Old Town Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale again, even though I swear I don't like to shop... really.  This time, we visited the outside of an aquarium, stopped at a couple jewelers, walked around photographing fascinating sculptures, visited the Scottsdale Public Library, and ate some tasty barbecue.

I know I criticized Scottsdale for it's ubiquitous shopping, but it does have some other attractions.  Steve wanted to look at the Butterfly Wonderland and OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale.  This does not appear to be a non-profit like Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, but a full-on for-profit park.  We discovered upon arrival that to get into both attractions the Senior pass would cost us $100, just for the two of us for the day.  Needless to say, we were much too frugal to buy tickets, but we wandered around the central complex for a few minutes musing about how it came to this - so much so that we forgot to take a single photograph.  It was a two story central area with chain shops, food, outside tables, and signs like you would see at an amusement park.

Old Scottsdale, though, didn't disappoint.  We walked around Old Town and found so many hidden treasures.

Yes, the same horses as before in the plaza, but Better.

Bischoff's at the Park gallery, which was unfortunately closed.

But, the outside of Bischoff's was fantastic.

Outside a store across from the gallery.

 However, I did bring a few pieces of jewelry that were in need of repair, a pair of silver and malachite earrings that were actually purchased in Scottsdale about 3 decades ago and an inlaid bracelet that was a gift from my folks.  One of the hammered "fins" on the earrings had broken off of the dangley bits of the earrings again, so I took it back to the place I purchased it several decades ago to see what they could do.  As you can see in the photo, the jeweler cut off the paddles and made very nice little rounded-flattened ends on each dangle.  I can wear them again!!  I love the color of malachite, that deep dark green.  Unfortunately, my inlaid Zuni bracelet will take a little longer, so we'll go back in a couple days to get that.

The dangles each had a long flat paddle and they kept breaking off.  Problem solved!

Last, we visited the Scottsdale Public Library - partly to cool off (the humidity was hard to deal with after all that walking, even at 95 degrees) and partly because I like to see libraries wherever I go.  This one was special, I thought.  They had a coffee shop (carry your drink and food anywhere but the computers),  a separate Youth room, and a play area for the kiddies.

There was a huge quill pen outside the front door.  Of course, we didn't come in that way.

The library has a large collection and some beautiful artistic touches.

These support columns ingeniously include air conditioning vents.

In the basement parking garage, the palms grow up through the roof! There must have been 10 of them.

Yes, and we topped it all off with a delicious meal at Bootleggers Modern American Smokehouse, a great barbecue restaurant and bar.  The food was great - Steve had chopped brisket sandwich and I had the pulled pork.  It was pretty darn dark in the place, though, at 5pm.  I literally had to turn on my keychain flashlight to read the menu.  If they hadn't had such great reviews, I might have thought they were trying to hide something.

Unrelated to the restaurant, we really want to know what kind of bush this is.  They are EVERYWHERE!

Tomorrow, our itinerary is unknown.  Apache Junction, Flagstaff, Tortilla Flat, and Tombstone have been bandied about.  We'll see...