Horseback Riding at Fort McDowell Adventures

Have you ever just wanted to mount  a horse and ride? Cross the Verde River, see some wildlife against the backdrop of the beautiful Arizona desert? Fort McDowell Adventures offers just that and much more.

Fort McDowell Adventures is a venue my daughter and I visit at least three times a year. They are so friendly and really work at making your visit relaxing and enjoyable.  They match your horse with your riding skill, so if you are a beginner there is no reason to fear - you will be just fine so sit back and enjoy the trail. They offer all sorts of different adventures and we look forward to trying something new from them soon.

http://www.fortmcdowelladventures.com/about-our-venues/horseback-riding/

My daughter is 12 have practically "Jane Wayne".  She loves these mornings alone with me and I love that she keeps and eye on me!

We crossed the Verde River 4 times and saw wildlife as we made our way across the changing landscape for the 90-minute ride.

Kayaking the Upper Salt River

Every day is a good day for adventure, for trying something new, and so this past Mother's Day I asked to go kayaking. My family jumped at the chance!

Capt Ted is a wonderful tour guide. Thru him we had everything everyone needed for our adventure - Kayaks (single or tandem), wet bags, life vests and park passes. He guides you with expertise and calmness. We stopped twice along the journey to stretch our legs on  beach and have a snack. Throughout our 9 mile - 4 1/2 hour trip we witnessed wild mustangs, cattle, beavers, bald eagles, coyotes, turtles, road runners and other wildlife. We took our children too. My 15 yr old boy and 12 year old daughter had the best morning and have asked to back and next time they want a solo kayak.

I would recommend Capt Ted and am looking forward to another adventure. Perhaps Father's Day?

Balboa Park and Museums, San Diego CA

Next to the San Diego Zoo is a great park hosting 15 museums, gardens, theatre performances and so much more! My family and I had the pleasure of spending the weekend in April here and enjoyed ourselves so much. Panama 66 is a lovely al fresco restaurant with a menu that was tastier than I ever expected. There are a great variety of museums for almost any interest and the park has lots of places to explore. The park itself is a sprawling area originally used by San Diego to host a Panama - California exhibition celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal in 1915 and also used to host United Nations events in the 1950s. The park visitors center sells different types of passes allowing you entrance to multiple attractions in a day or over the span of a week.

During our visit the San Diego Turtle and Tortoise Society held an event in one of the exhibition halls and they host different events throughout the year so check the schedules for things of interest to enhance your visit. The Turtle exhibition was just our first stop in our day-long adventure to the Air & Space Museum, Museum of Man, Automotive Museum, an al-fresco lunch at Panama 66, and then a tour through the impressive Museum of Natural History (it was a very full day).

The San Diego Museum of Man is the only museum dedicated to anthropology in the Southern California region and you can learn about the history of mankind and even see real mummies and other ancient artifacts. While we were there the museum was hosting a special engagements on the Instruments of Torture Tour - a limited engagement with historical artifacts from the era of the Inquisition in Europe - was thought provoking to say the least and may not be appropriate for all audiences.

Another "extra" tour we took was the California Tower Tour within the Museum of Man. The building the museum is housed within was one of the three remaining original buildings from the 1915 exhibition and was designed to look like a classic Spanish Mission with a ten-story "bell tower" (which was purely decorative and never actually housed any bells). There has been no public access to that view for more than 75 years. The tour takes you up 164 steps to the 8th floor of the tower where you will enjoy panoramic views of San Diego. It was wonderful! Instead of large cast bells, the Tower’s music comes from an electronic carillon installed in 1946 and upgraded in the 1990s. A musician sits at a standard musical keyboard and plays the tunes, which are translated to signals for programmed bell-ringing later. The bells are small but highly amplified – real metal is hitting real metal when the Tower’s tones are heard.
















The Air & Space Museum was a huge hit with the family and contained a variety of exhibits spanning the history of powered flight and included artifacts from the Apollo 9 mission around the Moon. The museum includes some hands-on exhibits and knowledgeable docents providing rich details about the items on display.

