Petroglyphs to Snow drifts :)

We concluded our time in Phoenix with a trip to the Food Network's favorite pizza place in Arizona, Chris Bianco's Pizzeria Bianco.  After trying unsuccessfully to have lunch there the day before yesterday (only to learn there was a 2 hour wait), I discovered a second location, closer to our resort, and we managed to get a table with no wait whatsoever.  It is a charming atmosphere, filled with old chandeliers and mirrors and mason jar candles, and the food was divine.  Spotting a "Yogurtology" (a frozen yogurt place that was new to us) on our way in, we opted to have dessert there, and it, too, was delicious.  Our bags packed, our bellies full, and our Google Map programmed for the Deer Valley Rock Art Center, we headed to our next stop.

The Deer Valley Rock Art Center is managed by ASU (Arizona State University), though the land is owned by the state.  When thousands of petroglyphs were discovered in this area many years ago, the decision was made to build a museum into this spot and devote the entire area to preservation and education.  The logo for the center comes from one of the petroglyphs found here.  The museum offers fascinating insight into how little is known about what these symbols mean and how they were used for communication.  Still, the center is focused on the continued study and preservation of the enigmatic line drawings.  And it is wonderful to be able to take an easy 1/4 mile "hike" to see so many of them in their original location.  This was definitely a worthwhile visit, and I'm glad we returned after being met with a closed gate on Saturday.

After getting our fill of petroglyphs (and avoiding the "rattlesnake habitats" that are peppered along the trail), we made our way to beautiful Sedona, unaware at the time that we were just hours ahead of an unusual snow storm that would find us waking to a snow filled balcony.

Needless to say, Daniel was beyond delighted to have the opportunity to throw a snow ball, though the storm has put a crimp in our New Year's Eve plans. Since sleepy Sedona shuts down (literally!) at 9:00 PM, there is little to do here, yet we may have some trouble making our way to Prescott, home of the New Year's Eve boot drop that originally sparked this whole trip! :)

Whatever we decide to do, we will enjoy the red rocks, snow covered or not, during these last few days of our vacation.  While we had to reschedule our pink jeep tour, we also learned that some people had already cancelled their Amara Resort reservations, so we may be switched into a better room (with a view of those red rocks) by the end of the day.   Tomorrow morning we head out dark and early for Williams and a ride on the historic train into the Grand Canyon.  Since I won't be blogging again until we've returned from the Grand Canyon, I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very, very Happy New Year!!!

"If I didn't have a wife, I could probably take care of a camel"

We got an early start yesterday, knowing that one must beat the crowds at Matt's Big Breakfast in order to avoid the legendary long lines.   Matt's is located in downtown Phoenix, and yesterday would be our first visit to that part of this city, so we were eager to explore.  We got there before 9:00 and only had to wait about 20 minutes.  By the time we were leaving less than an hour later, the tiny lobby was packed with hungry customers waiting to eat Matt's organic food.  The food was great and prices reasonable, but nothing was so extraordinary to explain why this restaurant, as opposed to any dozen others, gets the good fortune of being THE place one must eat for breakfast.  It's an intriguing phenomenon what causes such good fortune to strike one business owner over another.

After breakfast, we went to the famed Heard Museum, famed because every book, website, and person lists this museum as the "MUST DO" in Phoenix.  Once again, while we had a delightful (though sometimes guilt ridden) time perusing the Native American exhibits, and we were certainly glad we had done it, we were left wondering why THIS museum, above all others, was the one that left people talking.

