Memorial Day is just around the corner. How will you celebrate this unofficial kick-off to summer?

Neon Desert Music Festival
http://www.neondesertmusicfestival.com/

Neon Desert Music Festival is produced by Splendid Sun Productions, a Texas-born organization based in Austin and El Paso. Multiple outdoor stages, local and regional artist displays and a diverse music line-up will light up the southwestern skies this year!

KLAQ BalloonFest
http://klaq.com/tags/balloonfest/

Ah, the smell of charcoal, grilled meats, chlorine and suntan oil…with some live rock turned up to 11! Sounds like an awesome summertime party, right? Memorial Day weekend is the date, Wet-N-Wild is the place. It’s almost time for Balloonfest

Southern New Mexico Wine Festival
http://www.snmwinefestival.com/

Bringing together wineries from around the state, food, arts and crafts vendors, and live music in a relaxed setting, the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival is the place to be Memorial weekend! Find the wines you like through sampling, purchase a glass to enjoy on site and buy bottles to take home to enjoy later. The Best New Mexico Wines! Live Entertainment All 3 Days!

Forgot to plan your weekend? Not to worry-we’ve got you covered! From sun-up to sun-down, Last Minute Local provides you with the best “no planning required” things to eat, see and do in El Paso. Visit us every Friday for your last minute local or for a complete list of events visit http://www.eventselpaso.com. Have a good suggestion for next weekend? Email us at lastminutelocal@elpasocvb.com.

FRIDAY

The Outdoor Music: First Light Federal Credit Union presents Alfresco Fridays
http://visitelpaso.com/alfresco_fridays/new

Alfresco! Friday’s celebrates the 11th Anniversary in 2013! Alfresco! Fridays provides a casual way to experience some of the best established and upcoming local bands. Originally conceived as a way of keeping employees downtown at the start of the weekend, the concerts quickly became a draw for visitors to downtown. The upcoming season will feature Jazz, Latin, Reggae, Classic Rock, Salsa, Funk, Mariachi and more.

No Outside Food or Beverages Allowed. No Pets Allowed.

Please call the inclement weather hotline at (915)534-0675 for up to date information on whether or not the performance will be cancelled due to weather.

Tonight’s Entertainment: Sha’Vonne & The Vibe
If you’re looking for the best in live music in El Paso and Ft. Bliss, you need to experience “The Vibe” – El Paso’s premier R&B and Soul group. The Vibe was recently crowned the winner of the 2012 “BATTLE ON THE BORDER”, a city wide battle of the bands held by 92.3 The Fox. The band has been known to rock El Paso’s biggest venues including: the El Paso County Coliseum, Cohen Stadium, Downtown Street Fest, Champagne Fest, Freedom Crossing, and the La Vina Wine Fest. Led by the stellar voice of Sha’Vonne Williams, The Vibe has shared the stage with some of the biggest names to come through El Paso — most recently, Taylor Hicks, American Idol winner. No matter if the venue is a stadium, or a quiet wedding reception, The Vibe will make your event come alive! So catch us at one of our concerts, shows, or just watch our channel on YouTube. You will definitely FEEL THE VIBE!

The Dance Party: Chicken Funk N Waffles Dance Party
http://trickyfalls.com/event/136948

Dance the night away with The Pinsetters and Friends all while eating chicken n waffles provided by Hello Day Cafe!

SATURDAY

The Great Outdoors: Kids to Park Day
915-566-6441
The City of El Paso Parks and Recreation Department and Franklin Mountain State Park hosts the 2nd annual National Kids to Parks Day at the McKelligon Canyon, with birding, pictograph making, water conservation, geology, archery, bicycle repair workshop and more.

The Day of Tribute: ARMED FORCES DAY Celebration
915-568-4505

Activities include: equipment static displays, demonstrations by the area high school JROTC Armed and Unarmed Drill Teams, entertainment by the 1st Armored Division Band; Chili Cook-Off, Car Show and food and drink concessions. Armed Forces Day at BIGGS PARK is an open house event that provides you the opportunity to meet with service men and women and learn about the equipment they use in support of this nation.

The Flick: Movies by the Lake
https://www.facebook.com/MoviesByTheLake

El Paso County will host Movies by the Lake. The movie featured this week is ‘SkyFall’.

This is a free event so come out grab a bite to eat at some of the best food trucks in town. They are ready to present to you with some unique and very creative menus. How about ‘Bayou Snow Cones’ or ‘Teaze Boba Tea’, ‘The Reef Mobile Kitchen’ and ‘Grill on the Go’ will be there along with ‘Moshibox’ and ‘Sweet Addiction Cupcakes’. The Food Trucks will be open from 7:30 p.m. -10:30 p.m., or feel free to bring your favorite snacks and non-alcoholic beverages, along with a blanket and or chair. There is a $1.00 parking fee per vehicle to enter Ascarate Park on weekends.

