PHX (May 2023)

Phoenix Photo Album

May 12

In my quest to visit all the state capitols and also the US’s biggest cities, though I have been to Arizona I have not been to Phoenix. Earlier this year we received a call from a timeshare group who were looking to give us a free weekend somewhere, so we chose Phoenix to be our location of presentation suffereing. We knew and they didn’t know that we definitely were not going to buy a timeshare.  And if you’re in the market, just don’t do it. 

Taking an early-ish flight out of Houston we landed in PHX near lunch time and headed to an eatery we found while searching called the Prickly Pear Bistro, it was a hipster-ish type place... you know the type you would image to sell you avocado toast with extra tomatoes.  Food was decent and could have been better if the ratios were better decided.

Before we booked this trip, first we were trying to decided when and of course where.  The timeshare people would have been able to accommodate us everywhere but we picked Phoenix and by the time we did it was already summer-lite season in Phoenix.  With that said it was low 90s (33C) outside and of course not a cloud in the sky, of course all the cool things to do in Phoenix are outdoors… We decided we handle Houston heat on a normal basis, one midday stroll in Phoenix wouldn’t be so bad and we decided to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens.  This place is simply amazing with the sheer number of cacti and dessert plants that they have on site, also they have a large enclosure for butterflies which is impressive too.

After sweating it out for a few hours at the garden it was time to make it over to our free hotel provided by the timeshare.  Rebe goes in to check us in, but a few minutes texts me that the hotel is trying to make us pay for the stay….OH HELLLLL NAH.  Time to get the timeshare people on the phone, which as you could imagine was not an easy thing (35 mins of waiting), only for Wyndham to call the hotel and provide the hotel with a credit card number that they still could not process.  After two hours we said forget it, timeshare people gave us our deposit back and we went to find our own hotel. 

We drove into central Phoenix and had a nice dinner at The Vig.  It is a restaurant situated in a former house and was perfect cap on a roller coaster of a day.  We then drove to our hotel, at least what we thought was our hotel but apparently there are 2 Holiday Inn Expresses in Scottsdale.  We finally got in and called it a night. 

May 13

You know how whenever you see a hot-air balloon you always think, “Gee, that looks like a fun thing to do?” If you do not, well you might be broken but Rebe and I (mainly Rebe) had scheduled a balloon ride for Saturday morning.  Only problem was they wanted us at the meeting spot at 430 in the morning.  Yadda yada something about hot air in the Phoenix summer air (harder to fly hot air in hot air, you need the differential).  We arrived at the meeting spot at 430 as scheduled and to my surprise, maybe Rebe knew this, but we were not the only people ballooning today.  The company is the largest balloon operator in the country and by my estimate we were apart of a group of 10 or more balloons taking off this morning. While usually cattle groups like this would be a nightmare but since the other people were in separate balloons it was fine. The operator drove us out to the middle of nowhere or what will soon to be a new subdivision and got to assembling the setup.  First they unfurled the balloon on the ground, got two huge fans to blow up the balloon and when it was mostly full, the pilot fired the burners a few times to really get the balloon off the ground.  Once the balloon was upright, we got a quick briefing and we were on our way. 

Pilot checking balloon internals

Once in the air, the pilot cannot steer but there is a lot of wind reading to figure out in which direction we would be heading. Our balloon carried 15 people including the pilot, only downside we were crammed in a cube with 2 other people.  As you can imagine a basket for a balloon is never huge so space and size is always tight but since the flight was only an hour it wasn’t so bad.  What is most amazing was watching all the balloons float up and down, because they do not stay constant at one altitude, and with all the winds doing different things at different altitudes the pilots were all able to land all the balloons within a football field of each other. 

After the ballon ride we had celebratory champagne, as is the ballooning tradition, chit chatted with a few flight mates and they told us about a local breakfast place right around the corner in Cave Creek, remember we started at 430 and by the time we were done with the balloon it was 7:45 in the morning.  The restaurant was called The Grotto and it was a nice detour to an area of the Phoenix area we hadn’t been to and probably never would have gone to. 

Getting up at 330 leads to a day in which a nap is required, so that’s exactly what we did. 

Being Phoenix and it also being the middle of May it was getting a tad bit warm (when we left on Sunday it was 102F [38C]) so we wanted to do something that wasn’t too strenuous and hopefully not in the sun too much. We settled on Talesin West, the winter home/workshop of the acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The site provides a great audio tour that really digs into some of the details of the site and it helps you understand the way Wright went about design. 