Stop at the Balboa Park Visitors Center which is open from 9:30am-4:30pm daily. The Visitors Center offers brochures, maps, audio tours, free guided tours of the Park, transportation information, dining advice, and more.

We could not see it all and plan on returning and would need to spend at least four days to enjoy all of the attractions. 

SouthWest Makers Fair

http://www.southwestmakerfest.com/visit/

The second SOUTHWEST MAKERFEST was a one-day festival held in downtown Mesa held on Saturday, March 28, from 12am to 8pm. It was created to celebrate the power in all of us to create, innovate and realize our ideas! The event featured exhibits, workshops and demonstrations by inventors, artists and makers in a wide variety of areas. The event sprawled over several blocks in the downtown area and included live bands, robot challenges, artisans of all types of media showing off their wares, and lots of hands-on activities for kids and adults to learn about and play with technology. This is a great event to go and explore with the family and we look forward to next year's event. 

2015 Emerge Artists + Scientists Re Design the Future

ASU Emerges 2015: Artists + Scientists Re-Design the Future

Each year Skysong ASU - http://skysongcenter.com - hosts an innovation evening. We spent 2 1/2 hours surrounded by science and arts, robots, hands-on projects, interactive presentations, and lectures. NPR RadioLab's co-host Jad Abudram hosted an interactive presentation out under the stars sharing how RadioLab works and it's history as if it was a RadioLab story. There were demonstrations from NASA, ASU's Robotics Lab, and others. This is an event worth adding to your calendar and following throughout the year.

Geeks Night Out - Tempe AZ

Geeks Night Out in Tempe is a wonderful annual S.T.E.A.M event

Geeks Night Out in Tempe is a great geeky family tradition as downtown Tempe hosts an evening of activities in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math for geeks of all ages and interests. The City of Tempe teamed together with Arizona SciTech Festival (http://azscitech.com) to create an interactive evening spread around the downtown mall. While this event is over there are more S.T.E.A.M events throughout the rest of the month including the SouthWest Makerfest (SouthwestMakerFest.com), Emerge 2015: Artists + Scientists Redesign the Future, and Science Night at the Phoenix Zoo. These are just a few of the excellent STEAM events that I enjoy exploring with my family.

The Mob Museum - Nevada

The Mob Museum is three floors of mob history, the law enforcement that tried to reign it in, and the history of the most infamous mobsters and crime families.  You will see actual evidence and weapons used in the era and detailed history of the beginning of "organized crime" in the United States, it's explosive and violent growth during Prohibition, and its diversification into almost all possible areas of commerce and industry after WWII. The museum highlights the rise of coordinated law enforcement from the start of the FBI to the multi-agency Department of Homeland Security engaged in addressing organized crime across the globe. There is also a large exhibit about the growth of Las Vegas and how the Mob may ... or may not ... have played a role in it's history.

One exhibit covers the famous Senator Kefauver Committee's televised hearings which brought national attention to the "Mafia" and exposed its pervasiveness in 1950's America. The museum gift shop included a t-shirt with the slogan "Two sides to every story" and that is what the museum presents. There are a lot of hands on exhibits including listening to actual wire-taps from investigations. My daughter stepped into an FBI weapons training simulator. My son video taped himself in an FBI interrogation room. There are recordings from courtrooms and police stations too. Finally, the museum looks at Hollywood's portrayal of the Mob throughout the years with a short documentary.

There is a large area where you can learn the mob history of your home state. I was, and yet was not,  surprised to read all the details of mob activity here in Arizona (Tucson and Phoenix) including exhibits on several infamous mob killings here in Phoenix including the killing of an investigative reporter in 1982. The museum also looks at the current activities of organized crime which has become a global issue.

 

http://themobmuseum.org

This tour was definitely for me. The museum itself was originally a postoffice and county court building located down by the original Vegas strip now called the Fremont Street experience.