"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.