Now that we were sweaty from the indoor/outdoor tour, we wanted to get some air conditioning so I convinced Rebe we should go watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. and we did.  Typical Marvel and it did not disappoint. 

We still had some time to kill before dinner so we headed back over to the area of the botanical garden but to the Papago Park section.  We did a short hike around one of the buttes to watch the sun set and on the way back to the car we saw a few coyotes. 

Dinner was at The Yard at the Farmer Arts District (Culinary Dropout), I had made the reservation the day before but unbeknownst to me I booked the same restaurant but in a different area of town.  So we showed up early and the hostess looked at us like we were crazy, but with the wait we ended up sitting down at the same time as our original reservation. 

May 14

Sunday was national park day, Phoenix is just 1.5 hours from Tucson which is very close to Saguaro National Park. The name comes from the famous cacti that reside only in the Sonoran desert, the cactus that is the classic shape, you know green, tall and with the arms?  Yeah, you know. 

We ate our hotel breakfast and got on the road a little after 8am and made our way down to the Tucson Mountain district or the west section of the park, I mention this because this is one of the few national parks that has 2 sections. The western section has a dense section of saguaro cacti and are everywhere in the park.  Sadly the park doesn’t have a lot of roads and beyond the cacti there is really not that much to do other than walk amongst them and after driving all the roads and visiting the Visitor’s Center we headed across town to the other section of the park.  But first, had to get some lunch at In-N-Out. 

The eastern section of the park also known as the Rincon Mountain Section is the original park location before the western section was added.  The eastern part of the part was formerly abundant with saguaros but they mysteriously died off shortly after the park was founded.  It turns out the cacti in that section of the park were just old and died of old age, either way they added the western section as no one wants to visit a “Saguaro park” and not see saguaros. 

The night before going to Saguaro we (Rebe) found that right next to the eastern section in the Coronado National Forest is Mount Lemmon.  A mountain with a road all the way to the top and a ski resort on the top, of course there is no skiing at this time of year but the viewpoints along the way to the top are epic.  If anyone ever comes to Saguaro maybe skip the east section if you’re short on time and take a trip up Mount Lemmon. 

Originally we were to have dinner in Phoenix, but since we added Mount Lemmon to the day we would not make it back on time and settled for pizza in Tucson at Upper Crust Pizza. Rebe drove home, couldn’t have done it without her. 

May 15

After learning so much about Frank Lloyd Wright we were interested to see a bit more of his work, and in Phoenix there are a few more things that he had his hand in.  One is the famous Phoenix Biltmore resort, now a Waldorf Astoria resort, so Rebe and I went to peruse with fancy people and check out the resort and the architecture.  We possibly got distracted by the amazing landscaping, the 5 pools, the spa and the gelato bar.  Also at $700/night you would think the bellhops would be carrying guest’s bag around, but we saw numerous people hauling their own bags.  I don’t know about you but that seems a bit off…

Next door to the Biltmore is the Wrigley Mansion, but it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  We also stopped at a church that Wright worked on, of course it was supposed to be a campus but money always gets in the way of great projects. 

Last tourist event for the trip was a stop at the Arizona State Capitol or rather the Capitol Museum. Arizona built their capitol before they actually became a state and in doing so they went the cheap route.  It’s a small building and after working on it for 60 years they decided to build new buildings in front of the capitol for the house and senate.  This left them with a nice building to convert into a museum that can tell the history of the state.

Original House Chamber

While we were in the capitol, we were checking out this really elaborate model train diorama and the gentleman who was tending to the trains gave us a mini tour of the capitol and the trains.  As I stated in the previous paragraph the residents went cheap on the building or rather they ran out of money, so the front facade of the building is not what was originally planned.  Originally there was to be a grand staircase that led to the now 2nd floor, but since that didn’t happen it left the 2nd floor with 6 doors to… well nowhere.

Original Entrance Doors

Also since the building was built in the early 1900’s, the electricity that was brought to the building was run from the traincars that ended in front of the building.  If the traincars were not running then…well the building had no power, but they figured that they would created special light fixtures that had both gas lanterns and electric bulbs.  Genius right?  Problem was the creators thought it was a good idea to run the electric wiring inside the gas line.  Well at least the building never exploded.

Note the gas valve on the upward facing lamp

Arizona seal as drawn by two guys from Ohio...which is missing a few things
like the cow in the bottom right 

We finished our trip with an early dinner at The Mission in Old Town Scottsdale and then headed to the airport for our delayed flight home.

Mission next to the restaurant