Weekend in Phoenix/Taliesin West

This weekend we were in Phoenix for my company (Genesis Structures) holiday party. Sweet, I know. While we didn't get any work done on the house, it was a productive weekend anyway.

Since we were in Phoenix, we decided to stop at Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter "camp" where his school of architecture still spends its winters. We also picked up an ornament and some stencils from the gift shop. Here are just some of the pictures we took:
The fountain in the main courtyard, by the current gift shop.

FLW was a fan of Asian art and architecture. Makes a lot of sense, looking at his design styles. It was neat to see of lot of the design elements in our house repeated here. Clean lines = timeless.

Here is one of the other courtyards in the back. The camp was designed to be an oasis out in the middle of the desert.

Apparently, he was also friends with hobbits. Here is the living room with all of his self-designed furniture.

Try to find that one at IKEA.

Here is a shot of the main living quarters with the Camelback Mountains in the background.

Here is a random guy standing in a very cool doorway.

Does this fireplace look familiar? At least they have a screen on the side so it is more functional.

And then there were these creepy-looking Asian opera scenes built into the walls and buildings all over the property. Not all art is good art.

The trip also marked my first visit to an IKEA. Ever. To sum it up in one word: overwhelming. It didn't help that by this time John was having some "intestinal distress." He can fill you in on the details. But I think I found my closet/wardrobe. It will be easier and faster than John building it, and hopefully that means less drywall compound!

This was the view from our hotel room. We were right next to the North Mountain Wildlife Preserve and did a 14 mile trail run with a college friend from Platteville. We were all a little worse for wear after that one. And I have a souvenir sunburn to show for it.

We even made a trip out to Tortilla Flat, an old mining town with a population of 6. But there is a restaurant there and we each had a Sarsaparilla and shared some refried beans while sitting on bar stools that were saddles. If you're going to go kitchy, you might as well go all out.