Championing the makers, artists, and wanderers in all of us.
“I can’t believe this is actually a place to review, but alas, here it is!”
—J.B.
There are reviews online for just about any space you can be in. Not only for the ones you’d expect, like restaurants or hotels, but also for places like parking garages — and parks. Sometimes they’re helpful, sometimes the reviewer just needs to vent, and sometimes they get a bit absurd.
The weird ones are the best.
Case in point: Amberwood Park in Chandler.
Continue reading “People’s Peculiar Park Opinions”
Jacome Plaza is a park in Downtown Tucson with lots of tables, free wifi, and lawn games like giant Connect Four and human-sized chess.
You’ll find it at Pennington and Stone Avenue next to the Joel D. Valdez Main Library plaza and the red Sonora sculpture by David Black.
It’s designed both as a place to relax and a place for people to work outside, taking advantage of Tucson’s beautiful-most-of-the-year weather.
I stumbled on it during a break in Arizona International Film Festival. By the time I happened upon it, however, it was almost time for me to leave. But I’ll definitely keep the park in mind next time I’m in town.
Updated last: February 23, 2021 (to reflect permanent closures and changes, not temporary measures due to COVID-19).
Originally published May 30, 2016.
Let’s say you’re in town for a thing at the Phoenix Convention Center. You have a spare hour here and there. Maybe a spare afternoon. And then you have a flight to catch. How can you get a little taste of Phoenix while you’re here?
Or maybe you’re a local, looking for somewhere new to eat or hang out while you’re downtown for an event like Phoenix Fan Fusion (formerly Phoenix Comicon) or before you head to a symphony performance.
Here are some tips for a Phoenix experience with the Convention Center at the epicenter. All these locations are easy to get to from there without a car.
View: There are places to sit and experience the Arizona climate outside of all 3 of the Convention Center buildings (North, South, West). In the North Building, check out the view from the second- and third-floor (200 and 300 level) terraces on the south side of the building. Look for the mountains beyond the downtown. (Building maps)
Food: While all the Phoenix Convention Center Food is managed by Aventura, a Phoenix-based division of Aramark, they do contract with local companies such as City Central Coffee in the Metro Marché food court in the North Building. Some events (like Phoenix Fan Fusion) may also have locally-owned food trucks outside.
Music: The West Building of the Convention Center is actually connected to Phoenix Symphony Hall, where there is a variety of performances throughout the season. Check the Phoenix Symphony’s online schedule for concert and ticket information.
Bike Share: There are bright green Grid Bikes you can rent by the minute from kiosks outside the Convention Center, in Heritage Square, and several other locations downtown. Sign up first online or via the Social Bicycles app – membership is required even for a single “Pay as You Go” ride.
There’s tons of stuff to see/do/eat within walking distance. Here are some recommendations, in order of their (rough) distance from Phoenix Convention Center.
Relax and sip some really good coffee. It’s very close to the Convention Center, but just far enough away to be much less hectic.
They share space with Kaleidoscope Juice, in case you also need a smoothie, salad, or breakfast sandwich. Update: This Kaleidoscope location has closed. However, you can still find them in Scottsdale, Gilbert, and North Phoenix.
Two blocks of mixed-use space, including residences, offices, fitness centers, a hotel, salon, barbershop, drugstore, comedy club, shopping, and restaurants.
The best thing about Arizona Center is probably its Garden Grotto. Pathways wind through desert plants and past a pond. There’s a fair amount of shade and lots of benches. I feel like a little garden walk is a great remedy for convention hall chaos.
There is also shopping and restaurants.
Part of the original Phoenix townsite, the Square is now home to several museums, a couple restaurants, and cultural festivals throughout the year.
The Valley Metro light rail is a convenient way to get around Central Phoenix (some tips). There’s just one line and automatic ticket kiosks at each station.
You can catch westbound trains off Washington in front of the West Building / Symphony Hall. The eastbound stop is on Jefferson, just across from the South Building.
