What else did we do while in the Phoenix area?

Besides the visits described in previous posts, we went to a lot of used book stores so John could search for the last 8 or 10 of the books on his reading list of 100 best novels ever written.

I spent 3 days in bed nursing a sore throat and a bad cold.

Paid a visit to the Bead museum in Glendale.  The museum is privately owned and very low key. There was an excellent exhibit on the history of beads and a special exhibit on beads from the victorian era to the 40's. Unfortunately I could not take any photos as I did not know how to turn the flash off in my camera.

We visited the Rock Art Center - a big disappointment. You walk through a 150 ft trail alongside a mountain and at intervals they had a metal cylindrical tube mounted on a post. The tube (shaped very much like a telescope, but it was not) was directed toward a rock (among a whole pile of rocks) that had petroglyphs on it. We could hardly identify the said rock, let alone decipher any drawings on it.

We did very much enjoy a visit to the museum of musical instruments. We spent a whole day there and barely scratched the surface. This museum has been in existence for a mere 3 years and it seems to be the best kept secret in Scottsdale. If you ever happen to be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, be sure to visit the museum. The lay out was very nice, with a section dedicated to each part of the world.

In general, we stayed in every other day to relax and it gave me a chance to work onWebAssign related projects. The cats were of course happy to have us around for an entire day on the days that we stayed in. 

We left Phoenix on the 23rd (last Sunday) in the worst possible weather conditions. The wind had howled all night, gusting up to what felt like at  least 40 mph. In the morning, while we were trying to get the truck hooked up to the RV, we were subjected to a veritable sand storm. It was good to get into the RV park in Tucson and take a nice long shower to wash all that sand out of my hair.

Here are some more photos of our stay in Phoenix. The hot air balloons were up almost every morning and every evening and we saw them often as we drove to the city and back. I would so loved to have taken a ride in one of them.  But, never got around to it. It will probably be on the "I should have done itwhen I had the chance" list.

The black dots are the balloons - taken one evening

More hot air balloons - this one with the rising sun behind

This one looked mighty close to the highway

It sure enough landed on the other side of the highway from us - lucky it was a Sunday morning with not much traffic

View of our location from the county park across the lake from us

A calm Sunday morning with several day sails on the lake

A series of stunning sunsets - all in one evening!

Well.... I thought I needed to have at least one sunrise photo!

 End Phoenix - Tucson here I come!

Oh, how I love Sedona!

My last post was titled Montezuma's castle and Red Rock Country. But it was not until after I had put together the photos for M's castle and well did I realize that it deserved a post of its own and Sedona needed to be a separate post. So here it is now, for those of you who wondered what happened to Sedona.

First glimpse of one of many rock formations

I had seen photos of Sedona many many times, including those in National Geographic - which is pretty close to the real thing. But nothing prepared me for the real stuff. We came around a bend in the road and all of a sudden there it was. It took my breath away. I was happily knitting and all I could say was "Oh my; Oh my"; while John kept repeating: "get the camera; get the camera".

You have to see it to experience the beauty of it. The rocks are redder than they are in these photos. And if there are one too many of the same rock, it is because each angle of the same rock had its own characteristics.

We got into Sedona in time for lunch at a cantina that served excellent Mexican food. I was a little dubious at first, as this restaurant was in a strip mall (John thought I was being a snob), besides being named "cantina". However, the Sedona Chamber of commerce had a good review on it and they did not lie. I had my first Margarita (how did I let it go this long?!!!!) and the food was very good.

Our first stop was at the Sedona Arts Center which featured works by local artists and faculty who teach at the Arts Center. I found the work of two fiber artists to be very interesting. It so happened that one of them was in at that time (she is also the director of the gallery) and I had a nice chat with her. She called the second artist and left her a message with my contact number. I told her I would love to come and stay for a week or two and take classes with both of them. She combines Raku and basket weaving in her work while the second artist makes her own paper and handmade books. She also does three dimensional fiber vessels. Before I got back to Phoenix, I got a call from the second person. I will be following up on this.

