Posts Tagged With: Arizona Museum of Natural History

Lou and Joyce’s house in Flagstaff

Phoenix Feb. 17

Flagstaff Arizona is a town of 70,000 people in northern Arizona, a jumping off place for tourists to the Grand Canyon. It is also home to Northern Arizona University, Lowell Observatory, and some companies manufacturing plants like W.L. Gore and Nestle Purina. Most importantly for us, it is where Chris’ brother Lou and his wife Joyce have their future retirement home.

A view of San Francisco Peaks, Flagstaff

When here, we take life easy and throw in a few visits to local attractions. We try some new and some familar restaurants and usually go for a few hikes. This trip was less about hiking and more about relaxation. Lou and Joyce have a home in view of the San Francisco Peaks which include Humphreys Peak, the tallest in Arizona at 12,637 feet. It is a pleasure to look out the windows at differing times of the day and during varying seasons of the year.

San Francisco Peaks from Lou and Joyce’s house

The weather in Flagstaff has both cold and snow (after all, it does have a ski peak and is at 7,000 feet in elevation). This weekend was cool with snow showers so the pictures here show nice contrast between the mountains and blue skies. What we don’t show is the 6-9 inches forecast for Sunday afternoon and Monday night after we will have returned to Phoenix.

After returning to Phoenix, we chose to visit the Arizona Museum of Natural History. The choice was not difficult; many museums are closed on Sundays and those which would normally be open on Monday are closed due to Presidents Day. Tuesday will have to be our day to visit other museums. The Arizona Museum of Natural History is in Mesa AZ, a town of 440,000 people but yet a suburb of Phoenix (a town of 1,5000,000 people and the fifth largest in the U.S.).

The Arizona Museum of Natural History is about 74,000 s.f.of space located in the old Mesa City Hall with additonal expansions. We would summarize the place (unfairly probably) as rocks and dinosaurs. Yes, there are exhibits on Native Americans, and some other topics. If we knew before what we know now, we would have passed it by. It strikes us a place for parents and grandparents to take their kids where they can quickly scan important topics and leave without learning much.

Leaving Flagstaff, heading for Phoenix

Ed and Chris. Phoenix Feb. 17