The Outdoor Concert: Fiesta for the Missions*
http://www.elpasodiocesefoundation.org/fiestaforthemissions.html

Don’t miss out on delicious food, folklorico, matachines, and local entertainment! Advance tickets at all local Howdy’s stations for $10, starting April 1st. Tickets will be available at the door for $15.

Performances by:
Saturday – MALO & The Liberty Band
Sunday – Five-time Grammy Award Winner Little Joe y la Familia

SUNDAY

The Arts & Crafts: Mission Trail Art Market
915-851-0093

Discover the Mission Trail Art Market, The Mission Valley’s premier art and craft sale. Professional artisans from across the region present an amazing selection of quality art and craft. Choose from delicate pottery, vibrant jewelry, timeless home accents, and seasonal decorations. Painting, sculpture and photography for the connoisseur. Sweet and savory treats for the gourmet.

The Great Escape: Billy The Kid Breakout Show
http://www.sanelizariohistoricartdistrict.com/
The “Pistoleros De San Elizario” present two monthly reenactment shows in front of the Old El Paso County Jail in the San Elizario Historic District. The shows are during the monthly Mission Trail Art Market.
The performances are at 1 & 3PM.

Upon his arrival at around 3am, Billy the Kid knocked on the door of the jail waking up the Mexican guards. Billy the Kid posed as a Texas Ranger and told the guard he had two American Prisoners.

The Concert Continues: Fiesta for the Missions*
http://www.elpasodiocesefoundation.org/fiestaforthemissions.html

Don’t miss out on delicious food, folklorico, matachines, and local entertainment! Advance tickets at all local Howdy’s stations for $10, starting April 1st. Tickets will be available at the door for $15.

Performances by:
Saturday – MALO & The Liberty Band
Sunday – Five-time Grammy Award Winner Little Joe y la Familia

The opening of the George W Bush Presidential Center felt like a big family reunion – not just because five living presidents were there. Several thousand guests were mingling on the lawn of Dallas Hall when Dee and I arrived on the SMU campus, where the presidential library and museum is located, the evening before the dedication. We’d come to know many of them since meeting the Bushes in 1994.

There were family members like Robert Welch, Laura Bush’s cousin, who filled me in on the drawings by late El Paso artist Jose Cisneros that he has hanging in his home. We also saw close friends like Jan and Joey O’Neill who introduced Laura and George for the first time in the back yard of their Midland home.

Joey lent President Bush the W.H.D. Koerner painting “A Charge To Keep” – a man on horseback called to duty, charging over a hill- which hung beside his desk in the Oval Office for eight years. So did El Paso artist Tom Lea’s painting “Rio Grande,” a reproduction of which now hangs in the museum’s re-creation of the Oval Office.

Maggie and John Hager were there. Like Laura and George, they’re the new grandparents of Margaret Laura “Mila” Hager. Maggie smiled as she pointed out that Mila was born to Henry Hager and his wife, Jenna Bush Hager (the Bushes’ daughter), before Prince William and Kate Middleton’s child, who isn’t expected until July.

Former Michigan Governor John Engler and his wife, Michelle, talked about their triplet girls now in college. I recalled visiting their state with Laura in 1999, watching a star shower on a cold November night in Frankenmuth.

Ann Johnson, who headed the Art in Embassies Program for the State Department, introduced us to His Excellency Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait – there to pay respect to both Bush Presidents since “41,” George H.W. Bush, freed his country from Saddam Hussein.

Marci Armstrong, Associate Dean of SMU’s Cox School of Business, shared her surprise at seeing women in hijabs on campus until she realized they were Fellows at the Bush Institute’s Women’s Initiative. They were there to gain leadership skills they could use in their own countries during the Arab Spring, a wave of popular uprisings that has swept the Arab world in recent years.

Yes, it was a reunion of family and friends, but with a refrain – Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.

George W. and Laura Bush walked on stage to enthusiastic applauseon the eve of the dedication, introduced by their friend and former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, who now heads the George W. Bush Foundation.

George was excited and grateful: excited about the dedication of a beautiful building designed by a great architect, Bob Stern, and grateful for the more that 300,000 donors who helped pay for it all – up front. “An unusual accomplishment in these times!” he said.

