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. :)