Willow - Stop #20 "Day 10" Start your guessing!!!

Day 1 - Willow arrives
Maricopa County Forensic Science Center (CSI lab) in downtown Phoenix.
Having lunch with a friend at one of my favorite Greek restaurants.

Day 2 – Public Art
The red hoops are sculptures in front of an office building.

The fishing and poker pictures were taken at Steele Indian School Park, which is only a couple of miles from my house. I like to walk BLU and Comet around the little lake.

The statue of the man napping with a book was taken at the Viad building, which has a little park with fountains and lots of interesting statues on the property. It is near my office.

Day 3 – Chinese Cultural Center
The pictures were taken at the COFCO Chinese Cultural Center. Most people don’t associate pagodas with the city of Phoenix, so I was hoping to throw a few people off my trail with these pictures.

Day 4 – Abducted by Aliens
The first two pictures were taken at the new Downtown Civic Space Park. The net sculpture is called “Her Secret is Patience”. I love it, and it’s really cool when it is lit up at night.

The alien picture was taken at a freeway underpass. The freeways in the Phoenix metro area have artwork on the sound walls and the underpasses, most of which is tied to the history or culture of the area. These statues are “reptiles” that were found on petroglyphs when the area was dug up for the freeway. I call them aliens because they are under Hwy 51 (which I like to call Area 51).

The last sculpture was taken on the side of the Herberger Theater in downtown. This is a lesser known sculpture outside the theater – most people who have visited it are more familiar with the nude dancer sculptures in front of the theater.

Day 5 – Hole in the Rock
The Hole in the Rock is a short trail in Papago Park near the Phoenix Zoo. It gives a great view of the park and the zoo (the blue ball in the picture is at the entrance to the zoo). The background mountains are in South Mountain Park.

Day 6 – My Barrio
The brick path picture was taken in Heritage Square, near the Science Center and ASU downtown campus. I thought it was fun because it reminded me of the start of the Yellow Brick Road.

The rest of the pictures are restaurants at the edge of my neighborhood, and in walking distance. Every Sunday morning the Carniceria fires up their grill and grills carne and pollo! The peletas (frozen fruit bars) are delicious, and a man really does walk through my neighborhood with a push cart selling them. Thankfully I’m usually at work, because they are YUMMY!!

Day 7 – Arrested!
These pictures were taken at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, which is right next to the state capitol building. This plaza is filled with memorial statues that pay tribute to key people in the history of Arizona and veterans of various wars. Willow was posed on a statue paying tribute to the Navajo Code Talkers. I talked a bicycle officer who was patrolling the area to “arrest” Willow. His partner wanted nothing to do with it! I removed text from the patch on his sleeve to try to make it a bit more difficult. His patch actually read “Arizona State Capitol Police”.

Willow didn’t have to spend any time in jail. She is actually posed behind a gate that is used to close off Steele Indian School Park at night.

Day 8 – Hard labor in the copper mine
These pictures were taking at the Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum in downtown Phoenix. Arizona is often called the copper state, because it produces more copper than any other US state. That’s represented on the Arizona state flag with a copper star.

Day 9 – South Mountain and easy landmarks
I couldn’t let Willow visit Phoenix without the classic saguaro pictures. I saved those for last, since they pretty much give away the location. The first three pictures were taken at South Mountain Park (the mountains you see in the background from the Hole in the Rock). Even though it feels like you are in the middle of nowhere, this park is completely contained within Phoenix city limits. At 16,000 acres and 51 miles of trails, it is the largest municipal park in the country.

In the 4th picture, Willow is posed in front of “Desert Towers” at the Desert Botanical Garden (in Papago Park, next to the Phoenix Zoo). Last winter/spring, Dale Chihuly had a glass exhibit throughout the garden. The main exhibit ended in May, but these sculptures were still on display for an additional 6 months.

This picture is of Tovrea Castle. It was abandoned and in disrepair for most of the time that I have lived in Phoenix. A few years ago, the city acquired the property and is restoring the building and cactus garden. The building still isn’t open to the public, but the cactus garden is open for tours in the winter (I had Willow about a month before the garden opened back up again.)

The last picture is the State Capitol Building (historic). There is a more current building on the back side where all the offices are.

Day 10 - Reveal.
Willow with Comet and BLU.

I had lots of fun with Willow and took way more pictures than I could post here. Plus, some of them would have made it way too easy. Every Wednesday is going to be Willow Wednesday on Comet and BLU's blog, to show all the places she visited.