<– Day 11 – Mar. 30th: Phoenix’s Mystery Castle | OVERVIEW | Day 13 – Apr 1st: From Scottsdale AJs to Seligman Sundries –>

Chihuly glass sculptures on a boat in a pond at the Desert Botanical Garden.

Even though Ann’s birthday wasn’t until April 1st we decided to celebrate it on March 31st. My present to her was a nice room at the Marriott and for me to abstain from work. Well, she got 1 out 2, as I only abstained from most work.

Our stay at the Marriott (in Scottsdale) was nice due to the beautiful room. However, the room we had was placed among a series of rooms where there were some college/high school aged guys. But, rather than on Spring Break, I got the feeling they were staying there longer term. They weren’t being rowdy, but the hall echoed badly as the room doors opened/shut loudly and often. At one point I had to get the manager to move a set of young men out of the hallway after they became noisy (and after I’d confronted them once). Eventually they settled down and we didn’t have any more problems the rest of our stay.

We started Monday by driving to visit the Wells Fargo Museum in downtown Phoenix. It was a rather small museum inside a Wells Fargo bank building. The museum turned out to be a little gem. First of all it was free (perhaps funded in part by the questionable mortgage practices to which my ex-wife fell victim in 2008 — she wasn’t totally innocent, but the phone reps flat out lied to her . . . but, I digress). The museum had several neat displays that included the history of the company, a challenge for visitors to put thirteen dolls into/onto a single carriage to demonstrate how crowded they could be, the difficulties of hunting ‘highway men’ and more. There’s even a very nice painting collection. If you have an hour and are downtown, I recommend it (145 W Adams
Phoenix, AZ 85003 – Learn more at Yelp).

It might not looks like much, but each of these displays is pretty neat.

Ann’s inside this stagecoach while a narrator takes her on a journey (you can just see his head in the background).

This coach is designed to carry thirteen people. The goal is to fit all thirteen dolls into the coach. It’s an effective way to show how crowded some coaches could be.

Wells fargo will print your photo and email you a photo if you want your picture on some money.

After our museum visit, I used Yelp to locate a chinese dumpling food truck that was a block away. When we arrived at the spot, the truck wasn’t there. We must have looked pretty lost, because a woman approached us and said we looked lost. After we explained that our food truck wasn’t around, she strongly suggested a Thai Food restaurant named Thai Basil around the corner. She was so helpful that I got my photo with her.

A very helpful lawyer with good taste!

As she left she mentioned she was a lawyer. It was the first time I ever felt richer after speaking with a lawyer.

Even her advice was great, because that Thai restaurant was fantastic. I had the sweet nut curry, which is a masaman flavored stew, with lamb. The flavor was rich, the stew just thick enough, and the lamb pieces plentiful. Yum!

Me and the Sahuaros at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

With full bellies, we returned ‘home’ for a nap, before heading for an evening at the Desert Botanical Garden. Ann wanted to go see the gardens and a special Chihuly exhibit, with glass sculptures interspersed among the gardens.

I have to admit the gardens were beautiful (and that comes from a person who really isn’t into the gardening scene). As the sun set, the lights lit up most of the Chihuly pieces, which were also beautiful. Our only complaint was that there weren’t enough sculptures, since we’d seen many more when we saw his works in Seattle.

Despite the fact there were no jeeps hidden in the gardens, it was still a nice way to enjoy the evening and cap off her birthday day.

<– Day 11 – Mar. 30th: Phoenix’s Mystery Castle | OVERVIEW | Day 13 – Apr 1st: From Scottsdale AJs to Seligman Sundries –>