We drove up to Lon's for breakfast. Lon's is a very nice old inn and restaurant in Paradise Valley, one of the area's high-end neighborhoods. Lon Megargee was a cowboy painter and illustrator, a contemporary of Charlie Russell (Google will show you his work). The old hacienda is decorated with his illustrations. Very nice.
We then drove up to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's digs during the winter. On the way I took photos of some midcentury modern homes we passed. These are not all that common in the Phoenix area. The houses across the street were pretty standard ranches with tile roofs, very common here.
Wright and his acolytes built Taliesin over a number of years on a shoestring, using stone and gravel from the site. They placed the stone and concrete in plywood forms to make the walls. The doorways are low (Wright was short and thought any height beyond six feet was wasted) but he was into the interior spaces, not the entries.
One of the coolest items was a fountain built from what looked like the end of a big propane tank. Large holes were cut in the dome and as water fell through it created waves that made floating glass balls bump against the steel, causing it to tone like a deep gong. I want one.
On the drive back we rolled through another part of Paradise Valley and saw some of the largest and (sorry Phoenix) ugliest homes I've ever beheld. There's something to be said for the architectural conservatism of the east coast. It may be boring, but most of the errors there are less dramatic.
After we got back we walked downtown. Pam spotted a frog sculpture and decided kissing one frog in her life was not enough. I guess her first frog hasn't made the full transition into a prince.
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