Back from Phoenix – BionicOldGuy

I just returned from a five day visit with my brother Bill and nephew Tommie in Phoenix. The weather was lovely this time of year, which is why snowbirds love to visit. I don’t normally qualify as a snowbird, but rather a cold and rain bird, but this year I actually went when there was snow on the mountains, as I showed in my last post. We had a great time. I just loved taking walks in the desert landscape, and one day we went on a desert hike in South Mountain Park and saw wildflowers. Not too spectacular yet, they haven’t reached their peak yet, but still pretty. We also enjoyed three separate museums.

The first was Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, part of the Arizona Boardwalk. Tommie volunteers there, but he had the day off, so we had him as a great guide. It was wonderful (but not surprising) to see how well Tommie was received by his colleagues. He is one of the most positive and outgoing people I know. They have the largest butterfly conservatory in North America. You are not allowed to touch the free-living butterflies, but they land on you. I also enjoyed their film about the Eastern Branch of the USA Monarch migration. Living on the west coast, I knew all about the western branch, but the eastern branch is even more spectacular as they travel up to 3,000 miles.

Another day we visited the Western Spirit Museum in Scottsdale, which tells the history of the West through art and offers wonderful docent-led tours.

Finally, we went to the Musical Instrument Museum, also in Scottsdale, where musical instruments from all over the world are on display. It has a cool setup where you get headphones and when you get to each video screen it automatically adjusts to that. Some were musical samples, including really cool old black and white videos from Buddy Holly and Ray Orbison, and others were explanations of the instruments by craftsmen and artists.

My final highlight of the trip was the many Waymo self-driving cars I saw. I was curious and asked Gemini about their safety record this chat (I think you need a Google account to open this). Their track record is excellent, nearly 10 million rides in Phoenix to date, accident/injury rates about six times lower than human drivers, and the vast majority of incidents were not Waymo’s fault. Then I disappeared down a rabbit hole with Gemini trying to understand the technology, which is mind-boggling but very impressive.