He thanked everybody for coming, noting too many foreign dignitaries to recognize them all. “I wouldn’t know how to pronounce their names anyway!” he said, then hesitated before blurting out “OK, SAAKASHVILI,” referring to former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Then he announced he’d heard 41 was there. “Where are you, Dad?” he asked, spotting his father seated in his wheelchair toward the edge of the tent. “I LOVE YOU, MAN!”

He talked about the values he learned from two loving parents and how lucky he was to have a dad who taught him how to be a man and a mom who taught him the confidence to speak his mind – “sometimes getting both of us into trouble,” he quipped.

He was thankful to have been given the chance to lead a great nation, as one to whom much had been given but from whom much was expected. He couldn’t have led without a great first lady, one the world had come to love and whom he loved, too.

He said he did not miss the politics of Washington, D.C. though he wanted to stay involved in issues important to people’s lives – economic prosperity, education, global health, the environment. His overriding belief is that every human being longs to be free and that freedom is a gift from God.

A centerpiece of the new library is Freedom Hall, where a lantern is raised high above the entrance of stone columns and a trinity of paned glass bays. It shines like a beacon against the sky, yet remains of human scale. It is modern, but reflects the classical past. As Laura Bush said, the Bush Library and Museum are about “looking to the past to engage the future.”

The morning after the dedication, Condoleeza Rice spoke to visitors drinking coffee before a tour of the museum began. She shared that before she left Washington, she asked for a personal tour of the National Archives, a benefit of serving as Bush’s secretary of state. After reading the familiar words at the top of the Declaration of Independence, she said: “It is an angry, raised fist document, and those who are already calling the Arab Spring an Arab Winter forget the struggles our own country went through.”

Encouraging a “long view of history,” she admitted the difficulties ahead in the world. Those fighting for their freedom need friends. “And,” she said, “there is no better friend than George W. Bush.”

Wake (left) and Don (right) Margo with George W. Bush

Forgot to plan your weekend? Not to worry-we’ve got you covered! From sun-up to sun-down, Last Minute Local provides you with the best “no planning required” things to eat, see and do in El Paso. Visit us every Friday for your last minute local or for a complete list of events visit http://www.eventselpaso.com. Have a good suggestion for next weekend? Email us at lastminutelocal@elpasocvb.com.

FRIDAY

The Rally: Digital Ambassador Rally
915-534-0600

Join us in celebrating why El Paso is “So Good!” Rally begins at 4 pm in Arts Festival Plaza. Sign up to be an Ambassador for El Paso! Food, fun, prizes, live music, and much more. Stay for the much anticipated first Alfresco Friday of the season!

The Outdoor Concert: First Light Federal Credit Union presents Alfresco Fridays
http://www.alfrescofridays.com

Tonight’s Band:
Progresion Norteña is the product of a project started in 2008 in El Paso, Texas by saxophonist Tury Gonzalez, bassist Luis Hernandez, and vocalist Sergio Garcia. Sharing their musical preference in the Regional Mexican styles of music, the first project was born in the Duranguense genre. After the downfall in the Duranguense music style, the band decided to change to the Norteño style in 2012 with the joining of Joseph Orduño in the accordion. And later the joining of Jorge Samaniego in the drums. Since, the band has developed their music style to please their audience. They have set up their list of songs in a way that they can satisfy all of their spectators by playing a variety of styles within the Norteño genre including: norteñas, cumbias, zapateado, corridos, quebradita, boleros, and more.

SATURDAY

The Run/Walk: LVE Anniversary 5K Run/2K Fun Walk or Hanks 5K 4 PK
http://www.raceadventuresunlimited.com/05-11-2013/Loma-Verde-Elementary-School-5K/709
http://www.raceadventuresunlimited.com/05-11-2013/Hanks-5K-4-PK/623

Two great races to choose from!

The Mothers Day Celebration: Mariachis for Mom
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Mariachis-for-Mom-tickets/artist/1312397

A Mothers day tradition in El Paso!

The Movie: Movies by the Lake
http://www.epcounty.com/documents/MoviesLakeFlyer.pdf

Enjoy a free movie and grab a bite to eat as we launch Movies by the Lake at the newly renovated Ascarate Park! Featuring:The Reef Mobile Kitchen,Grill on the Go,Moshibox,Sweet Addiction Cupcakes, Bayou Snow Cones and TEAZE. Movies will be shown at 8:00 PM. Bring your blanket or chair to relax and enjoy a FREE Movie.

