Things To Do In Sparks

CrossFit Captivate’s head coach and owner, Corey Bibolet, serves as a living example of how CrossFit’s commitment to functional movement can contribute to bettering bodies for all types of activities—not just squats and lunges. He began practicing CrossFit in 2008 as a means to build strength and spice up his break-dancing routines and has been dedicated to the fitness medium ever since. A coach for more than three years, Corey holds several CrossFit competition titles, and he travels the country to attend training seminars and find new ways to get his pupils motivated. Today, he and his staff of co-trainers teach more than 30 classes per week in their blue-walled gym equipped with weights, hanging rings, and kettlebells.

Quiet ripples set a deceivingly placid stage for Lisa Gonzalez's PaddleFit classes. Lisa G. sculpts the core, back, and arms with low-impact exercises that blend both yoga and cardio. She incorporates basic paddling into the sessions, which keep the mind engaged along with the body. Lisa also leads private standup-paddleboarding lessons, sunset paddleboarding tours, and—back on dry land—circuit-training workouts.

With its gleaming marble demonstration counter, wooden cabinets topped with carved grapevines, and overhead televisions, the teaching kitchen at Nothing To It! Culinary Center would look perfectly at home on a film set. Instead, it sets the stage for the school’s master chefs to share the secrets to baking a flaky, golden pie crust or simmering a fragrant Moroccan stew with more than 500 students each month. Under the helm of Culinary Director, Chef Lara Ritchie, a graduate of New England Culinary Institute in Essex, Vermont, expert gourmands constantly add new hands-on and demonstration classes to their already encyclopedic schedule. Budding Boyardees hoping for a comprehensive approach can take the eight-level techniques series, which starts with knife skills and finishes with advanced techniques such as rendering an emulsified aioli or soft-boiling an egg with telekinesis. Pupils interested in more specific, contained lessons join hot-topic sessions, which delve into gluten-free cooking or sausage making, or international classes that explore Lebanese cuisine’s spices or Spain’s rustic charcoal-fired meats. Over the holidays, the 6,000-square-foot center fills with apprentices who learn to craft seasonal edibles such as truffles or gingerbread houses.

Nothing To It! also feeds visitors feasts they don’t have to cook. Its Napa Valley–style Gourmet Deli layers sandwiches with lavish ingredients such as imported cambozola-cheese pesto and flavors salads with creamy curried-mango chutney.

As a new mother, Tanya Rose Bordner found herself suffering from the severe headaches, hormonal imbalances, and emotional lows that often accompany motherhood. She knew she needed to take better care of herself and decided to try Bikram yoga. Though skeptical at first, she found herself hooked after one class when she discovered that she felt better physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and she eventually decided to become a Bikram-yoga instructor.

Now, Tanya and her team of certified instructors—all of whom have trained for several hundred hours—strive to share the benefits that Tanya felt in that first class with others. Using two breathing exercises designed to circulate oxygenated blood, these instructors lead students through 26 postures that carve out toned muscles and pump up flexibility. The classes take place in a 105-degree room with a recently renovated rubber floor, and after each session, staff members encourage students to press an ice-cream cone or the provided frozen lavender towels against their heated brows.

Since it opened in 1989, the National Automobile Museum has put the history of automotive travel on full display through exhibits, rare collections, and vehicular ephemera. The museum houses more than 200 cars in all, from the first horseless carriages to vintage and classic models to awe-inspiring oddities. Most hail from the garage of the Harrah’s Hotels and Casinos founder and legendary collector Bill Harrah, whose personal fleet reached approximately 1,400 vehicles. The automobiles are set against a backdrop of exacting street scenes, with set pieces and ambient audio recreating the world in which these artifacts roamed. This degree of detail, coupled with a lineup of permanent and rotating exhibits, has established the museum as among the class of the country's automobile museums. In fact, AutoWeek magazine placed it among its top five in the country.

Currently ranked as the 14th best hang glider in the United States, 23 year-old Alex Cuddy flies, competes, and teaches around the globe. But each summer, Cuddy returns to the familiar air of the Sierra Nevada, where he heads up Thermal Sky Sports, sharing his passion for engine-free aviation with illuminating lessons and tandem hang-gliding sessions. Before unleashing worthy pupils on their first solo flight with radio assistance, he'll teach them how to soar with the grace and majesty of an eagle-shaped helium balloon during low-flying ground towing sessions, tandem flights, and training-hill lessons. In his free time, Cuddy travels to various competitions and strives to break personal records, recently completing a 198-mile hang-gliding journey in 5 hours and 47 minutes.