Next up: Phoenix! Lisette had been once before, but it was for a work trip for a mere day. As the capital of Arizona and apparently the fifth-most populous city in the US, we were looking forward to seeing what the city had to offer. Right next to Phoenix is the city of Scottsdale, known for its upscale spa resorts, golf courses, art and architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright in Scottsdale
While we weren’t looking to book any spa treatments, we did learn that famous American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright spent a lot of time in Scottsdale. He and his last wife visited the city each year, with Taliesin West becoming his winter home and studio from 1937 until his death in 1959. Today, it’s Scottsdale’s only National Historic Landmark, with self-guided audio tours. We were interested in checking it out, but the tickets were a bit more than we wanted to spend for the day ($44), and we already had a packed schedule.
Instead, our next best option was to see Frank Lloyd Wright’s turquoise spire, a 125-foot tower that was part of a proposed design for Arizona’s new State Capitol. At the time, the design was rejected for being too modern, but it was resurrected years later. Today, the turquoise and copper tones of the tower (representative of the Arizona landscape) sits on the corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard and Scottsdale Road, making it a prominent attraction–but unfortunately in a location where we could only do a drive-by view of it as we continued driving on.
The Desert Botanical Garden
We love quirky and unique designs–whether that’s for art, architecture or natural wonders–so we enjoyed spending time at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. On select Saturday mornings, the Garden hosts “Dog Days at the Garden” so that leashed dogs can also explore the trails, and it just so happened that the Saturday we were there it was one of these mornings. Dogs need to enter by 11am, and we made it with about 15 minutes to spare.
There are a lot of different paved, looped trails at the Desert Botanical Garden, including a Sonoran Desert Nature Trail, Plants & People of the Sonoran Desert Trail, and Desert Discovery Trail, and much more. The only section that was off-limits for dogs was the butterfly exhibit. All of the trails are short and easy–they’re no longer than half a kilometer (one-third of a mile) each. We loved looking at and learning about the astonishing variety of cacti (including barrel, octopus and even “old man” varieties), agave plants, yucca, aloe, and much more. The Saguaro cacti, which are mostly found in the Sonoran Desert that spans parts of Arizona, California and northwestern Mexico, are fascinating as their “ribs” can contract and expand to help them survive the harsh desert climate. Its flowers are also the state plant of Arizona. We also learned that other cacti have spikes to help act as shade and absorb water better–fun facts!
Besides seeing the myriad of plants, there were also hummingbirds and other birds taking advantage of the garden, a section focused on a bountiful garden of herbs and plants that can grow in the dry climate, and a section that provided information on how Native Americans lived off the land. Even if you’re not a green thumb (which Lisette definitely is not), we thought it was a fun place to visit for a couple of hours or so. It was also absolutely wonderful to bask in the warmth of the Phoenix sun wearing t-shirts–what a radical difference from the day before, when we were bundled up in beanies, gloves and our warmest winter clothing!
Other Quirky Phoenix Highlights on Day One
Given our appreciation for the unique and unusual, we like checking Atlas Obscura for a few suggestions on places to visit when we’re in a town or city. For us, this meant checking out the nearby tomb of the first Arizona governor, George W. P. Hunt, who was nicknamed “The Walrus” thanks to his wide girth and impressive moustache. A freemason, he is buried in a white pyramid alongside his family at the top of a hill with a lovely view overlooking the city.
A short walking distance from the tomb is another curious attraction, called Hole-in-the-Rock–which is quite literally that. It’s an easy hike to get up, and visitors are then greeted by a big gap in the rock where there’s a nice breeze, and where people can clamber through and see a view of the city in the distance. There’s not much more to this rock (sure, you can walk up and around it), and it was busy with people ogling to capture their windswept moments with the hole in the rock behind them.
Atlas Obscura seems to be a big fan of odd structures constructed over years by one person, and we were intrigued by the description of the Sunnyslope Rock Garden, which was built by one man who collected bits of dirt, sands, broken crockery, scrap metal, and other materials from about 1951 until his death in 1977. We’d read in some reviews that the rock garden can only be viewed from the fence outside, but as we pulled up, Marion, who owns the property and lives onsite, was going out and she gladly welcomed us in to give us a private tour.
Marion grew up in New York but visited her parents decades ago in Arizona, and she saw the Rock Garden during one trip and immediately fell in love with it. Here, we saw mini windmills adorned with mosaics, and figures of birds, people, dogs, and many others. Marion is also an artist and will do some touch ups to the sculptures, and she’s even made her own mark on the property, with a seat between a couple of carriage wheels and a silhouette of a horse, in front of which bears her name. While the house is in a residential area a bit out of the way from everything else (and it didn’t seem to be in the nicest neighborhood), it was well worth the visit and special tour for us.
While we didn’t tour Taliesin West, we did stop by another Frank Lloyd Wright creation–the First Christian Church, which has a spire that rises 23.4 meters (77 feet), supported by triangular pillars. The church was closed, but we could make out stained glass inside that sparkled in the light.
