Phoenix, Az

Big D had a business trip to Phoenix and he wanted me to come with him. It was initially suppose to be Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but it got changed at the last minute. I'm fine with that because I've never had the opportunity to explore Phoenix. I love going places I've never been, which would be just about anywhere outside of Idaho.



We tackled a lot of good food, let's face it when you're on the company dime you try stuff you wouldn't ordinarily be able to afford. Big D calls himself a connoisseur of burgers so he is always in search for his next favorite. I honestly didn't think he was going to be able to eat this one, it was huge. He ended up taking the onion rings off so he could fit it in his mouth.



One day Big D got out of work early so he was able to go to the Apache Trails with me. We went through a ghost town. I don't know if you can really call it a ghost town because it's still being used as a town. There are stores and tours and a saloon. I think the only thing that wasn't still in use was the brothel.



We got there after the town was all close up but we still enjoyed looking around. Big D got a little frisky with a cactus, I don't know if he thought those pokies were fur or what, but he learned real quick that there were no softies in that town.



The church even had a sign out front inviting people to come to their Sunday Mass.



Outside the brothel we found this cage, they had some massively huge birds back then.



On one of the days I went on a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West house. He used this house in the winters and ran an architect school out of it. It is still being used as a school. In the Summer he would stay at Taliesin East in Wisconsin. They used to require their students to live in a tent the first year of school. After that they had to build their own residence. They still have the students build their own residents but they don't require them to live in a tent for a year first.



Wright had an ingenious design, he had this pool in the front of his house and as the hot winds out come up the mountain it would glide over the water and cool and air conditioned the house. This picture is of his personal studio. It was the first room they took us in and I couldn't quit thinking about how it would make an awesome green house with just a few more windows. I bet it made a wonderful studio with all that natural lighting too.



One night we went to a Diamondbacks vs Yankees game. The Yankees won 9 to 3.



On our hike of the Apache Trails we found so many wonderful things to take pictures of.



We were in the mountains when the sun started to go down so we took pictures as we were heading out.



Then when we got out of the mountains the sun was setting over the desert floor. It felt like the sunset just kept going and going.



It wasn't quite a full moon but it was close. And that just gave us more to take pictures of.



On a mountain ridge it looked like a bunch on tombstones but they were cacti. I tried to capture it but I don't think it work they way I saw it in my head. But it's still a cool picture, I think.