I passed Fashion Square, and immediately knew it would become a favorite part of town for me. Further west as you get closer to downtown Phoenix, another shopping mecca appears. It is a huge, up-scale, retail and mixed-use development with all the great places I love: Macy's, Border's Bookstore, Cheesecake Factory, Neiman Marcus (what us Texas refer to as "Needless Markups"), Starbucks, and other stores waiting to take my meager earnings. I'm writing this update from the Border's Bookstore.
One thing I've noticed about this area: I've never seen so many retail shopping centers, golf courses, country clubs, resorts, high-end restaurants and manicured lawns.
The Heard Museum is a sprawling complex located on North Central in downtown Phoenix. Unfortunately, Central Ave. is under construction. (See photo below.)
The city is constructing a light-rail system down the middle of Central Ave., and therefore many of the streets are torn up and blocked off. In the above photo that I took this morning in front of the museum, you'll notice the huge spools of cable. Central is a major north-south corridor in the heart of downtown, and no doubt the rail system will be a great people-mover once it's completed. But for now, it is a major pain in the butt to travel down Central. So, if you come to Phoenix, avoid Central Ave. it if you can.I arrived at the Indian Arts Show at 9:30 a.m., the scheduled opening time, and I was already late to find parking. Luckily they had a parking garage available to handle the huge crowds and it was only three blocks from the main entrance. Walking along Central Ave. toward the museum I could already hear a live show underway, Indian chanting and the thumping of drums in the distance. I expected the Calvary to arrive at any minute to encourage me to retreat back to my car. Did someone just shoot an arrow over my head?
I paid my $15 entry fee and purchased $10 worth of Food Tickets asking the guy in the ticket booth, "That should be enough to buy me a Coke, right?" He didn't laugh. But it you glanced at the food menu, you discovered a bottled water cost two tickets. I spent my $10 worth of tickets on a hot dog, diet Pepsi, chips, and the traditional "fried bread" you find at these kind of events.
Here are some pictures and comments from my visit:
Live entertainment was underway when I entered the museum area, and I took this photo of a "native ceremonial dance." After he was done, a kid who must have been all of 11-years old danced a "hoop dance". See the photos below.
The kid received a great round of applause from the crowd: he was really amazing. He placed six hoops on the ground and then began to dance around them, toss them up to his hands with his feet, then did all kinds of dance maneuvers. According to the narrator, he was imitating various animal lifeforms with the hoops. Whatever he was doing, it went on for about 10 minutes and I was exhausted just watching him.
The photo above was taken while I was fighting for my life. This was "Area 1" of six tented areas that contained numerous booths of Indian artists and craftsmen. The crowd was already bursting at the seams, and it was only 10:30 in the morning. The other five tents were just as crowded. 
I had to take a picture of my "fried bread" with cinnamon sugar and honey. Not exactly a part of my daily diet.
The patio area of the Heard Museum was full of people trying to find a place to sit down. Although the weather was perfect and the temperature was not that hot, a chair still came in handy after walking around for three hours. Since there were few chairs, you found whatever you could to sit on. Mostly, people sat on the ground or a curb.
This Apache woman is painting a small ceramic bowl. 
Starbucks is everywhere. 
A woman demonstrates the ancient art of basket weaving.
A group of Hawaiian women dance for the crowd. I was craving pineapple juice, but had to settle for a diet Pepsi.
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