I also visited the local library to see a quilt show. The library, not very large, had high ceilings and the quilts were hung from the rafters between the book stacks. Even the larger quilts hung about 2 feet above the top of the shelves. The works were very good but it was difficult to appreciate them when they were so high above me. Besides getting a crick in my neck, I was disappointed at not being able to see the fine quilting. There was a Baltimore album that was exquisite. Apparently, the blocks (all hand appliqued) had been gifted by the guild members to this one lady who put it all together, appliqued some more along the borders and then hand quilted the whole piece. Even from that distance, I could see that the applique in every one of the blocks was uniformly good. It amazed me, as it is very unusual to have blocks made by so many different hands to be so uniformly well done.

While on the subject of quilt shows, Phoenix had its annual quilt show this weekend and of course I am in Tucson. And then, Tucson had its quilt show the weekend before I got here. Talk about bad timing!

John was not very keen on visiting any of the other galleries. In retrospect, he did the right thing. So, while he took an old man's snooze in the truck, I wandered around Tiaquepac arts and crafts village. It was very disappointing as they were mainly selling goods from all over the world - there was even a boutique that sold Ganesh of different types and scarves from India!!! The sales person tried to sell me a book on Jesus in India - I smiled politely and gave some non-committal response.
That is not what I had expected. I wanted to see work by local artists. So after wandering around for half an hour, I gave up. We called it a day after a much needed stop for a cup of coffee.

But, I came away with an intense feeling for the place and am hoping I can make it back there sometime in the spring of 2012.,

Enjoy the photos!

More of the formation is revealed

Taken from the park's visitor center

Taken from the parks visitor center

No, we did not take the pink jeep tour - might have been fun

Montezuma Castle National Monument and Red Rock country

Well, I am way behind in my posts. I still have a couple more postings about our stay in Phoenix and we are now in Tucson. Oh, well, put it down to busy days sightseeing, putting in my 24 hours a week of work for WebAssign, and a slow internet connection.

Montezuma National monument and Montezuma's well are on the way to Sedona. We very nearly did not make it as we had some "discussions" about why we needed to go to Sedona. I wanted to go and guess who was not very keen!! I won by being insistent about it and boy was he happy at the end of the day!

When these dwellings were first discovered it was thought that this could only have been built by someone like the Aztecs and hence the name Montezuma's castle.

If I was awed by the cliff dwellings at Tonto National monument, there are no words to describe my reaction to what I saw in this place. The sheer ingenuity and perseverance of these people is mind boggling - to build a 20 room 5 storey structure in this limestone cliff - well, what more can I say!

There is plenty written about these cliff dwellings that you could read by googling "Montezuma Castle National Monument". So I shall not go into it here. Suffice it to say that this was another one of those days when I came away humbled and awed by what had been achieved by these people with so little resources at hand. They made the most of their mind, body, and spirit, and lived an honest, simple life; ever mindful of what was there for them to take in order to live.

walkway leading to the dwellings - cliffs to the right

Cliff dwellings

Line drawing of structure

Model displaying life inside the dwellings

 View of the dwellings from a different angle

You can see other entrances in the limestone cliff above and in the two photos below

Beaver creek at bottom of cliff - obvious water source for the cliff dwellers

morning sun reflecting off the waters of the creek

I just loved the form of this tree

About a 10 minute drive from Montezuma's castle is Montezuma Well.
This sink hole was formed when a large underground cavern flooded.  There is ample water supply year-round from underground springs and hence the Indians built dwellings in the cliffs and around the well and near the water surface (as you can see from the photos below).

It is said that some 1,400,000 gallons of water is supplied to the well from the two underground springs. The water from this well exits through a gap in the cliffs on the other side, and the Indians used this water to build an irrigation system.

Notice the dwellings on the side of the cliff

View from the other side of the well

You could go down to the water level via crude steps cut into the side of the cliff.

Going down to the water level

and going down some more

and still making my way down

View from down below

More excavated ruins closer to the water level

You can see people up above in the 11 o'clock position and down below at the center of the photo

pathway leading to the gap where the water comes out of the well

this is where the water comes out on the other side of the cliff

John making his way back - you can get an idea of the sheer height of these rock walls