This is H here, reporting on my weekend with Dad in Arizona. Normally, when we visit a place, we do a lot of walking, but with me 7 months pregnant, Dad recovering from his sprained ankle, and the temperature holding steady at 100 degrees (about 38 C) and sunny, we’ve mainly been indoor creatures. Dad has spent many hours patiently watching me study for my surgical rotation, and then taking me out for great vegetarian meals for sustenance!

We did visit Taliesin West today, Frank Lloyd Wright’s “camp” outside of Phoenix. It is still a working home, and the associated architecture school is here all winter (they decamped to the Wisconsin Taliesin last month). When Wright built the place, he was miles and miles from anyone else. Now, the suburbs have come right up to the front gates, and Phoenix sprawls for miles in every direction! The house is sited to have beautiful views of the mountains, however, so all of the urban encroachment is forgotten.

Here’s Dad in front of the drafting studio and dining area:

The umbrella was handed out for shade!

And here I am in the living room, which has this built-in seating that looks like an airline but is actually very comfortable.

We had a very knowledgeable guide who talked a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright’s philosophy of architecture, which I knew very little about. It was fascinating, especially since my husband and I are eventually hoping to design and build a house…though the possibilities in the mountains of New Hampshire are certainly very different from those in the desert of Arizona!