About two weeks ago I went to Old Town Scottsdale and absolutely loved it! It was so much fun exploring this unique, charming town that truly gave off a wild, wild west feeling.

As you go through the town you feel as though you have been put into a time capsule and sent back to when there were gunfights in the street and tumbleweeds blowing across the prairie. On your way to Old Town Scottsdale however you have to go through a very commercialized area before you get to experience this feeling. Scottsdales, which is a town that is located in the eastern area of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area with about 22,000 residents, is known for its luxurious lifestyle with luxurious cars and lavish houses. The town is known nationally because of its night life and party scene with the tremendous amount of bars and restaurants that the town exhibits.

As I drove through the commercialized area leading up to Old Town Scottsdale I felt as though I was never going to reach my final destination. You have to drive about 20 minutes from the highway before you will hit the town itself. That is if you use Hayden Road which I did and learned that it was a big mistake! Anyways, as I entered the area of Old Town Scottsdale I hit the first "zone" known as Fashion Square. Fashion Square is an outdoor mall setting that displays various boutiques and stores that carry high end apparel and accessories. Some of the stores in Fashion Square included Jareds Fine Jewelers and Nordstroms. I didn't have any interest in this area of the town because I knew that everything was going to cost a lot of money and I didn't come here to shop, I came here to explore the rich history of the area.

After going through Fashion Square, I continued driving south and eventually came upon the Art District. The Art District is an area of town that looked like it once thrived with lots of art galleries and lots of tourists wandering the streets, but now the area has lots of vacant buildings and very few people wandering the streets. However, don't pass this area up just because I said that! You will still be able to walk along the Walk the Art path, which is a designated path that takes you around the district, and still see some fine pieces of western art. As I walked the Walk the Art path I ran into many different statues that truly resembled the wild west and Arizona as a whole. I had a lot of fun taking photos of each art piece and truly capturing the meaning of each piece of art!

Afterwards I went across the street and went into the "old town" portion. This is where you will run into a lot of the tourist shops and you will encounter more people walking the streets. I was blown away with the creativity that was displayed in this area of the town. There were wagons that were sitting alongside the road, sherriff badges that adorned the light posts along the street, and there was even a pair of giant cowboy boots on one corner! I loved how I felt like I had been taken back to the wild, wild west! I didn't go into any of the shops because I didn't want to see any cheesey tourist gifts, but I am sure there were treasures to be found in some of the stores at least. My favorite part of this area was the park that displayed a beautiful piece of art work titled "The Yearlings" that was created by George-Ann Tognoni. It was truly a beautiful art statue with green grass surrounding the statue and water running through the center.

Afterwards, I headed to the last stop on my adventure and that was the Scottsdale Waterfront. The waterfront stretches for about a quarter of a mile and is inbetween restaurants, boutiques, and apartment buildings, but don't worry they are not your typical apartment buildings. These apartments were luxurious and very upscale. The most fascinating part of the Scottsdale Waterfront besides the view was the Soleri Bridge and Plaza located at the northeastern end of the waterfront. The Soleri Bridge and Plaza was created by Paoli Soleri and was the first piece of architecture done by Soleri in North America! It was very cool to see such an interesting piece of art!

Overall I was very impressed by Old Town Scottsdale and would definitely recommend it to anyone who plans on visiting the Arizona!