Hop on the westbound train (it’ll curve north) to check out these places, listed by number of stops from the Convention Center.
Collections include American, Asian, European, Latin American, and Western American Art, fashion, photography, and contemporary installations, such as the interactive You Who are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies.
The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions, like Hollywood Costume, Michelangelo, and Super Indian – Fritz Scholder’s bold, bright pop art.
Fantastic museum of the historic and contemporary culture of indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially the Southwest. Collections include work on canvas, jewelry, pottery, texiles, and video interviews.
Sharing some green with you today from Indiana last summer, specifically from Mounds State Park in Anderson.
Mounds State Park is named for mounds of earth built around 160 BCE by a culture known as the Adena-Hopewell, famous for pottery and mad mound-building skills.
Actually, they could’ve been two separate cultures, the Adena building the Mounds and the Hopewell leaving their more advanced stuff around later. Or the Adena could’ve just gotten Hopewell-levels of advanced over time.
If there’s a new car outside your friend’s house, is someone visiting or did your friend just get a new car? Way harder to clear that up when your friend is 2000 years in the past. So I guess hyphenating the two names is a way to hedge archaeological bets.
Why were they built? Maybe the Adena built them for ceremonies and then they were used for burials by the Hopewell (who may or may not just be the Adena 200 years later). The truth is we’re not sure what all people back then were into.
What we do know is that someone (ok, a lot of someones) purposefully dug out and built up earth a couple millennia ago into mounds you can still see today.
There are 10 of these earthworks in Mounds State Park, and they tend to be crater-like, with the mounded outsides surrounding a depression with a platform in the center.
The largest one has dents in it that align with the equinox, solstices, and rising of certain stars. Known as “the Great Mound,” it is 9 feet tall and has a quarter-mile circumference. So, yeah, whatever the Adena-Hopewell were up to, they were not messing around.
The visitors’ center has displays about the park’s ecosystem and a floor map of how the Mounds align with various astronomical phenomena.
Its observation room has chairs facing oversized windows, giving you a front row view of a pond, birdhouse, and a thick stand of trees, so you can watch for birds or frogs or maybe even deer.
Outside is a cute little children’s garden.
Also at the park is the historic brick Bronnenberg House, which dates from 1840. Compared to the Mounds, though, that seems like new construction.
The White River cuts through the park, and you can fish, as well as camp, hike or picnic. There are trails of varying difficulty levels winding around the Mounds.
Since we were in town for a family reunion, Phillip and I got to visit the park with my uncle, who’s been going there since he was a kid, and my cousin Allison, who made sure to photobomb the butterfly video I was shooting in the pollinator garden.
We started down trail #1 towards the Great Mound and met a harrowed-looking hiker coming from that direction, who asked if we had insect repellent – not to borrow it for himself but to make sure we were protected.
As we approached the boardwalk, we found out why. The mosquitoes were out in force that day. Despite our deet, they didn’t seem to be deterred. I could barely stop long enough to snap a photo without those tiny vampires swarming towards my neck and head.
I wrapped my scarf over my head and tucked my arms inside. Allison laughed at me, but I’m pretty sure it was just that she was jealous of my scarf/mosquito net and not that I looked ridiculous.
We cut our hike short after seeing the Great Mound.
We drove to a spot near the river, where the guys wanted to explore some more. Allison and I decided to take in the scenery from the safety of the car.
I wonder how the Adena kept the mosquitoes away.
My friend Michelle, who recently moved to Nashville, took me up on my suggestion to make a paper boat and take photos of it in her new city.
Did you know there’s a replica of the Greek Parthenon in a Nashville, Tennessee park? Yep. And there’s an art museum and gallery space inside.
I’m glad spring finally arrived in Tennessee, and it was great to see Michelle’s boat float by!
If you make a paper boat and take a photo where you live, you can email it to hello (at) travelcraftjournal.com OR post it on Twitter with hashtag #paperboatseverywhere and mention @travelcraftjrnl. We just might share it!