Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! Hopefully you are all still sticking to your New Years Resolutions :) I hope you also got a lot of great Christmas gifts and were able to spend time with your loved ones for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

This morning I decided that I wanted to do something fun and got on the internet to do some research. I thought of going on a run, going to the library and reading outside, or going to explore the wonderful state of Arizona. I decided to go explore because that is one of my huge interests as many of you know. So I got in the car and drove to Downtown Phoenix to look at the State Capitol, visit the Japanese Friendship Garden, stroll around Heritage Square, and to walk around various tourist points in Downtown Phoenix. I had a blast, but let me tell you more about each of my stops before I continue.

The first stop I made was to the State Capitol and the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza which included various tributes to past war heroes. The Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza is directly in front of the State Capitol itself and is surrounded by various government buildings including the Department of Corrections, the Department of Agriculture, and the buildings that house the offices of Arizona Senators and the House of Representatives for the state. The memorial plaza is set up in a circle and includes a tribute to the 9-11 victims, a tribute to the USS Arizona boat squad, as well as a tribute to the Arizona war heroes involved in the Vietnam war. It also includes a Jewish war veterans memorial and a memorial about World War I. I was absolutely fascinated when I was standing in front of the signal mast that was actually used on the USS ship. It is a great memorial and I highly recommend it for every member in your family.

The next stop was directly across the street and was the State Capitol. The State Capitol faces the street directly and has two buildings on the left and right sides as I mentioned before. The building on the left is the building for the House of Representatives and the one on the right was for the Senate. I was actually very surprised at the quality of the building. I would have thought that they would have worked in luxurious offices with lots of amenities and had underground parking, but that was not the case. Instead, the Senators and Representatives park out by the main public parking lot, which isn't even gated off, and the buildings themselves look as though they were built during the early 20th century. Maybe government officials aren't given a lot of money and perks like we all think they are.

Afterwards, I headed east and went to Heritage Square which unfortunately was closed. Heritage Square is located across the street from Chase Field and the Phoenix Convention Center. It is primarily a tourist attraction with old Victorian style architecture and various buildings mixed throughout. There is a doll shop along with a toy museum and a couple of restaurants as well. Across the street from Heritage Square is Arizona State University's Downtown campus. I wasn't as impressed by Heritage Square as I thought I would have been after reading about it on the internet and looking at photographs in a couple of different books. One reason why I may not have been as impressed as I thought I would have been was because it was closed and there weren't many people around.

The next stop on my tour was the Japanese Friendship Garden which is located in a luxurious part of Downtown Phoenix. I wanted to visit the garden because it sounded peaceful and I wanted to see what it had to offer the public as far as education about the Japanese culture. The garden itself was absolutely gorgeous and did a good job of making you feel as though you were walking through a remote part of Japan instead of Downtown Phoenix. When you first enter the garden, you go into a trailer that includes the ticket booth as well as a gift shop. The trailer is very small, but don't let this deceive you from going further! Admission to the park is $5.00 for adults and $4.00 for students, seniors, and anyone with a military ID plus an additional $1.00 if you want to feed the Koi fish. After entering the park, you walk down a trail and are immediately greeted by the main point of interest in the garden which is the lake. The lake features a bridge as well as a waterfall and small stream on the Eastern side of the garden with Koi fish and ducks swimming around in the lake. Overall, I was very impressed with the Japanese Friendship Garden simply because of how peaceful and relaxing it was. Also, there were not a lot of people visiting the garden when I went which was nice. However, I feel as though the garden needs to do a better job of educating the public on the Japanese culture. While the garden is themed around Japan and features a couple of Japanese architectural belongings, there was no information about what daily life was like in Japan or how the garden related to the lifestyle in Japan. If you are interested there is a Japanese tea house located inside the garden where you get the opportunity to go through a Japanese tea ceremony with the park employees and other guests. However, the tea ceremony does not occur on a daily basis and costs an additional $25.00 per person. The tea ceremony wasn't going on when I visited the garden so therefore I couldn't take part in it to give it a review.

As I finished up my tour of Downtown Phoenix, I drove around town and found various points of interest including a couple of historic buildings and a few public parks. One building that drew my attention was the Westword Ho building located along Central Avenue. The photograph below shows the Westword Ho building itself. The building was originally built in 1928, but closed in April of 1980. After 1980, the building was purchased by new owners and was transformed into an elderly and mobility impaired living facility. The building caught my attention because of the 280 foot antenna located at the top of the building was looks like it has been around since the building was first constructed. Right across the street from the Westword Ho building is a public park which features an eye catching piece of art. The piece of art looks like a giant fish net which is placed directly over the public park and offers an amazing photographic opportunity for tourists. There was no information on the piece of art, however I would like to research about it online.

All in all, if you decide to visit Downtown Phoenix I highly recommend going to the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza, Arizona State Capitol plaza, as well as the Japanese Friendship Garden. I think that you would be okay if you passed Heritage Square and went to do something else instead! I hope that this information helps you out if you are planning a vacation to the Phoenix area or if you are a local resident looking to learn more about Phoenix! Have fun and be safe!