Our Arizona Trip - Please enjoy the photos

Sedona, AZ

 

Jerome, Az - a very cool mountain town which used to be a copper mining town and have the reputation of being the "baddest town in the west" it's now a sweet artist colony.  This um....building is actually a glass blower's studio - those views could inspire me any day.

 

Sunset (obviously)

 

We went to a wine tasting in Jerome.  The 4 horsemen was a nice blended red that we ended up purchasing to enjoy with dinner later that evening.  The label was designed for the owner by a tattoo artist.

 

I took myself on a scenic drive one fine day.

 

....and apparently I found god????

 

This is sunset about 30 seconds from our condo - the views and weather were just great.

 

We went to bell rock and took a little walk.  There are vortex's there which are supposed to have healing powers.  We read that juniper trees will become twisted and gnarly the closer they are to the vortex, there were definitely juniper trees there and some were definitely twisted, it was pretty cool. 

 

Cathedral Rock Church

 

The inside of the church.

 

Pretty cool huh?  

 

Views from the church.

 

Our big fishing day at the trout farm.  We caught 3 fishes (I caught the two big ones;) and they were cleaned and cooked up for dinner.

 

Ok- this beer was awesome!  It was a flavorful beer but not sweet like some fruit beers can be and it was also very light.  We got it in a sampler pack and this one came out the winner.

 

This was my trip down memory lane beer.  I had this beer once on a trip to Montana and thought it was just the bees knees (of course i was still drinking coor's light back then)  I was correct about one thing, the beer was and is very good.  It is a dark beer but not a heavy one and it does not have a real strong bite, almost a bitter chocolate finish.  It was a nice blast from the past.  The beer is called Moose Drool and it is made in Misoula, Montana.

 

Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home.  Taliesen West in Scottdale, AZ (for more info, read post below this one).

 

It had just rained so the sky was alive with colors.

 

Sunset in Scottdale, AZ.

 

Cool Cacti.

 

Good Morning NYC - us being driven home after our red eye flight, this is sunrise on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Talking About Honesty

We are on the last leg of our trip in Arizona, before hitting the airport and heading east we stopped at Taliesin West the winter home and architectural school of Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect.  It was really neat being there, the buildings and land surrounding are very beautiful and fit well together. 


We had a really nice tour guide who was um....very informative about certain aspects of FLW's life and had the beautiful ability to be able to glaze over other aspects in order to make the man look like a saint.  If you have never had the rare pleasure of knowing an architect personally let me clue you in on a few things.  First, architects are artists and as anyone can guess like all artists they are needy and can be extremely difficult.  This is not a negative personality trait, after all, without the ability to think outside (and live outside) of the proverbial box, there would be no art.  Living outside of the box regardless of whether it is a foot or a mile, is a challenge, you are automatically different and noted as such.  BUT once you become an icon, an American icon especially I have noticed your story is retold as if you have never even thought to set a pinkie toe outside the box and were still able to thrive and create and manipulate your surroundings in ways that no one else ever thought of.


A perfect example is that FLW was married 3 times, this was mentioned during the tour, however our lovely guide merely mentioned that his second marriage was "not good" and nothing more.  What she really meant to say was that the second wife was the wife of a client originally and they ran off to Europe together, later in his summer home located in Wisconsin and also called Taliesin, a fire was set (supposedly by a servant) and anyone who tried to escape the building was killed with an axe by same said servant.  Seven people died in that fire, FLW walked away clean as a whistle and lived to marry again. 


I ask myself, why was this part skipped?  There were many other parts that were conveniently skipped but I am not here to drag all of this man's skeleton's out of the closet I wanted merely to give an example so that I can once more post the question.  Why not embrace the fact that he was different?  It may actually make him more interesting and worth knowing about.  To keep repeating that he was "difficult" really does not cut it for me.  After all I am a Van Gogh fan so I get and appreciate extreme.


We got some phenomenal photos, saw some really cool places and met some interesting people too.  Once I get home and find my camera cord I will get some items posted for all to enjoy.


Till then.........
~CM