Today we have planned a day in town. Not a relaxing day though, one with many stops and lots of things to do. And the day starts at Wren & Wolf restaurant in downtown. We really wanted to visit it for some time and today we are celebrating so downtown we go. It has quite an interesting decor, lots of real, or maybe fake, sheep skins on the chairs and nature related photos and dioramas.
We wait for a while for the food to get served however it is quite good, both the steak and the eggs benedict. It is also very filling, we are really full by the end of our meal and we still have a few stops planned for today.
Our breakfast in fact has taken so long that the restaurant has filled with the lunch crowd and we take our time before we leave to look one more time at the eclectic decor.
The next stop is the Japanese Friendship Garden which hosts today a bonsai exhibition that we want to visit. We have never been here before and are surprised at how beautiful it looks with the gardens surrounding a central lake. And then multiple high rises, for Phoenix, overlooking the park.
We take our time enjoying the garden and admire the beautiful landscaping throughout. There are lots of people but there are a few smaller paths that are not that popular and we can enjoy more solitude.
There are also small creeks, fed by artificial fountains, that feed into the lake. And they are populated by koi fishes, quite cute to watch as they swim around.
And then we arrive at the bonsai exhibit. It is a relatively small one but we really like bonsai so we go around the circle they are arranged in to admire each of them in turn.
We think the most beautiful one is a tree in flower, it is quite special and would receive our “Best in Show” award. Just based on our aesthetic sense of course, likely other ones are more detailed or impressive from a bonsai point of view.
We then continue around the lake passing by a small waterfall and a few actual trees in flower that attract almost all passerbys.
There is some bird life also near the lake, mallards of course but also neotropical cormorants. And also a valiant hummingbird who nests right above the very popular trail and doesn’t seem to mind the people passing.
As we finish our loop we notice that a presentation is starting and it looks to be a good one, about how to create a bonsai. So we decide to join in at least for a while.
It is quite an engaging lecture in fact and we learn a lot about how to create a bonsai and how difficult it can be to create the desired shapes. And then we leave the garden for our last stop, the Phoenix Main Library where we spend some time selecting books for future trips before finally returning, quite tired, home.