The museum has a lovely structure, with many courtyards housing a sculpture garden and a performance hall

This bronze sculpture reminds me of Picasso's drawings, brought to life - realistic on one side

decidedly not realistic on the other :)

In the end, I decided that it had less to do with the actual museum than with what the support for the museum indicates about the city's ongoing support of the people.    The gift shop is filled with designs made by local Native American artists, and the performance hall regularly showcases some of the more traditional dances and songs still practiced by various tribes.  The highlight of our visit was getting to see the hoop dance performed by Derrick Suwaima Davis, who is, it's easy to see why, the world champion in this event (no, I didn't know that they had contests in this event).  Enjoy! (though you may have to watch the computer sideways depending on how this whole rendering this worked out... Nope, it worked! :))

When Nikki had to cancel our lunch plan, we decided to stay at the Heard a bit longer, leading us to an uninspired late lunch spot, though we made up for it with our evening visit to the "institution" (apparently being open since 1997 makes a place an institution in these parts?) Phoenix City Grille, a lovely little neighborhood gem nestled into a strip mall.  We always love finding a place like this one, as you know you're dining among locals.   

We followed dinner with a trip to Zoo Lights, the beautiful event Phoenix Zoo puts on each December.  We got to the zoo by 8:30 and enjoyed the last two hours before closing, when the park was quite empty, to walk among the lights, dance to the music, and, you knew this was coming from the blog post title, ride on a camel.  Yes, the kids fell in love with Dale the Camel, though Daniel fell particularly hard, spending the next 30 minutes trying to figure out how and where he could live and own a camel for a pet.

The ride was one thing, but the way Dale couldn't stop reaching towards the kids, longing for them to continue petting him, was what really made the kids smitten.  He was as sweet as Serena; it was rather adorable.

One of the things that has been fun during this trip is staying in touch with the Clifton family though Snap Chat.  Sophia sent us images from their New Orleans tour of City Lights, while we were able to send them images from Zoo Lights (apparently, last night was THE night to do light events on vacation :))   I'll leave you with images of the kids striking poses in front of one of the many illuminated images in the park - this one a Christmas tree that changed lights in time to the music piping through the park.  It was a fun and magical way to spend our last evening in Phoenix.

Up, Up, and Away...

Yesterday we opted to stay on the grounds of our beautiful resort and enjoy the facilities - having a delicious Sunday brunch at Wright's (and marvelling at all of the little architectural details that we now "get" after our Taliesin West tour) and enjoying the pools and hot tubs (well, Daniel and Dana enjoyed the water while Maddie and I enjoyed various lounge chairs around said pools and hot tubs) before heading off for our 3:00 PM launch date with Rainbow Ryders.

The grounds here are simply spectacular, and it's easy to imagine spending many a content vacation exploring them (which we intend to do some more of this afternoon!)

This, the Catalina pool, apparently, was Marilyn Monroe's favorite pool on the property. :)

The kids enjoy the Adirondack chairs, generously sprinkled throughout the resort.

The lobby, with a famous Wright design on display

The Christmas tree awaiting us a day's end at the entrance of the resort.

This is the slide at the Paradise Pool and Cabana, the largest pool area on the property.  Yes, both Dana and Daniel (and nobody else during the time we were there) went down the slide!

Of course, the highlight of the day was that hot air balloon ride with Rainbow Ryders, and what a highlight it was.  Rarely do I find that something you anticipate will be a highlight actually winds up living up to that expectation.  More often the high expectations lead to a more measured response.  Not so with this experience.  It was so wonderful from start to finish, professional, fun, exciting, beautiful... that we were all beyond thrilled with this check on our bucket list.  As Dana said on Facebook, photos don't truly do it justice, but here are a few that come closer than others:

 There were a dozen balloons launching from the same site at sunset, which provides the best photographing opportunities for the passengers in each balloon.  Truly spectacular to view.  Patrick, our pilot, says that there are 600 - 1000 in the sky during the Albuquerque balloon festival each year.

Now we're off to breakfast at a local tradition known as Matt's Big Breakfast, followed by a visit to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix, lunch with my cousin Nikki in the swanky section of Scottsdale, then back to our resort for a final afternoon enjoying these gorgeous grounds before we check out tomorrow morning.

