Scottsdale

It certainly isn't as nice as the Gecko's Grotto, or even the Gecko's Ghetto - but it is a very nice hotel and a nice view from my room. The rooms have a very little balcony with a couple of chairs and a small table. Not used much in the summer I imagine! I took a couple of pictures from my balcony this morning - the light was very pretty.
I visited the Heard Museum in Phoenix yesterday afternoon. It is a Native American museum that I have always meant to visit when I came through here. It is small and very nice and maintains a wonderful focus on children with lots of things for them to put hands on and do while they move through the museum. My favorite exhibit was 'every picture has meaning'. This is a long winding hall with displays of images on woven baskets, textiles, beading, carving, etc. The images are explained in a very simple and clear manner with pictures of the actual animal or plant that is represented. Berries are seen a lot and that makes sense - they are good to eat! A lot of the images in the object are actually parts of an animal or plant! Wings, beaks, fl, owers, leaves, etc. I didn't know that and learned a lot. A fair number of the images I had always wondered about are either representations of bird wings or beaks. Now I see it when I look at the object where I didn't before.
It is not a big museum and doesn't take long to move through but well worth the visit and had a fair amount of modern art as well. http://www.heard.org/
Naturally the focus was mostly on the tribes of the Southwest! There was actually an Inuit exhibit but the art and objects were mostly from Nunavut in Canada. Alaska wasn't represented to my disappointment! Well worth a visit, though. The pictures I posted here are from the Heard's website - I didn't take them!