Phoenix Art Museum

We visited the Phoenix Art Museum yesterday. Although we have been to the area several times, we have never visited. We were impressed.

The building is spacious and the walls uncrowded. It has an open, airy feeling although it allows only secluded peaks at the desert sun. There was a show on about the work of celebrated fashion designer James Galanos (they had a copy of his famous portrait by Richard Avedon). The clothing was beautiful but, as I am not a big fashion fan, I found the mannequins almost as interesting.

Home tonight.

Rancho Pinot

Dinner last night at a wonderful and different restaurant, Rancho Pinot, recommended by our local friends. Owner-chef Chrysa Robertson has spent twenty five years serving cuisine at a high standard in a comfortable yet quirky atmosphere. The themes are western-rodeo-cowboy and girl with surprising touches here and there. (It's worth wandering around for a look if you go.) Above, refrigerator magnets on a back counter. Below, just part of Robertson's wacky and wonderful curio cabinet. Last, part of a poster which the old rocker in me recognized as the source for the cover of The Byrds' 1968 album, Sweetheart Of The Rodeo. I pointed this out to the staff, who didn't know about it.      

Paradise

Dinner last night with City Daily Photo friends at their beautiful home on the north side of Camelback Mountain in the town of Paradise Valley. They have a cactus gardener, a profession I never considered before. Good times, good wine and then had to speak at my conference at 8 AM this morning. It worked out.

So going to school today. May do some Phoenix area tourism tomorrow.  

That's Better

Much better air and light yesterday. The Grand Canyon is too much to absorb but we are glad we made it back after 25 years. Mrs. C thought we needed documentation that I actually did it, as shown below. There are still an awful lot of pictures to edit, though.

Down to Scottsdale today for some more-or-less work. I'll be attending a conference of lawyers in my specialty and speaking Thursday morning. I'm one of the most senior members of the organization and, frankly, I get a limited amount out of these. Maybe I'll do some of that editing to pass the time. But first, dinner tonight with CDP friends Sharon, Dave and Julie.  

Not Quite As Grand As We Hoped

We arrived at the Grand Canyon yesterday and, I'm sorry to say, are a bit disappointed. Sure, it's one of the great sights of the world, but it is crowded (I can't imagine what it's like during school vacations). We are staying at the moderately priced hotel inside the park. The room is worn and the food is mediocre. No wifi in the rooms and very weak in the hotel lobby. You aren't getting away to commune with nature in this place anyway so why not? 

In particular, the air is very hazy. We don't know if it is from pollution, dust or wildfires. The top photo was the only usable one I could get at sunset last night and it is heavily Photoshopped. Hoping for better conditions today.         

Canyon de Chelly

There are many more photos to edit from Monument Valley but I am trying to keep up with a bit from each day's sightseeing as we go along. We took a detour on our way from Monument Valley to the Hopi Reservation, visiting Canyon de Chelly National Monument. 

It's a remarkable place but few people were there. In a sense, the canyon is hidden, falling down from a flat plateau, invisible until you get to the edge. A number of Navajo families raise crops and animals on the valley floor during part of the year. The geology is as surprising as the Grand Ganyon, which we will visit shortly, but on a much smaller scale.

There are ruins of many rock face dwellings of native people who lived here about 800 - 1200 CE. Got lots of good pix but that will have to wait for the next editing session.

Why People Come Here

There is nowhere in the world like this and it is hard to experience it completely on your own. One highway runs through and there are a couple of streets that go to hotels, restaurants and shops. To really see it, you need to go into the dirt and sand roads of the back country, something you dare not do alone. It takes a local guide and a heavy four wheel drive vehicle.

We booked a full day trip with Phillips Photography Tours. I cannot say enough good about them and our driver-guide, Tully. Mrs. C and I saw things the bus tours could not imagine. A few Navajo live in isolated homes that had no electricity until the coming of solar panels. There are still some hogons, traditional dwellings in the shape of a dome, made of intricately interlaced juniper logs and covered with dried mud. That is where we met Cecelia, spinning local sheep's wool and making exquisite wall hangings and blankets.

I took about 1,500 shots so there is a lot of editing to do We have no early morning tour today so we will rest a little longer and eventually head towards Second Mesa, Arizona, and the Hopi Reservation.       

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Taliesin West

My favorite thing to do in Phoenix, a visit to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home. Wright, a cantankerous genius, was one of the greatest architects of the 20th Century. His most famous work is probably the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The building sits on the eastern outskirts of the Phoenix area, with nothing beyond but desert and mountain. He and his wife entertained the greats of the artistic and political worlds, holding grand salons that make make you think of a dessicated version of Gertrude Stein's.

The house is full of rectangles but also triangles, some quite subtle. Look for them in today's and tomorrow's posts. And, yes, I gotta do one more, featuring interior space and artwork.

It's hard to give an impression of the place without being there. Someone once said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture. And I can't dance to save my life.                         

Tucson To Phoenix

I'll get back out on the streets of The Lou this weekend but I want to finish up some Arizona stuff. Saguaro National Park, which we saw just over a week ago, has another branch northwest of Tucson. It's a perfect stop on the way back to Phoenix.

This is typical landscape for middle and southern Arizona. My feelings about it seem to change over time. I used to view this as beautiful country, very spare and clear. This trip my reaction was that it is more harsh and unforgiving, unsuitable for cities without great manipulation of the environment. It felt good to come back to the pastel softness of Midwestern spring. I dunno, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky.

The bottom photo has some of that manipulation, a strip of irrigated emerald alfalfa between desert dirt in the foreground and sand-blown mountains in the back. I'm a climate pessimist. Your opinion may be different.

One last Arizona post tomorrow, probably. Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song ages ago about the owner of the place.                        

Blog-O-Rama

Bloggers in the desert: Sharon Anck of Phoenix Daily Photo, Julie Pace of Scottsdale Daily Photo, Dave Selden of Tamarindo Daily Photo and an interloper from Missouri on a beautiful spring night in Arizona. One of the reasons CDP is so very worth while.

Time to head back to reality today (hmm...is it worthy of being called real?) but lots more AZ pictures to come.                         

Tucson

So, the destination:

We got into Phoenix late Wednesday night and flopped at an airport hotel.  Yesterday morning we drove south to Tucson, Arizona's second city, and headed for the part of Saguaro (sah WHA row) National Park east of the city. There's another to the west we'll get to on Saturday. 

This is the iconic southwestern US plant, but they grow in a limited area of southern Arizona and northwest Mexico. The saguaro don't start sprouting the characteristic arms until they are about 75 years old.  But there are lots of other interesting things. You could, for example, wreck your bike and break every bone in your body.

Mrs. C and I like to look for local cuisine when we travel. We ended up at the Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant. It gets terrific ratings on Tripadvisor and we certainly agree. It's in a very old building, plain white adobe, but the food and staff were first class. I had maybe the best mojito of my life.

We drove back to the hotel through downtown. Ain't like the Midwest.