Boxing Day with the birds

We drove out to Floyd Lamb Park this morning and brushed off the holiday cobwebs. It's about 7 miles from my sister's house in North Las Vegas.  This area once was a remote oasis, but Floyd Lamb is now an urban park on the edge of town with open space, small lakes, groves of trees, and grass.

If Las Vegas continues to sprawl across the desert, who knows?  This park could someday become a refuge like Central Park in New York City.

It was a beautiful morning, quite cold but sunny. As you can see, we were popular with the winter residents.  (It might have something to do with those stale hamburger buns.)

Thousands and thousands of American Coots...

And begging Canada Geese...

The park is adjacent to the historic Tully Springs Ranch, once an all-inclusive resort where the well-to-do waited it out in style for a "quickie divorce." Many of the original buildings and bungalows have been preserved. A fun place to walk around and think about all the stories and history. 

In 1931, the Nevada legislature passed two bills: one for the legalization of gambling and the other for the six-week divorce.   Both changed the state for ever.

In most places at the time, divorce required a wait of at least a year and sometimes required proof of adultery.  Nevada made it simple: six weeks’ residency anywhere in the state; a short list of nine legal grounds that required little or no proof (the most popular was mental cruelty) and an average of six minutes in court before the judge to get the divorce decree.

The ranch staff provided the divorce-seeker with the proof of Nevada residency, and it was a done deed.  While you lounged around on the ranch, there was tennis, swimming, horseback riding, a casino and new friends to make.

We spent a lovely and peaceful morning together.