Desert Botanical Gardens-Phoenix, Az

Incredibly we are down to single digit days before we head north to our Summer home with the thousands of other Canadian "Snow Geese". As time is counting down we have put together a short list of "must do or see" before we depart the desert. Today we headed to the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. This world famous Garden is adjacent to another Phoenix landmark, the Phoenix Zoo. I hate zoos. Ok, maybe that is too strong...... Nope. I hate zoos. I think Dana shares my view that the animals in captivity are better off left in the wild. The ones that are held captive in cages or small pens are, in my opinion better off dead. They are always very sad creatures and it breaks my heart to see them treated so poorly. But I digress.....

Back to the Botanical Garden. Frankly I did not see a single unhappy plant today. In fact, the caretakers of the Botanical Garden appear to work very hard to ensure that every single cacti and/or plant is very well cared for. While not a fan of staged and organized "gardens", I will admit that this is a very beautiful place. One downside is that it is very busy and in my view was crowded, which detracted some from the surroundings. Perhaps it is that we have been wandering in the wild desert for 2 months and the contrast was startling.

I think the saying, "a picture tells the story" is appropriate in this case. I have included 9 photos from our walk through the Botanical Garden. Let's see, is that 9 stories, or 9 chapters of 1 story? Oh well, enjoy the tour.

Tomorrow we head out on a road trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon. How Grand it will be!

Chihuly Glass Exhibit in the Garden