Parks and Museums in Phoenix.

We found the historical museum in Papago park gave us a real insight into the growth of Phoenix and how important water is to a town in the desert that gets only 7 inches of water a year. Irrigation has been practiced since about AD700 firstly by relatives of the pueblo people up to the present situation where thousands of miles of canals make the desert land fruitful.
This is somewhat ironic as we have had two days of heavy rain which flooded the RV parks baseball field and it is raining again tonight.








We also learned another disquieting fact about bad treatment toward the first nation people. In Arizona they only received the right to vote in the 1940s.

The Botanical Garden was amazing,
firstly a great display of Sonoran desert vegetation and some wildlife including lots of desert hummers like this one which I tentatively identified as an Anna’s Hummingbird. But we also were blown away by an amazing display of blown glass from the Chihuly workshops.
I had seen similar work at the Belagio but this was where it belongs out in the sunshine and a natural backdrop.

The park highlighted the way the Sonoran desert vegetation could be used to support life with lots of hands on exibits. Carol had a go at making brushes.

There was a light show in the gardens that night which was a sellout so we went to the famous Phoenix Zoo show which was excellent.




The legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine still draws prospectors and treasure hunters to the area and we went to see if we could stumble across it.
Instead we found a junkyard which had been renamed as a Goldmine recreation.








The museum included something I had never heard of before, Parlour Pistols. These were designed for indoor target practice.

We are having a break from RV life over Christmas and are off to stay at a hotel. Someone else has to washup after dinner!