If you get the season right, the Valley of the Sun is the perfect place for a round of golf, serious hiking or some quiet time on horseback. Fall is nice and winter can be wonderful. Airlines usually lay on extra flights to Phoenix that time of year to accommodate the demand.
But there’s a great indoors to be had down in this part of Arizona, too (consider, it hit 115 F degrees recently). Any time of year Phoenix’s museums are marvelous. Here’s a trio of diverse diversions:
- The Heard Museum is crafted around the arts and heritage of Native American cultures. If you’re looking for a good place to understand the peoples and their perspectives, this is it. A cornerstone exhibit is Home: Native People in the Southwest. The voices of artists meld with more than 2,000 artifacts and pieces to narrate the tale of the Southwest’s Native peoples. See Hopi katsina dolls and a Navajo Hogan. Through the end of this year Retha Walden Gambaro’s exhibition Attitudes of Prayer offers in insight into meditation, this via her insightful sculpture.
- The Children’s Museum of Phoenix is a terrific, air- conditioned, mind-expanding slice of the city where kids can learn, let loose and wean away from the tube. Two of the most popular niches are Building Big, and Desert Delights. In the former, kids can create their own personal forts (we used to do it from appliance cartons) or pitch in to help fashion a larger, cooperative structure. This is the sneaky way they learn to work together. Desert Delights is a child-sized gallery showcasing Arizona flora and fauna. Be sure to check out the Flying Cactus.
- The Musical Instrument Museum is relatively new. If you want to see how the world makes music, you’ll fall in love with the MIM. The Experience Room is a rare treat, a place where you can play decidedly different instruments from far-off cultures.
(Image: quinet)
