Mesa, AZ - Tempe Arts Festival

There’s nothing like a good arts festival for people watching, interesting food, fun entertainment and - yes, there are many and wondrous pieces of art. Tempe has, in its own words, ‘consistently ranks among the top top 200 art festivals in the US.’ We’ve been attending the Des Moines Art Festival for about 10 years now, ever since we arrived in Des Moines and wanted to see how this one might compare. First, we headed off to the light rail for a ride into town. We didn’t want to take the car and have to drive the long way plus find a place to park. No way, not when there is great public transportation.

After we parked and were walking to the ticket kiosk, we looked over and saw a truck from Webster County, Iowa. Wow, it was Shirley's and Jerry's truck, our friends from Fort Dodge with whom we are going to tour around on Monday. I put one of our cards under their windshield wipers to surprise them and we walked on.

We got our tickets, got on the the light rail and were shortly in Tempe right at the head of the street where the Festival started. Nice way to get into town: cheaper and quicker than driving and with lots less hassle. You also get to meet such ‘interesting’ people. I was sitting while Gary had gotten up to give someone else his seat. This person did not take it but ‘Jan’ did. He was a 65 - 72’ish male who cozied up next to me, introduced himself, asked my name and then asked if I’d like to go to New York with him. Huh? Well, I played along with him for a bit: ‘I don’t have a toothbrush.’ ‘We’ll just buy some in Times Square. Let’s get off at the airport station and leave now.’ Oh, maybe not today, I’m going to the art festival.’ ‘New York has some amazing art, we’ll cruise the art museums there. Join me, we’ll have a great time. Your husband won’t care.’

By this time, I’m past bemusement and into wondering where the Candid Camera was. Then a pregnant woman came on the train and I got up to give her my seat. She moved to another and a younger woman took my seat. ‘Look at this’ he said eyeing the younger woman. I said ‘Yes, and she’s much younger than I am.’ And, he turned to her and asked her if she wanted to go to New York with him. Whew.

Well, yes they we right, it was a large enough festival to get lost in. From 1000 applications they choose 400 artists to exhibit. Along with the 400 artists are various crafts, lots of food booths (I had to quickly escape from the booth which had bananas foster with their own special rum caramel syrup - my, that was heavenly but I would have no will power with it in our house), lots of entertainers roaming through the crowds and lots of people milling around. There was a plethora of artists with exquisite work. Most of the booths had signs asking that no photographs be taken. Of course, because someone might copy their ideas. But I did get a picture of this artists ‘stone scapes.’ Truly unique and an amazing use of native materials.

We enjoyed the musicians, especially the duo who sang a song about the Cedar Rapids, IA flood of several years ago. Wow. We also saw the guy above wandering through the crowd and later we saw this one - now, I don’t know if these two are the same guy but I suspect they are. Performance art.

Of course there were the food pictures: here we are eating one of the first pieces of non-homemade pizza that we’ve had in about 10 years (I usually make our pizzas.) 

Note the comfy seats. And, here’s the ice cream sandwich. You can choose which two flavors of cookies you want and what flavor of ice cream and they will make a cookie for you. I had Dreyers cherry vanilla between a peanut butter chip and a double chocolate chip cookie. Gary had Dreyers mint chocolate chip between a macadamia nut and a chocolate chip cookie. It was yummy.

Obviously there was lots of art in the festival but there is also street art all along Mill Street where the festival was held. After we got off the light rail and were heading towards the art festival, Gary saw this cowboy leaning against a light pole. He didn’t give it more than a glance since he knew we’d see it on the way back to the light rail station. Then, he saw the same cowboy walking along the street away from the festival and towards his car. Huh? Sure enough, it wasn’t street art, it was performance art. He says he does this for a living - and is in Scottsdale most every Friday posing as something else, whatever he has ready to go.

Of course, our day is not complete without a walk of some sort and, there it was, the ‘A’ hill, looming ahead of us calling out names. We had climbed it last year when we were in town and knew that there was a great view over the city from its peak. I call it the ‘A’ hill because it’s on the Arizona State University campus and has a huge ‘A in yellow and burgundy, the school colors. On fall nights before football games there is usually a ‘guard’ near the ‘A’ who stays all night watching to see that fans of the rival team don’t deface the A. This year, the guard fell asleep one night and the A was repainted in the rival team’s colors. However the paint job was discovered before dawn and the A was repainted in the correct colors.

These days, there are 3 extra guys on camels cruising the slope looking for something.

Here’s a picture of the A on the hill with the rocky area circling the upper right as our goal. You can see the trail in the picture going beneath the A to the ridge and then heading left to the highest rocks near the top center of the picture.

Steep walk and parts were pretty rocky. Arizona rocks tend to have sharp edges and now I know why I usually wear hiking boots. I had on sneakers today and felt every edge. But, what a view from the top.

And, then the sunset.

 Whoo-eee.

We hiked back down and boarded the light rail for the trip home. As we walked on, 2 30-ish women rose and asked if we would like their seats. Now, you’ve got to realize that the first two seats on the light rail have a sign that says ‘These seats are reserved for seniors and the disabled.’ Yeah, they must be under the mistaken impression that we are seniors. What’s their clue: grey hair, saggy skin? Hrumph. We refused and talked with them all the way to their stop.