Happy New Year 2013!

Had to (or decided to) work all day yesterday when people were available, so today Jazzy and I went to downtown Phoenix to the Arizona Puppet Theater. No pictures allowed there:(. We had never been there before but had heard alot about it. The puppets are all hand made, and the puppeteers are professional actors/actresses. First they talked briefly about the history of Cinderella- a 1000 year old story, then presented the show. The stepsisters names were Sulphur and Carbonite:))

Across the street is a brand new Japanese garden, built in 2011...right in the middle of downtown Phoenix! Japanese Friendship Garden. Jasmine said "I don't even feel like I am in Arizona"!!. Very pretty...except that much of the garden plants/boulders and labor was donated by Home Depot, so there were little Home Depot flags everywhere. There were different sections in the garden representing the mountainous, forest and woodlands of Japan. Kasuga Lantern originating from the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan's ninth century capital. Jazzy making a heart:) Not a good photo in the shade.

Shachi - a mythical fish with the face of a tiger. These are placed on the roofs of important buildings to protect against fire.

Feeding the Koi and ducks.

The garden was co-designed by the sister cities of Himeji, Japan and Phoenix, Az. Next we went to a little cafe in a historical building built in 1920. It was originally someone's house, as are many of the buildings in the artsy/theatrical part of downtown Phoenix. The homes there are really beautiful, all built in the 1920's and 1930's. If you want a 800 square foot house for a cool 900,000.000, that would be the place to go. Lots of other places to go around that area... theaters, art museums, historical preserved homes that are decked out for Christmas. Maybe we'll go again some time!