I’ve done a lot of traveling over the past handful of years, and I’m creeping ever closer to “I’ve seen it all” territory, at least in the United States. To be clear, I’m not actually close to having seen it all, but I have reached a point where a lot of tourist hotspots feel redundant because I have most likely already visited a variant of it in a different location.
Because of this, when I travel now, I go out of my way to make sure to explore spots that are unique to that location. For example, if I’m going to an area with particularly beautiful scenery, I will make sure to go on as many hikes as possible, as opposed to going to a national history museum that doesn’t have a local twist to it.
I’ve been following this approach for my trip in Phoenix, Arizona by seeking out tourist attractions related to Native tribes, which are heavily concentrated in the Arizona and New Mexico area. I checked out the S’eḏav Va’aki Museum, formerly known as the Pueblo Grande Museum, over in eastern Phoenix by Sky Harbor International Airport. I haven’t had many opportunities to explore a museum like this, so this was a unique experience for me.
The S’eḏav Va’aki Museum had three components to it: the main exhibits, the seasonal/rotating exhibits, and an outdoor exhibit. One of the rotating exhibits during my visit was a section about the old Pueblo Grande name and how the museum collaborated with the O’odham to come up with a new name that was more fitting for the relics, artifacts, stories, and teachings contained in the museum. I particularly liked the outdoor trails, which wound around some replica structures that visually demonstrated what life was like for the Natives.
Below are some photographs I took around the Museum:
For one of my meals while visiting downtown Phoenix, I went to Wren & Wolf for dinner with a couple friends. We picked this restaurant because it was one of the few high-end restaurants that had short-notice reservation slots available, and because the reviews were good for both the quality of the food and for the dining experience.
As our appetizer, we ordered a Renaissance Tower from the raw bar. This came with six oysters on the half shell with cocktail sauce, pomegranate mignonette, horseradish, and hot sauce; four tomatillo and Calabrian chili shrimp; a half lobster with crab stuffing; and a quarter pound of king crab.
This was amazingly high-quality seafood. Everything had a very strong, intense, pure, and clean flavor. I think the oysters could’ve had a little bit more salt to extract and enhance more of the oyster flavor, but in general, this is probably some of the best seafood I’ve ever had (and I eat a lot of seafood).
One of my dinner companions doesn’t like seafood, so to accompany the Renaissance Tower, we also ordered German potato dumplings with gouda, manchego, and brown butter sage sauce. I tried one and this was a bit too cheesy for my preference, but I still thought it was good, and my friends seemed to enjoy these a lot.
For my beverage, I ordered a non-alcoholic version of a drink called “I Love You, But I Love Me More” made with black currant and berries, blood orange, and lime topped with a skewer of raspberries. This had a nice, deep fruity flavor without being tangy or sour. The fresh raspberries were also nice, as they served as a palate cleanser in between our different main entrées.
After wrapping up our appetizers, we got our first entrée, Japanese A5 wagyu cooked tableside over binchō-tan charcoal. My friends told me that they’ve never had Japanese A5 wagyu before, so I figured this would be a good opportunity for them to try it for the first time, especially with the added experience of tableside preparation.
As expected, this was incredibly flavorful, especially after covering it with a generous amount of the provided flaky salt.
After splitting four ounces of Japanese A5 wagyu amongst ourselves, we ordered some more steak, but this time a cut that was more reasonable to have in a larger portion—a 10-ounce filet of beef tenderloin cooked medium rare with a side of whipped Parmesan potatoes and roasted baby carrots.
This was very tender and flavorful, and by adding a bit more of the flaky salt we had left over from the wagyu, I was able to enjoy even more of the rich beefy flavor.
Our next entrée was duck breast á l’orange served with harissa atop a bed of forbidden rice.
As far as I can remember, this is the best duck I’ve ever had. It was thick and meaty with a smooth and clean duck flavor. The duck skin was cooked perfectly and added a pleasant textural contrast to the breast meat. The forbidden rice was also incredible—it tasted like gourmet rice infused with a well-proportioned blend of vegetables.
Our final dish of the meal was pistachio-crusted pork tomahawk schnitzel, topped with apple and fennel, served with herb crème fraîche and a side of demi-glace.
