Canaan in the Desert, Heard Museum, Organ Stop Pizza

On Tuesday, February, 11th, we walked to breakfast at the Arizona Bread Company.  Not great.

Then we drove to Canaan in the Desert.  This is a convent, begun in the 1950s by an order of German Protestant nuns.  They have a nice garden, with a sort of Stations of the Cross (though not exactly), a set of sculpted tableaux for meditation on Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

Then we went to the Heard Museum, in downtown Phoenix.  This is the preeminent museum of American Indian art.  First, we had lunch at the museum café, which specializes in cuisine based on Native American dishes.  It was very good.  Each table had a small piece of art.

That day, there was a combined exhibition of baskets made by Indians selling to tourists at Yosemite National Park, mostly about a century ago, along with "paintings" of Yosemite that the famous artist David Hockney made on an I-Pad, then printed off in large format.

There was an exhibit relating to the Indian Schools.  Indigenous children were taken from their parents and carried off to boarding schools, where they were trained, in essence, to be white people, with disastrous effect on tribal culture, to say nothing of the effect on the children themselves.

The most interesting piece at the Heard is a sort of fence, made of glass, ceramics, etc., called “Indigenous Evolution.”  Strange, but somehow exhilarating.

Then we headed off to Mesa, to Organ Stop Pizza.  This is a large space, laid out like a German beer hall, with long tables on the main floor and more on the mezzanine.  At the front is a thrust stage, behind that, a windowed wall displaying the innards of a huge theater organ.  When a set begins, the organ console and organist slowly rise out of the stage, playing some show tune or pop song or anything else that would please the large crowd, who have put in their pizza orders in the lobby and are waiting for their number to light up on the boards high up on the side walls of the auditorium.  Every once in a while, the organist announces birthdays.  He also steps to the front of the stage, where he takes request slips.  There are lots of special effects—drums, gongs, whistles, duck calls, dancing cat puppets, the American and Canadian flags (for the respective national anthems—a fair number of people stood to sing “O, Canada”), and lighting effects—eerie for “Phantom of the Opera.”  It’s kind of schlocky, but great fun, and the pizza is pretty good.  The organist was terrific--I was with someone who should know, and she agreed.

A Hike and a Visit to the Musical Instrument Museum

On Monday, February 9th, we walked over to EGGstacy for breakfast--very good, but with very large portions, and pricey.

Then we went to the 40th Street trailhead of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve, to do some hiking.  The weather was cool (60s) and cloudy.  We thought we were headed for the saddle between two peaks, but found ourselves instead on a trail up Two-Bit Peak.  Partway up, we decided to turn around, but Mary Joy said she would continue a little way up the trail, to see what was there.  After 45 minutes she was back, having been encouraged by various people she met to go all the way to the top. While I was waiting, at intervals, first one young woman, then another, came past, asked if I was Mike, and said that she was fine. It was not at all an easy trail, but she made it all the way and had a great view over downtown Phoenix and the whole valley.  Meanwhile, the sun came out and I was taking pictures of how the clouds cast shadows on the landscape.  I was also visited by a little lizard.
When Mary Joy came back down, we headed back to our car, but on the level trail she slipped on some loose stones and badly bruised her knee, maybe pulling a ligament.  However, she could walk on it, and soldiered on for the rest of the trip.

Then we went to the Musical Instrument Museum and immediately had a very good lunch on their terrace.

The Museum is celebrating its 10th birthday this year.  It was only a few years old when we first visited it.  What a fantastic, encyclopedic presentation of the human race's love affair with music!  You wear an audioguide with earphones and walk around the displays.  As you approach a video screen, you see and hear presentations of music relating to that display.

We went through the room with player pianos, music boxes and other musical automatons, including an orchestrion--a huge machine that we heard demonstrated.

Then we saw the room dedicated to individual musical artists, including Johnny Cash, Elvis Pressley and many others.  Then we went through a few of the other displays, but the museum was about to close, so we decided that we had to come back.  We upgraded our ticket to a two-day pass and resolved to return on Wednesday.

As we left the museum, we discovered that outside, it had rained a little--just enough to put the smell of water in the air and make the flowers look happier.  Then we went back to our apartment, closing the day with a walk in nearby Mezcal Park, before having a not-great meal at Habanero's Mexican Grill.

