Keeping Cool in Phoenix

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This past week the little, my husband, and I traveled to Arizona. That’s correct. We traveled to a desert during the hottest month of the year. And we loved it!

Our final destination was the Grand Canyon, which I’ll cover in a future post, but we decided to spend a few days in Phoenix beforehand. The Grand Canyon was a cool and collected 75° while 7,500 lower in elevation, Phoenix was a bit warmer at 105°.

We knew we couldn’t spend a lot of time outside, so we searched for indoor activities to entertain our three-year-old traveling companion. The Musical Instrument Museum was just what we needed. The museum is home to an extensive collection of…you guessed it…musical instruments from around the world and across the ages. The Little wasn’t terribly interested in cases full of historic artifacts she couldn’t touch, so we headed straight to the museum’s Experience Gallery.

In this gallery, everything is touchable, playable, pick-upable. The Little played a taiko drum from Japan, a gong from China, a harp from Peru, and banjos from the US. She shook maracas. She waved wildly at a theremin. She plunked on a xylophone. In short, she had a ball.

We were also fortunate enough to be in town for one of the Mini Music Maker classes offered by the museum. In these classes, kids are introduced to the “wide and wonderful world music through early childhood music and movement courses.” The class allowed the Little to dance, sing, bang on a drum, and interact with other kids in a safe (and comfortable for me) setting.

After a nap for all of us, we headed off to the Children’s Museum of Phoenix for more fun out of the sun. While my husband questioned that this was an actual museum, the Little dove right in. It was all about the kids. No artifacts. No history lessons. Just pint-sized hands-on fun. The museum is designed for kids 0-10, and there is no shortage of ways to spend a day. We got creative in the art studio, went shopping in the mini grocery store, drove our tricycles through the car wash, and played on the three-story indoor playground.

So staying cool in Phoenix turned out to be easier than it seemed.

 


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