Tempe's Desert Botanical Garden gets my vote for best of breed in desert-themed public gardens. It was started in 1939, covers 140 acres, and has 55K desert plants from all over the world. The pix below was taken at the entrance, a living mosaic of little cacti.
Also near the entrance are the glass sculptures pictured below - by none other than the famous glass artist, Dale Chihuly.
We're in Tempe for Thanksgiving, hosted by fraternity brother Al and his main squeeze, Jan. We alternate hosting the event, so it's our turn next year.
The following pix include several large ceramic heads by Jun Kaneko,a famous artist I'd never heard of before. I don't get out much.
Little woman, BIG cacti!
Above and below, sitting on the edges of the walkway, those tan rectangular things are luminaries. There are 8,000 of them in the Gardens, each with its own wax candle. On Las Noches de las Luminarias, all those candles get fired up. Super speedy sprinters compete for the honor of lighting the candles. The winner has 30 minutes to light all 8K candles. If he fails, leaves any single candle unlit, he's tarred and feathered, and then thrown into the Salt River.
Obviously, I'm clueless on the candle lighting. Was curious about it but couldn't find anything on the website. Gotta take hundreds of people.
Kaneko also did the critters below, calls them raccoon-dogs. Raccoon-dogs? I don't think so. How about pig-bears?
Tempe, population 182K, is the home of Arizona State University, the largest public university in the US, with 72,000 enrollment. The Phoenix area has 5 campuses and there are 4 regional campuses, including the newest one in Lake Havasu City, my home town, started in 2012.
