Sunday, January 03, 2010

Christmas in the Dessert

One of the things I love about traveling is that I take the time to take photos. I've always loved photography, but the hobby has fallen by the wayside a bit as I am trying to devote my creative energies to writing. But vacations are a good excuse to get back to this craft. Here are some of my favorite images from the trip.

We spent most of our time in Scottsdale, where my brother lives.






Then we took a short jaunt up to the red, red mountains of Sedona, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.







In Scottsdale, two of my favorite attractions we visited were the Scottsdale Botanical Gardens and Frank Lloyd Wright's house, Talesin West. The Gardens had a luminary celebration going on, so we got to tour through the various cacti displays lit by 7,000 candles. And around every corner, there was a different kind of band playing. Our walk was serendaded by carolers, bell ringers, mariachis, salsa, jazz singers, and many more.











The tour of Wright's house was really neat. The guide talked all about his processes in creating architecture, and the principles he worked by. He sounded like quite the character--his ego probably couldn't fit into any of his houses, according to the asides of the guide. It's prompted me to read two historical novels based on Frank's life, Loving Frank and The Women. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.



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3 comments:

Joanne said...

I've never been to the west coast, but the photos here look amazing, very inspiring too! Enjoyed browsing, happy writing to you!

Writer Bug said...

Thanks Joanne! If you ever get out West, I definitely recommend Scottsdale and Sedona!

Becca said...

We took our first trip to Scottsdale last winter and visited both the Botanical Gardens and Taliesin West. I really enjoyed both of them, and just finished reading Loving Frank. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on that book, which I thought was very well written.