I didn’t have too much of this because I was busy working on the duck and forbidden rice, but I did have a small slice of this, and I liked it. There was a perfect ratio of crust to meat, and the pork was unexpectedly very juicy. I was the one who ended up cleaning the final bits of meat straight off the bone, and the pork was tender enough that it was very easy to nibble everything off.
Here are some photos I took from around the restaurant:
Renaissance Tower I
$ 120.00
4 oz. Japanese A5 wagyu steak
$ 125.00
10 oz. beef tenderloin filet
$ 68.00
Duck breast à l’orange
$ 34.00
Pork tomahawk schnitzel
$ 57.00
German potato dumplings
$ 14.00
“I Love You, But I Love Me More” ×3
$ 30.00
Sales tax
$ 38.53
Gratuity
$ 80.00
Total
$ 566.53
The table on the right shows how much we paid for our meal.
I went into this dinner without really knowing what to expect apart from Wren & Wolf having a good reputation for fine dining. I ended up being very pleased throughout my entire dining experience.
The service was excellent. Our waitress was very attentive to our needs, and when my friends told her that they were unfamiliar with some of the dishes and beverages on the menu, she took extra time and care explaining everything thoroughly.
One subtle thing that contributes to the indication of the level of fine dining of a restaurant is the way in which they serve kitchenware. We ate our food “family style” and split all our dishes, and as our entrées were coming out, we were also always served a fresh set of plates and utensils. That is an indication that the restaurant wants to make sure you are getting the full experience of each dish as the chef intended, without flavor profiles from different dishes inadvertently mixing and affecting each other.
The food was amazing. I’m not really the biggest fan of cheese, but even the cheesy dishes were delicious. It was blatantly obvious that the ingredient quality across the board was very high. The dishes weren’t oversalted or overseasoned, which allowed the ingredients to speak for themselves.
We all left the restaurant very full and very satisfied. The food definitely was expensive, but was still a very competitive and reasonable price considering the large portion sizes, high quality of the dishes, unique ambiance, and nice dining experience. In terms of value for money, I think not too many other places can offer substantially more than what we got at Wren & Wolf.
The menu changes routinely/seasonally and has a wide selection of offerings, so if this is within your budget for a nice meal, I think this would be a great spot to check out in downtown Phoenix.
I usually get my work done during the evening and night, but sometimes, there are some unavoidable midday meetings I have to attend that overlap with when I usually go out to be a tourist. When that happens, I still try to squeeze in a quick activity afterwards, which was the case for when I went to the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix on a work day shortly before sunset.
As you can probably guess from the name, the Japanese Friendship Garden is a curated outdoor garden themed around elements traditional to Japanese culture. It’s located on the northern side of downtown Phoenix—situated north of the Portland Parkway Park, just south of Margaret T. Hance Park, and above Interstate 10.
I’ve been to a lot of amazing botanical gardens before, so I don’t know if my perception is a bit skewed at this point because of that, but I thought the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix was a bit underwhelming. It was definitely a nice garden, but it felt small, and it had some areas that appeared to not be fully maintained and manicured. I think a notable element of this Garden is the fact that it is basically an oasis in the middle of Phoenix, a city surrounded by the Sonoran Desert, and because it serves as a reprieve from the otherwise bustling downtown area.
Here are some photographs I captured:
There was a building in the eastern rear section of the Garden that was gated off. My guess is that the tea tours take place in that building, but that is a separate scheduled event, so I was only able to take a look at the exterior.
The building containing the bathrooms was also themed accordingly, both in architecture as well as the decorations adorning and surrounding it.
Near the gift shop, there was a small collection of bonsai trees.
This is the entrance to the Garden. It is gated off in the photograph because I was there right up until closing time.
After you purchase admission, the staff gives you a bright neon sticker to wear on your shirt to indicate that you are a paid visitor. I deposited mine into the trash can on my way out of the building, but apparently some people decided to use theirs to decorate the bike rack in the parking lot instead.
The Garden had some interesting rules. There is a wide open grassy field near the pond, but apparently the grass is off limits; I was sitting on the grass while I was responding to some time-sensitive messages on my phone so that I would be out of the way of the pedestrian footpath, but a staff member promptly approached me saying that I was not permitted to be on the grass. There were also some stepping stones installed alongside a concrete path that I used to get a better angle for some photographs, but I was once again approached by a staff member to be informed that I was not allowed to step on the stepping stones.
