Desert Botanical Gardens

On our last day in Phoenix, we wanted to enjoy more of the lovely sunny weather and in the morning, took the kids to the Desert Botanical Gardens, which featured American artist Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures for the first half of year.

It was a bit of a feat to keep the kids on the actual path and from touching every single cactus in the garden (surprisingly, cactus spines are not a big deterrent), but I really enjoyed viewing and learning about all of the native plants and the lovely art.  The desert is truly a special and unique landscape worth exploring in a non-120-degree-heat season! 

Saguaros

Mutant Saguaro (apparently something like one in 20,000 cacti has a top like this)

"Teddybear" Cholla

Barrel

Prickly pear

Purple Prickly Pear

More fun with iPhone panoramas

Native dwelling

Spot the bees...

... and another important pollinator, the hummingbird.

 

Starting with the majestic Grand Canyon, we saw so many lovely sites and did so many fun things in Arizona this week!  Hoping they made some great memories and that I'd hear some great insightful thoughts from the kids, I asked them individually what the highlight of this week was. These were their answers (NO JOKE):

Iver: the mall.

Niall: the boxed milk.

Sigh. I'm thinking we should “vacation” alone next time!

Goldfield Ghost Town

 

On Friday, we drove about 40 minutes east of Tempe to Goldfield Ghost Town, an old Western town that was a gold mining boom town in the 1890s (Niall kept asking me when we were going to see ghosts...).

We got there pretty early, before many of the shops and attractions opened, and the kids enjoyed taking funny photos on the tracks and amongst the cacti.

Iver is obsessed with panoramic shots now!

We told the kids that villains/robbers used to be tied to the train tracks (but I'm not sure that's actually  true).

The town

Iver was begging to carry his brother around... and then found out it wasn't so much fun! 

A cranky rooster

We went on a 25-minute underground mine tour where we learned about the town's history, including the $3/day paygrade for some seriously dangerous work in the 1890s. 

This was the "honey bucket" or toilet cart. Niall thought it hilarious that it was emptied with a "big spoon!" (ladle) by a guy making $2/day. 

While we are a very anti-gun family and had a serious discussion about why guns are a huge problem in this country prior to partaking in this activity, we allowed Iver to try his hand at shooting targets...

... and then little brother wanted a turn!

We left Apache Junction and found a small Vietnamese place (Saigon Noms) for lunch. Kelvin found the "Don't even ask; we don't serve Pho here!" sign pretty funny because obviously, Vietnamese food includes much more than just the classic rice noodle soup!  The food (sandwiches, noodle plates, and boba tea and ice cream) was pretty good for small-town Arizona!

After not being able to find parking to hike Camelback mountain in Scottsdale (it's foreign to us to have to compete with so many people!), we instead passed the better part of the afternoon at Pioneer Park in Mesa, where the kids played on all the amazing playground equipment in lovely 68-degree sunny weather.  I think we could get used to vacationing in spots like this!