The air was reasonably clear this morning, so we took a walk by TPC Scottsdale after breakfast.

When we checked in, the resort concierge strongly recommended a visit to the Musical Instrument Museum. They’re open every day including Christmas, so we headed over there soon after they opened, expecting to spend the morning. We spent all day there (except lunch), and if we weren’t heading home tomorrow, I’d be planning to go back so we could see the rest of the museum!

A museum filled with musical instruments could be cacophonous, but this one wasn’t – every visitor gets an audioguide (with headphones, of course) which plays audio for the exhibit you’re seeing. Sennheiser was the guide sponsor and furnished the equipment, so the sound quality was very good.

We began in the Orientation Gallery which featured instruments of various kinds from around the world. Here’s the octobasse – its lowest notes are too deep to hear, but the audioguide did its best to let us experience it.

I really liked this Yemenite shofar, made from kudu horn instead of the ram’s horn that we usually see.

There was an entire gallery devoted to guitars around the world. Here are three.

The MIM’s current special exhibition is “Acoustic America: Iconic Guitars, Mandolins, and Banjos,” featuring 90 historic stringed instruments, most being played in videos and interviews that you hear on the audioguide. I guess it’s just as well that they didn’t play complete songs or we never would have gotten beyond that exhibit!

The Artist Gallery has exhibits devoted to 40 artists and groups from all over the world. I saw about a third of them before going to the Mechanical Instruments gallery to hear the one instrument in the museum that they play out loud – the Orchestrion, which they only play twice a day. It’s loud – you can hear it two galleries away.

I had high hopes for the Experience Gallery, where you get to play your own music on a varied collection of instruments. I could make pleasing noises (well, I thought they were pleasing) on the gongs and drums, but most of the other instruments needed more skill than I brought to the game.

I finished the day in the Geographic Galleries on the second floor. I started in the US and Canada Gallery and I’d seen almost all of it before we had to leave the museum to head over to Sarah and Ray’s house in Mesa for fondue and more music.

In addition to being an artist, Sarah plays the theremin and treated us to what I’d call “theremin karaoke” (she plays theremin to fit into a recording of more traditional instruments).

Then she let Diane and me try our hands at the theremin (without accompaniment); it was fun!

We said farewell to Sarah and Ray for now and headed back to the resort to pack for our flight home tomorrow.

We started today with a guided tour of Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s “desert laboratory”.

Our guide Bruce pointed out the “clasping hands” symbol on the petroglyph in the Entry Court, which Wright made into the symbol of Taliesin West.

Taliesin West, like many of Wright’s buildings, is long and low-slung, fitting into its environment but not dominating it.

Bruce told us about the principles of Wright’s Organic Architecture and how he applied them here. We followed the paths around the site and entered many of the spaces, both inside and outside.

One of the most famous spaces is “The Prow”, a triangular garden and lawn extending out to a view of the desert.

We spent a few minutes enjoying the Garden Room. Originally, there was no glass in the walls. Wright installed vases in places which would later be glassed-in, but he didn’t allow his apprentices to move them; instead, they had to put holes in the glass to accommodate the vases.

Wright had spent years in Japan building the Imperial Hotel, and this Moon Gate shows the Asian influence in his designs.

We also visited the Wrights’ living quarters; his third wife, Olgivanna, made Taliesin West her permanent residence after Wright died in 1959. Her loom is still there.

The Dining Room Bell called the apprentices to meals.

There wasn’t a lot of entertainment in the Phoenix area, so the residents of Taliesin West had to entertain one another. Wright eventually created a Cabaret Theatre to provide an appropriate space for such gatherings (they also showed movies there).

I don’t think I would have liked to live at Taliesin West, but it would have been a great place to be a guest for a few days!

We had lunch at Zinc Bistro in Kierland Commons before driving to Mesa to visit our friends Sarah and Ray. Sarah was one of our first friends when we all lived in South Florida many years ago, and the last time we saw her and Ray was a brief encounter five years ago at Worldcon 76, so I’m glad we could spend the afternoon and evening with them.

They had promised us a beautiful drive on the Apache Trail as far as Tortilla Flat, and they delivered!

We returned to their house for dinner and conversation; I hope it won’t be as long before we see them again!