Botanical Gardens

This past weekend, I flew to Arizona to visit with my daughter (who was there on a business trip). The President's plane was mere yards from my departing plane, so I snapped a photo of Air Force One.

The first sculpture inside the gardens reminded me of the humongous fire cactus outside my livingroom window that grew so big I finally had to have it removed.

While in the Phoenix area, daughter and I also enjoyed an authentic Mexican dinner at an authentic barrio restaurant that featured an over-flow parking lot and at least 50 patrons sitting patiently outside the entrance, waiting for a table to become available. The food was delicious and well worth the time and effort to locate Commodore Guadalajara!

The brightness of the sun made this large red sculpture glow in the natural light. As a side note, the artist, Dale Chihuly, lives part-time in Palm Springs. His art and art installations are well-known around the world, and I've been told that small pieces of his work are available locally.

Daughter and I went to the Botanical Gardens and viewed an art installation that was breath-taking! The glass sculptures captured the indiginous plants perfectly and seemed to blend into the natural landscape--except for this one. I'm not sure of the reason behind the large Christmas balls hanging from a supporting beam.

The largest in height of the sculptures resembles an antler tree, such as is made in Wyoming (as well as other "hunting" states). It was beautiful as the sun shone through the many pieces of glass.