Hit It and Quit It! - Vegas in West Marin

Paragraphs by Paul Miller

My wife Donna, and I, were having a quiet late afternoon lunch at Nick's Cove in West Marin awhile back. It was one of those magical weather days. The low, bright sun warmed us through wall-sized windows.  We watched Tomales Bay spread itself silvery green under a sky of friendly clouds and circling seagulls. The lunch was as good as the weather.

"This place is too boring," I announced to Donna, who rolled her eyes. "We need to go to Vegas."

"You said the same thing when we were canoeing over there on the other side of the bay."

She was referring to a paddle trip she, our Australian Shepherd, Tahoe, and I had taken a few weeks earlier from Heart's Desire Beach along the bay's southern shoreline to some pristine isolated beaches.  We had passed and waved at other paddlers in red and blue and yellow kayaks.  A harbor seal popped his bald head above the smooth water beside our canoe and followed us to just short of our next beach landing.  None of us canoers and kayakers had been much troubled by power boat wakes of local sailors, who respectfully stayed in the middle or near the northern shore of the bay. 

"You want to know something? This is really boring. We need to go to Vegas" is what I had said as I stared at the curious shiny gray seal that day.

But now I do NOT have to go to Vegas: apparently Vegas is coming to Nick's Cove!

There are reports of plans to offer tourists power boat rentals at Nick's dock. Rumor has it that there maybe a cigarette boat or two, the kind that old man Bush loves to rip around on over any waterway he wants. 

What is really exciting, however, is that Nick's Cove may have scheduled helicopter landings.  They will come to unload boozed-up tourists into the resort from--of all places--the wine country! The copters, no doubt, will stick around long enough to let those unloaded passengers rip around on the bay in the rented power boats before flying the new sailors back to Napa or Sonoma before dark for more tasting.

I have gleefully canceled my hotel and flight reservations for Vegas.

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Long time Marinite Paul Miller was editorial cartoonist for the Marin IJ, sports cartoonist for the Novato Advance, a cover cartoonist for the Pacific Sun, and is currently a cartoonist illustrator for The Ark.   He's had cartoons published in the San Francisco Chronicle and his surf paintings have been published on the Surfriders Foundation website. He joins MoreMarin as a contributing editorial cartoonist.

Miller, a former Marine and UCLA graduate, taught a cartooning course in the art department at the College of Marin. His paintings and drawings are in private collections in California, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, Florida and Provence, France. Miller's book, A Cartoonist's Guide to Prostate Cancer, was described by Dr. Dean Edell as "a must for any man facing prostate cancer!"

Comments

[AndrewTF]

Seriously? That's going to be interesting, especially the helicopter bit. Better than having tanked-up tourists driving from Napa to Marshall, I guess, in a lesser-of-two-evils sort of way.

[Joel Bartlett]

OMG, I had not heard about this. Horrible idea! I usually get a peaceful, easy feeling in tranquil, picturesque, rural West Marin. This would spoil it.