For lunch, we went to the Fry Bread House, a James Beard award-winning restaurant established by Cecelia Miller, a Tohono O’odham woman and native of Arizona, that’s run by her family to this day. Fry bread (also known as Indian fry bread), is a dish by the indigenous people that’s a type of flatbread that’s fried and leavened. It’s the size of a pizza but soft and pillowy in texture, and can be eaten on its own, or topped with savory or sweet fillings. We ordered the vegetarian fried bread taco, which had refried beans, green chili strips, onions, lettuce, sour cream, and cheese atop the fry bread instead of a taco. Of course the portion was huge, so while Michael and I thought it was delicious and enjoyed trying the fry bread, we were relieved to share it (although everyone else at the restaurant seemed to be ordering their own)!
We’d been planning to go to a Thai restaurant for dinner, but we were stuffed from the fry bread, and when we arrived at the Walmart we’d planned to park at for the night, we quickly changed our minds as it seemed to be rather sketchy. Our plan B was going across town to the Desert Diamond Casino in Glendale. We both checked out the casino and when Lisette came back to the RV first, she noticed that there seemed to be a leak at the base of the toilet bowl, and yes, it was leaking pee onto the floor inside. While confused and slightly perturbed, she cleaned it up and hoped that it wasn’t anything to worry about.
Day Two: Downtown, David Bowie and Driverless Cars
The next morning, we drove back to Phoenix to check out the murals downtown, mostly focused on Roosevelt Row. Parking in a city can always be a challenge–but it’s even harder in an RV. On the first Fridays of each month, there’s an art walk where the streets come alive at night, with street vendors, live music, and of course the opportunity to further appreciate the art further with food and drink in hand.
While it was probably much quieter when we were there, we loved looking at the murals in the light of day, including images paying homage to Black History, Native American culture, and others making their own statements. We also had coffees at Futuro, a specialty coffee shop that also serves tea and pastries, and is part of a collective that includes a hair salon, a restaurant and an art gallery. The coffee on their menu–such as lechera (with sweetened condensed milk and piloncillo, basically a Mexican brown sugar), transported us back to our last trip to Mexico, and made us think about how we’d love to return!
Coffees in hand, we left downtown to check out multiple murals of David Bowie in an alley showing his different alter egos, before heading further north to MacAlpine's Diner & Soda Fountain, one of the few remaining original soda fountains in the United States. It opened back in the 1930s and it’s like stepping back in time. While we had lunch at Rice Paper Vietnamese Restaurant across the road (lots of unique and delicious varieties of rice paper rolls, and pho noodle soup was half price when we went!), Michael got his malt milkshake fix at MacAlpine’s, which was delicious. Besides classical American fare like burgers, ice cream sodas, banana split and other meals, MacAlpine’s is also renowned for its fresh pie slices, so go there hungry!
Our final mural fix was the Oak Street Alley Murals, which span a few blocks of captivating murals including Frida Kahlo, birds, sci-fi scenes and many others in the Coronado neighborhood. We were just a bit too early, but there’s an annual festival around mid March each year that brings the community together to meet the artists, and also conduct workshops.
By then, we were far away from our RV, so we ordered a Waymo–a driverless car–to bring us back. Despite living in San Francisco where the autonomous vehicle pilots took place, we’d never ordered one while we were there, but Phoenix is the only other city where this is available. I guess we didn’t try it in SF because we had a car, and if we weren’t getting around in that, it was because it was more convenient to ride public transport. So this was the first time for all of us, including Sheila! It was a very comfortable ride, with the Waymo easily navigating the streets, changing lanes, and showing us where we were on the screen. While driverless cars have been available in San Francisco for a couple of years or so now, it is still surreal to have these available in our lifetime, but we can appreciate the benefit of it in terms of making it easier for everyone to get around, and minimize accidents, road rage and other traffic issues.
After our adventures wrapped up in Phoenix, that same afternoon,we continued on to Casa Grande Ruins, a national monument not far from the city. The ruins stand out from miles away, as it almost looks like a UFO in the distance, as the ruins are sheltered by a roof structure to protect it from the elements.
The Casa Grande Ruins consists of the ruins of several structures, which were built by the ancestral Sonoran Desert People's farming community around 1350 AD. While there’s extensive evidence of irrigation, its purpose is still a bit of a mystery. There’s also an exhibition at the site, which goes into more detail about this fascinating place.
As we parked for the evening, we noticed that our toilet was leaking pee inside.. Again… And this time, Lisette mentioned to Michael that she'd noticed this the evening prior. It seemed to only happen when our RV was parked on an incline sloping downward, which could indicate a seal issue at the base of the toilet bowl. Unfortunately since neither of us are experts and we didn’t want to make a toilet issue worse, this meant yet another search and call to find a mobile RV mechanic–our third time within a month on the road. While we’d expected to encounter issues, there’s definitely a lot that we’re uncovering in such a short amount of time. It made us wonder about the condition of the RV and the extent we’d have more issues as we went along…
We parked that night in a fairly isolated area, which was helpful for two reasons. Firstly, Lisette was the first to christen our portable camping toilet (we ordered this one), which we’ve brought along for doing number twos. We agreed ahead of the trip that we’d only use the RV toilet for pee, because we didn’t want to clear out any other matter from our black water tank (it’s gross enough, thanks). The portable camping toilet is if we don’t have access to a public restroom. The verdict? Easy to use, and very useful!
Secondly, being in a spot away from the city and people, we had an incredible sunset to ourselves, as well as a beautiful sunrise with the bright pink, orange and yellow colors accentuating the sky. It’s these moments that we’re grateful to have the opportunity to savor and enjoy!
Route Map