A Circus and a Festival

On Sunday, February 9th, we had a very nice breakfast in our hotel, then checked out and went to the ten o'clock mass at the nearest Catholic Church, St. Bernadette's.  This is a parish that is decidedly not liberal, either theologically or culturally.

Then we went to Scottsdale's Old Town, as we had a noon lunch reservation at The Mission.  A very good, if pricey, lunch.

Then we went to the Civic Center, parking in the Library ramp (free).  Normally on Sunday afternoons, there is a concert on the Civic Center Mall, but today, instead, was the Arizona Indian Festival, with craft booths, dancing and even various "Miss Indian"s.

But we were on our way to the theater, to see Cirque Eloize, an 11-performer Canadian troupe that is something like Cirque du Soleil, only smaller,  They had acrobats, clowns and a terrific singer (she was also a very good classical guitarist).  The show was called "Hotel."  The plot (such as it was) involved the staff and guests of  a grand hotel in what appeared to be the late 1950s or early 1960s.  It was very enjoyable--the cast is very talented.

 If we hadn't changed our flight, we would not have been able to have lunch at The Mission or use our tickets to Cirque Eloize, because our original flight took off very late.

We then walked around the Civic Center Mall, had a gelato and walked over to Old Town, past the stores.

Then we went on to our Airbnb, off of Shea Boulevard, in North Scottsdale.  This was a pleasant studio apartment, with its own entrance.  The owner was very nice and helpful (an Airbnb "Superhost") and the price was amazingly inexpensive.  We went to one of her suggested restaurants--Pita Jungle--not bad.

Getting Out Ahead of the Snowstorm

We have been to the Phoenix area many times over the years that Mary Joy's parents were snowbirds there.  The last time was in 2013, as they were preparing to sell their condo to go back to living year-round in Wisconsin.   Mexico was too expensive for a short winter getaway, but we were able to find very cheap flights to Phoenix, as well as a highly-rated Airbnb for a very low price  So back to Arizona, for the first time in seven years.. 

On Saturday, February 11, 2020, after checking the Delta Airlines website several times, I saw that they were finally recognizing that a major snowstorm was likely to hit the Twin Cities the following morning--just when we were supposed to fly out to Phoenix.  The website indicated that passengers on flights out of MSP Sunday morning could change to other flights, without penalty or charge.  We had the most basic economy tickets, which generally don't even give you the right to change flights by paying a $200 charge and the difference in price, as less stingy fliers can. I was skeptical of our chances, but decided to try.  As it happened, Delta was very accommodating, so we flew out that evening, instead.

We add another day to our car rental, through AARP-Expedia.  This wasn't hard, though the original compact car we had ordered was "Ford Focus or similar," while the Indian voice at the other end of the line now said "Nissan Versa."  However, when we got to the Budget counter in Phoenix, their card said "Volkswagen Beetle." We weren't sure that we could fit our luggage in the trunk, and we needed a trunk instead of a hatch, since we didn't want our luggage to be visible while we spent most of the day wandering around, until our AirBnB apartment became available.  The guy at the counter said that he could upgrade us to Intermediate for only nine dollars a day.  We weren't too enthused about this, since his first offer was a small SUV, probably without a trunk,  For that same upgrade price, he then offered a Camaro, which we took.  It was hatred at first sight for Mary Joy, and it did not improve on more acquaintance.  She named our sporty, charcoal-gray Camaro "Maude."  The only other time we've named a rental car was another problematic situation: we gave the name "Pierre" to the Grand Voyager minivan we were stuck with in Normandy and Brittany in 20029.  Mary Joy had trouble figuring out how to move the seat forward, then, when she had, it was difficult to put on her seat belt.  The car had a fob, that you touched to the ignition, rather than a key, that you stuck into it.  It took us awhile to figure out how this worked.

But eventually we were on our way to our hotel, Scottsdale Marriott at McDowell Mountains, at the far northwestern corner of Scottsdale.  We had gotten it at a (relatively) cheap price on Hotwire,  As we discovered the next morning, it abutted on a golf course--why else would one want to stay at a resort in Scottsdale in February?  

Our room was very nice