.

In addition to its permanent attractions, the Springs Preserve offers a variety of activities, classes and workshops. Currently, they host a Farmer’s Market every Thursday from 4 to 8 pm featuring hand-crafted breads, locally grown produce, and work from local artisans and artists. For more information on the Las Vegas Springs Preserve and its current events, visit www.springspreserve.org.

The gamers in our group were excited to see that the (long) wait to play a massively multiplayer online roll-playing game in the Star Trek universe might be coming to an end. The gameplay trailer for Star Trek Online was shown for the first time at the convention. But don’t man your battle stations quite yet – a release date hasn’t been announced. For more information (and to see the trailer), visit www.startrekonline.com.

We saw some posters for the new Star Trek movie coming in May 2009. Looks like we’ll have to catch this one opening day (of course, it was at an opening day showing of Star Wars Episode 1 that Kerry got caught between some costumed fans and received a light-saber blow to the head – hopefully Trekkers are more peaceful).

Las Vegas has a chapter of the International Federation of Trekkers, and we met some of the members at the convention. In addition to all things Star Trek, the group is dedicated to helping the community. If you want to join in their mission of making “the universe a better place for all life forms,” go to their website at www.usslasvegas.org. For more information on the International Federation of Trekkers, visit www.iftcommand.com.

Next year’s convention will be at the Las Vegas Hilton, August 6th – 9th. If you are a Star Trek fan, a fan of Sci-Fi, or just look really good with pointy ears (and The Coffman Team has all three!), it’s an event not to be missed.

Here are a few pictures we took at the July 4th Patriotic Parade in Summerlin. 

  

And this year, Kerry got an opportunity to be a part of this Las Vegas tradition as a member of the Marine Motorcycle Riders of Las Vegas. If some of these pictures look like they were taken while standing in the middle of the parade route, it’s because they were. Andrea is quite the brave photographer!

Las Vegas may not seem like a city that offers a lot of opportunities for yachting – but a visit to the lakes at Desert Shores will prove that opportunity abounds. That’s where O’Aces Yacht Club meets on the first three Sundays of the month to race model yachts.

Model yachts are propelled by the wind, just like their full-sized counterparts, with radio controls moving the rudder and sails. While the members of the O’Aces Yacht Club make it look easy, racing one of these models take practice, strategy and some luck. To see these yachts in action, visit the lake near Mariner and Regatta drives in Desert Shores on the first, second and third Sunday of the month. Most races are from 1 to 3 pm. For more information on the O’Aces Yacht Club and how to join, go to www.oacesyachtclub.org.

A recent birthday gave me a reason to visit a true Las Vegas institution – Freed’s Bakery of Las Vegas.

Serving the Las Vegas area for the past 49 years, this family owned and operated bakery sets the standard for sweets. Famous for their wedding cakes (Freed’s bakes over 2,500 a year), they also create stunning cakes for all occasions, as well as other baked goods. The Coffman Team’s go-to birthday cake is the white cake with butter cream frosting filled with Bavarian cream and fresh strawberries (there is a small, but vocal, segment of our family that likes fresh bananas instead of the strawberries in the filling – also very good). For the past 27 years the Las Vegas Review Journal has let its readers vote on the Best of Las Vegas, and Freed’s has won “Best Bakery” all 27 times. This is seriously good cake. For more information on Freed’s Bakery of Las Vegas, visit www.freedsbakery.com

A few days ago, I took a trip to California. I used the opportunity to get in a little flying time and to fly over a portion of the San Andreas Fault that highly visible from the air. The part that is really prominent starts about half way between Bakersfield and Santa Barbara and runs northwest about 60 miles.

On my return that night, I was able to talk the air traffic controller into letting me fly over the southern tip of the Strip. The actual route was from the Henderson airport to the eastern end of the 25 runways at McCarran then a left turn toward the North Las Vegas Airport.

I filmed a portion of the flight, starting a little North of the Henderson Airport until the landing at North Las Vegas.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGOhWVT2T7k]

This weekend we were at the Las Vegas Gun Club shooting trap (badly in some cases - but I won’t name names, since I know who I am), when it struck me again how in this city famous for its noisy night life, there are hundreds of ways to get out and have fun without a neon sign or sequin in sight.

The Las Vegas Gun Club offers sporting clay, skeet and trap shooting. Gun rentals are available at the Pro Shop, along with anything else you might need for a day of shooting. Beginners are welcome, and there is always someone around to help you get started. Professional instruction is also available by appointment. For those who already have the trapshooting bug, the club hosts four leagues a year.

Our family has a wide range of shooters in it - from beginner to very experienced – and we all have a great time at the club. The thought of taking up a shotgun sport can seem intimidating, but the friendly people and great atmosphere at the Las Vegas Gun Club made it easy for us beginners.

For directions and more information on the Las Vegas Gun Club, call (702) 645-5606, or visit www.lasvegasgunclub.net.

This year we celebrated Mother’s Day at the beautiful Ceres restaurant at the JW Marriott at Summerlin. Ceres offers a special buffet brunch for the occasion, featuring a wide array of continental fare and a spectacular dessert table (my sweet tooth leapt with joy at the sight of it). The food was delicious, but it’s the beautiful grounds of the JW Marriott that made the experience so special.

Waterfalls, pools and garden spaces can be seen through the restaurant’s large windows, or experienced first-hand in their patio seating. It was a perfect backdrop for our Mother’s Day celebration.

Ceres offers a special buffet for Easter, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve learned the hard way that you have to make reservations early. We waited until the week of to make reservations for their Easter event, only to discover they were completely booked. Ceres also has its regular brunch on Sundays, and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. For more information, you can go to

Recently we attended the 4th annual Las Vegas Celtic Gathering and Highland Games. Located at Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs, the gathering was a just another great example of the amazing diversity of our favorite city.

The gathering featured dancing, pipe band and athletic competitions, as well as traditional Scottish food (and some non-traditional food – I never pass up a funnel cake) and hundreds of kilt-wearing participants.

The first written reference to Highland dancing dates back 1,000 years, and originally this athletic dance-style was used to train soldiers. Participants competed in many types of dances at the Celtic Gathering, including Highland Fling, Flora MacDonald’s Fancy and Seann Triubhas (pronounced Shawn Troos).Traditional Scottish music could be heard throughout the park as pipe bands practiced for their competitions. Getting to see the bands before their events, tuning the bagpipes and going over last-minute details, was a great behind-the-scenes experience.

In Heavy Events Athletics, participants compete in eight events (such as throwing weights and stones for distance) all in the same day. By the afternoon, when we saw the athletes compete in Weight Over Bar (which involves throwing a 56-pound weight over a bar 15+ feet in the air), they had been competing since early morning. Clearly, competitors need strength and endurance to excel.

The Las Vegas Celtic Gathering and Highland Games is a great way to spend a day in the park. Visit the following link for more information on the Las Vegas Celtic Society and next year’s Celtic Gathering. www.lasvegascelticsociety.org