Otherwise, checking out the Garden was a nice way to go for a walk and get some fresh air. My general admission ticket was US$14.00, and I spent about an hour and a half there (though if you only want to do one loop around the path, you could potentially be able to see everything in about half an hour).
There’s more to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area than just Phoenix. While here, I’ve been spending time in some neighboring cities too—I already explored Old Town Scottsdale, and earlier today, I adventured around Tempe and the Arizona State University campus.
I started on the northern side of the Salt River near the Tempe Town Lake marina and walked west on the Tempe Town Lake North Bank Path until I reached the Tempe Town Lake Pedestrian Bridge. From there, I was able to get some nice views of downtown Tempe.
This is also close to the Tempe Town Lake Dam.
I arrived on the southern side of Tempe Town Lake right by the Tempe Center for the Arts. Unfortunately, the park directly to the east of this performing arts theater was closed for construction, so I had to go around on Rio Salado Parkway instead of walking on the beach.
After continuing a bit on Rio Salado Parkway and passing its intersections with Ash Avenue and Mill Avenue, I started climbing up the Hayden Butte, often called “A” Mountain due to the large letter “A” on the southern face of the incline.
Once I reached the summit, I got nice sweeping views of Tempe with a little bit of Scottsdale to the north, Mesa to the east, and the downtown Phoenix skyline to the west.
I descended the mountain on the opposite side and ended up at the Tempe Transportation Center on Veterans Way and College Avenue.
From there, I walked a bit south and then west, passing the interestingly-shaped Tempe Municipal Building on the way to Mill Avenue.
After taking a look at some of the shops on Mill Avenue, I walked eastbound on University Drive until reaching the Arizona State University Bridge leading into the Palm Walk.
From there, I went deeper into the Arizona State University campus, looking at the different architecture of the buildings until sunset.
For dinner, I returned to Mill Avenue and went to Matsuri Izakaya. The atmosphere of the restaurant was colorful and interesting.
Unfortunately, the food quality was pretty mediocre. I ordered a salmon bowl; the portion size of the salmon relative to the rice was a bit disappointing, the salmon didn’t really have that strong of a salmon flavor, and the texture made it seem like the fish wasn’t as fresh as it could have been.
After dinner, I walked back to the Tempe Transportation Center, purchased a US$2.00 single-ride ticket for the light rail, and rode my way back to my hotel in downtown Phoenix.
I had a satisfying time in Tempe. The environment of the university campus was both nostalgic and inspiring, and I felt a level of motivation and energy in Tempe that I don’t always sense in non-college cities. Everything was decently clean, and although I didn’t have any direct interactions with strangers, most of them seemed like they were going about life with a positive attitude.
If I ever return to the Phoenix Metropolitan Area after this trip, I will most likely stay in Tempe. There was an unusually high number of hotels under the Marriott brand in Tempe, and even though it doesn’t seem to have too many dedicated attractions within the downtown and campus area, it seemed like a very nice and safe place to just go for a walk and get some fresh air during my free time.
After exploring the three different buildings composing the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix, I walked across the street to the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, a park dedicated to housing various monuments and memorials honoring heroes, wars, and other events of historical significance.
Here are some photographs I snapped throughout the Plaza:
I started in the central Capitol Museum and wove in and out of the many rooms containing many museum exhibits.
The center of the museum had a dome on top, from the structural supports of which there was a chandelier hanging by a long, metallic, wound rod.
After going through the first building, I went to the southern building, home of the Senate.
As you’d expect, my third and final building tour was the northern one, home of the House of Representatives.
Security was tighter in this building for some reason, so I was escorted around by a security guard. I had a nice conversation with him; he is a fan of the Las Vegas Raiders and is looking forward to the new baseball stadium for the Athletics.
Here are some more photos of the museum exhibits taken in the central building.
This is the first Capitol I’ve seen with this large and robust of a museum on-site. I remember the Idaho State Capitol having a small set of displays on the lowest floor, but the Arizona State Capitol has a literal full-blown, multi-floor museum.
I think education should be affordable, accessible, and abundant. Although I support having a small government, I still believe government has an important place in society, and one of the roles I think it should have is to help provide opportunities to its people. Being educated is a great way to expand the scope of someone’s opportunities, so it was very nice seeing Arizona putting some of its funding towards educating the public about history and politics.