The late night: DJ Shadow @ Tricky Falls (All Basses Covered 2013 DJ Set)
http://trickyfalls.com/event/134649

SUNDAY

The Picnic: LIVE MUSIC with Julio Ortiz at Zin Valle Vineyards
http://www.zinvalle.com/zvb/ai1ec_event/happy-mothers-day-free-live-music-with-julio-ortiz/?instance_id=115

It’s Mother’s Day! Visit the vineyard this Sunday, May 12th for FREE live music and FREE wine tasting. Come on out and enjoy the sounds of guitarist and singer Julio Ortiz from 1:00 p.m to 4:00 p.m. Bring your Momma, a picnic, your family and friends and enjoy the day at Zin Valle Vineyards.

Sea lions have long been one of my favorite animals. I think one of the most fascinating things about them is their personality. Spend just a bit of time watching them interact with each other and you will see them barking at one another, crawling over each other, or floating as a group at the water’s surface with their flippers sticking out. They also have faces that many say look like dogs. Who wouldn’t love a sea lion?

When I first arrived in El Paso the Zoo had one sea lion, Sushi. She is a beautiful sea lion who loves to play at her window and watch the people watching her. She even seems to follow you when you when you walk back and forth. She is a graceful swimmer, as are all sea lions. However, sea lions are very social animals. In their natural environment, they are usually found in very large groups known as colonies. At the El Paso Zoo an animal’s welfare is our highest priority, and finding a companion for Sushi was very important. Then we were lucky enough to find LB. LB stands for Little Bit.

LB is a striking male California Sea Lion. Males are generally significantly heavier than females.
Females usually weigh between 110 -221 pounds, while males weigh between 441 -662 pounds. LB weighs around 537 pounds! In order to keep him at his healthy weight, he eats about 38 pounds of food a day. That much fish is approximately 15,000 calories, the same number of calories in 61 quarter pound hamburgers. I can’t imagine eating that much. Another way that you can tell LB and Sushi apart is their coloration. LB has a very dark colored coat and long whiskers when compared to Sushi.

LB

Sushi and LB had a similar start to life. They were both born off the coast of California, in their natural environment, but sadly they stranded. Stranding is when marine animals come on to land and can’t or won’t return to the ocean. Strandings are often due to illness, fatigue, or injury. When an animal is rescued the hope is to return the animal to its natural home. However, there are times that an animal can not be released back to its home. The National Marine Fisheries Service, an agency of the federal government, has regulations to determine whether or not an animal can be released. Some of the factors this organization will look at include the age of the animal, length of time it was in human’s care, and the severity of animal’s injuries or illness. LB, like Sushi, was found at a very young age, and was deemed non-releasable because he did not have the skill set to take care of him self if he were released.

Since being rescued on the beaches of Goleta, California, LB spent several years living in San Diego before being moved cross country. LB found a long time home in Gulf World Marine Park of Panama City Beach, Florida. Coincidently, about the time that the El Paso Zoo started looking for a new partner for Sushi, Gulf World Marine Park was looking for a home for LB.

Both the federal government and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) have protocols on how to introduce an animal into a new facility. Therefore, as member of the AZA and in order to comply with federal regulations, LB had to be placed in quarantine. There is a very logical reasoning behind this. One, the staff wants to make sure that the animal, in this case LB, gets acclimated to their new environment, like water temperature and water chemistries. Two, it’s to ensure that the new animal is not carrying any diseases that can be spread to the current residents.

Once the quarantine period was over LB was introduced to his new home with Sushi. The trainers have had a chance to learn a lot about him. They say that he is knows many different behaviors and that he is very strong. Speaking of strong, did you know that a sea lion’s front flippers are so strong that they can support their entire body weight? LB’s trainers also state that he is always eager to interact and loves his enrichment. One of his favorite enrichments is fish pops! Yum… if you’re a sea lion.

Sushi is a 14 year old female, and LB is a 14 year old male. Yes, the staff is hoping that we will one day have sea lion babies, more appropriately called pups. Sea lions are seasonal breeders and rut is generally mid- summer. Females are pregnant for about 11 months. However, during the first three months of the pregnancy the fertilized egg does not embed into the uterine wall and is free floating in the uterus. In the scientific world this is called delayed implantation. Delayed implantation helps to make sure that the pups are born during the early summer, a time of the year when food is most abundant. A female sea lion, like Sushi, will generally only give birth to one pup per season.

Sea lions are very special animals, and the citizens of El Paso are very fortunate to have Sushi and LB. They are now ambassadors for California sea lions and all marine life. As such, they want to remind you to “Drop it in the Blue” and to be an educated consumer. If you would like to learn how you can use your buying power to help marine life visit the zoo website at http://elpasozoo.org/takeaction-OurOceans.php