Phoenix With Kids Day 3: Taliesin West and the Arizona Science Center
Sometimes in my exuberance to see a new destination, I make some pretty dumb decisions. Today was one of those days. Ever since we started planning this trip, my top "must-do" (besides eating great Mexican food) has been to see Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's desert home and workshop. Built into the side of a mountain just outside Scottsdale. Its shape, building materials, and colors were all designed to mirror the desert mountains that engulf it.
Sounds fascinating, right? Here's the rub... Taliesin West can be visited only as part of an organized tour. There are no family friendly tours, and each tour lasts 90 minutes (60 minute tours, but they are offered only 3x a day with 2 of the offering smack-dab in the middle of naptime). That is a long time to ask a young child to be very quiet and relatively still. With the site situated on the outskirts of Scottsdale, it also presented a logistical problem. If we were to split up and visit Taliesin West in shifts, the kids would have to either spend 3 hours outdoors on the (cold) mountain, or take two short (one hour) excursions into town... just enough time for them to get interested in an activity and then have them a melt down when asked to leave. Done in shifts, the visits would run well into D's naptime, leaving one unlucky parent to face drama beyond measure.
We decided to chance taking the kids along on the tour, and asked them for their very best behavior (every parent knows how effective that is after about 10 minutes, right?). In the beginning, they were enchanted with the petroglyphs, the cacti, the unusual building materials and even the furniture. They were cooperative and quiet for an amazing amount of time, but 90 minutes is just too much to ask, and as the tour guide lost track of time and delved into the site's history, they started to loose focus. We ended up taking them outside for snacks, with the hope of rejoining the tour. Each of us missed interesting parts of the tour, but we felt worse about our impact on the group... a toddler's whisper sounds loud to someone who has paid the steep $30 entrance fee. As the tour guide rushed us through the final buildings (story telling had put her so behind schedule that we had 5 minutes in each!) we gave up and I took the kids to the gift shop to buy coloring books.
I wouldn't have wanted to miss Taliesin West, so I suppose I'm glad that we went, but I didn't feel good about disrupting the tour, however briefly. In retrospect, we probably should have either hired a private guide (prices aren't posted on the website, but I'm certain the expense would have been considerable) or tried harder to work out a shift schedule. Lesson learned.
In the afternoon we visited the Arizona Science Center. The center has over 300 hands on exhibits, but most required reading and were geared to older kids. After a disappointing exploration of the main level, we headed upstairs and found what I thought was the best part of this museum. . . the weather center. There was a sand and water play are that provided an option my kids don't get at home, and a very cool installation that used a fan to mimic the impact of wind on a sand dune. The coolest part though, was the "weather show" where guests stood on a platform and lived through simulated severe-weather events. As we experienced an earthquake, the platform shook and we watched surprisingly immersive videos of real earthquakes. Heat lamps made a simulated fire seem real, and water blew in our faces during the hurricane simulation. The kids weren't quite sure what to think and alternated between laughing and looking worried, but each segment was short enough that they were never actually upset.
For dinner we headed to Lola Tapas. The meal turned out to be the highlight of the day. What looked, upon entry, like a tough restaurant for young kids (most seating is at bar-height in backless chairs), turned out to be perfect as we were escorted to a private back room (perhaps they had heard about our kids from the folks at Taliesin West). The waitress was incredibly sweet with the kids, bringing them juice and water in kid-friendly cups long before our meal orders were in. Best of all, it was a real grown up meal, and every single dish was delicious. Happy to be seated, well fed, and relaxed, I chose to ignore the fact that my kids dined mostly on mountains of bread and Spanish olives. They'll eat protein and vegetables when we return home.
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3 comments |
Posted on December 29, 2008 |
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Bridget Smith on December 31, 2008 at 8:41 a.m.
Sounds like your kids did better than my kids would have done. We barely made it through a ninety minute time share presentation on our last vacation that was mainly just a tour of the grounds.
At least none of that fancy Wright furniture got broken LOL! If you are ever in Marin County Ca. He designed the civic center there. Not as interesting as one of his houses, but it's a public building so you can just walk through with the kids and there is a duck pond on the property with lots of grass and room to run.
Safe Travels,
Bridget
jj on December 31, 2008 at 4:18 p.m.
What it is with the Frank Lloyd Wright properties not being family friendly? We visited Fallingwater recently - amazing place, but no kids allowed. By the time we took turns sitting with baby (who we could have carried in a carrier), half the day was over. Pity the solo adults who try to take a child. It's unfortunate since exposing kids to world-class architecture would be great for their education.
tyler on January 31, 2013 at 2:37 p.m.
The science center is great for kids, and you are right, especially the weather center. Our son loves all the hands on exhibits and can spend hours and hours here having so much fun.. that's about all a parent can ask for.