It Was the Best of Tours, It Was the Worst of Tours

 We moseyed our way to Scottsdale after a disappointing trip to the Deer Valley Rock Art Center - disappointing because after finding our way to the remote little road that gets you there, we were met by a closed and locked gate.  Apparently the Center is open Tuesday - Saturday, but not on "holidays."  Why the Saturday after Christmas is considered a holiday I still don't know, but we will have to make our way back there on Tuesday, on our way to Sedona.  So... after that unrewarding detour, we made our way to Old Town Scottsdale, which weaves one jewelry and cowboy boots store after another into storefronts and streets that have been active since the early 1900's.  We downloaded a self-guided walking tour
(http://www.experiencescottsdale.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/HistoricWalkingTourMap.pdf ) and started exploring the area - UNTIL we saw a charming horse and buggy ride and thought we'd enjoy that experience.  Wrong! :)  The truism that "experience is what you get when you don't get what you want" was certainly true in this case, as we know we will reflect on the utter lack of information we received on this "tour" for years to come.  I was reminded of the bus tour my parents booked in California many, many years ago.  I could only imagine their level of frustration when the bus driver neglected to offer any meaningful insights, and, instead, only pointed out the obvious corn that was growing outside.   At least this tour only took 40 minutes and 60 bucks out of our lives!

Still, after we disembarked from miserable Peaches, we enjoyed the rest of Scottsdale, including the adorable Sugar Bowl, the setting of many a Family Circus cartoon, we learned, as Bill Keane lived and worked here in Scottsdale, Arizona.  We enjoyed a light lunch followed by delicious ice cream sundaes, and tortured ourselves for the hour trying to figure out who our waiter desperately reminded us (at least Maddie, Daniel and me) of, with Dana offering random suggestions of Toby Maguire that were NO HELP whatsoever!! :(

 When we asked him, hoping that might put us out of our suffering, he offered that sometimes "guests tell me I look like Joseph Gordon Leavitt, but I don't get that" (neither did we), and "my manager tells me all the time that I remind him of the guy in The Hulk" (Edward Norton? Nope!)   Though we still haven't figured it out, that game is always a fun one :)

Next stop was the spectacular Taliesin West, the 250 acre working playground Wright created after falling in love with Arizona when he designed the Arizona Biltmore (though he is not the architect of record, as he often had the ideas but lacked the money to complete one project or another).  He was able to acquire this land for very little, which enabled him to do all the things he imagined.  Since he didn't start this Arizona project until his 70's, and because several of his apprentices, now themselves in their 70's and 80's continue to live and work alongside the 20something architectural graduate students who study here today, the whole place speaks to endless possibilities. Our 70something tour guide for the 90 minutes "Insights" tour was the antithesis of Mr. Horse and Buggy, and we learned more than we imagined possible in a scant hour and a half.  He fell in love with Wright as a Florida Southern college student studying in buildings designed by the architect and has spent the last 50 years learning about him.  I feel ready to become a Wright docent myself at this point.

Wright used canvas panels as his ceiling/roof materials, though they need to be replaced frequently due to the scorching Arizona sun.

Wright often echoes the terrain, though not always as literally as he did here.

The perfect acoustics in this room, inspired by underground caverns in Europe, were spectacular.

One of the petroglyphs discovered on Wright's land; he requested that his apprentices always place them in roughly the same configuration they were found.

One of Wright's favorite shapes, inspired by the petroglyphs found on his property.  

We concluded our evening by returning to Scottsdale for a lovely dinner at Roaring Fork and a stroll through the Arts Festival held alongside the canal, where a beautiful art installation (http://www.scottsdalepublicart.org/temporary-art/jellies-in-the-sky-cacti-in-the-water)  is the most recent of many that are aiming to bring back the canals in Arizona, a very worthy goal for these historically important as well as simply beautiful to admire waterways.

All in all, it was a practically perfect day in every way.  Now off to brunch at Wright's and a day that will be capped off with a sunset hot air balloon ride.   I'll hope our balloonist has some interesting "insights" about the terrain below. :)