To Phoenix!

Hello from the world of slack bloggers.. we've been busy catching up on rest time!

Thursday saw us say another sad farewell to our first female driver (GO KIM!!) and Wickenburg Peter.

We arrived back in Phoenix to meet up with Craig Wilson for a tour of the State Capitol, led of course, by a Rotarian named Larry. The Capitol is at the centre of some controversial new legislation but it was all quiet when we had our visit. Not only did we get a chance to see some historical law making rooms, we learnt a lot about the history of the state, and saw some fantastic art work and museum displays.

Craig then donned his docent cap and took us around the memorial park opposite the Capitol that paid tribute to the men and women who represented their country in various wars, which included police officers and their dogs and 9/11 to name a few.

From there we again helped the local economy by visiting the HUGE Scottsdale Fashion Square. Enough said.

Sarah, Peter and myself went to Greek Patio for dinner with our hosts.

Friday we attended the Phoenix 100 Rotary Club Meeting. This was our last presentation to a club until District Conference. We were very happy to see our first host families again, but it was a great experience to visit such a large club - membership sits at around 275, with approx 150 at the meeting. It was great to hear from 3 international youth exchange students about their year in Arizona.

We all have agreed that our final presentation was a good one, although we did cut it short due to the full program on the day. A little bit bittersweet!

The Heard Museum of Native Cultures & Art was next for us that afternoon. The Heard is an amazing, interesting collection of Native Cultures & Heritage. All up there are 12 galleries and 3 gardens. We had the "blink of an eye" tour by Shalliyah, who gave us a great amount of information in a very short time.

The Heard has both national and international acclaim for their exhibits. While we enjoyed the tour, there were some very sombre exhibits that gave us all some food for thought about what different cultures face in Arizona and around the world.

After a quick costume change, we headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens for some blues. Dave Riley (who has performed at the Byron Bay blues and roots festival!) kept us entertained with a mountain of Saguaro Cactus watching from behind. We were fortunate enough to also see some Chihuly glass pieces bought by the gardens after his exhibit a few years previously.

It was a very nice way to pass our Friday evening - Blues, red wine and good company!