Frank Lloyd Wright in Phoenix

Saturday, May 30 - After visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's home Taliesin in Wisconsin on the first day of our trip last year, we thought it was fitting that we visit Taliesin West in Scottsdale before we headed north out of Phoenix on our first day. Our tour guide, Frank, gave us our money's worth - we got over 2 hours out of a tour that was scheduled for only 90 minutes. He was quite the philosopher and talker, but it turns out Frank first met FLW when he was 19, studied here, and was an architect for 40 years. And man, it was HOT - about 95 degrees. Frank did a good job of keeping us in the shade or inside. Taliesin West is still a functioning school for architects, and they are constantly in the process of restoring the property. FLW always considered his own properties as experimental projects - Frank said that FLW considered them "sketches" - since he wouldn't take such risks on designs for his clients. Taliesin West utilized rocks from the property so that it blended into the landscape.