Phoenix has 26,000 acres of desert parks and preserves within its city limits
Pincushion cacti thrive in the shade
The Phoenix valley is flat, but with the peaks coming out of seemingly nowhere
Igneous rock (duh!)
On Tuesday we were in Cave Creek when it began to hail with a passion
Prompting a river down the road from Carefree (wouldn't you love to live in Carefree, AZ?)
We were fortunate not to have dents all over our rental car
Wednesday it was back to Scottsdale to shop (and exchange) some more
If you go, Fifth Ave is the place to start (plenty of parking space)
Thursday we took in trail 308 at Lookout Mountain -- was supposed to be a 2.5 mile "easy to moderate", but we lost the trail in a few places -- just keep the mountain on your left, I said
This trail closely surrounded by beautiful southwestern houses
Next we went to the Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix
Featuring sculpture, Indian culture, and some Indian horror stories
Sculpture garden -- museum also had one helluva gift shop
Next we drove to the South Mount Preserve (at the end of Central Ave) and stopped at the Dobbins Lookout overlooking the entire valley -- you can see the office buildings in the center
I guess this structure was built to take pictures from
Looking northeast
Looking northwest
On Thursday night we got tickets to see Cavalia -- a Cirque de Soliel type of show with mostly horses and acrobats -- something not to be missed
The big tops -- there was a 150 foot stage under the two on the left and the audience sat under the two on the right -- you could see these tents from peaks miles and miles away
Friday we went to the 50th Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show
With hundreds upon hundreds of Arabians and "half-Arabians"
And inside it was much like a boatshow for horses -- they sold anything to do with horses and more (with prices to go along)
The tails scraped the ground
This fellow on his way into the main ring (there were more than a half dozen rings)
In this ring they were either training or exercising the horses on long-lines
Tent in background was for practice we think