Quaint Shops

Since getting back from that trip to Sedona we haven’t gone out and done much. We both feel spent as far as sight-seeing goes. We have been so many places in the last year the thought of going to see yet another collection of art or yet another Indian dwelling or yet another museum holds no appeal. We never would have thought that we could get touristed out, but it’s happened. It’s too bad because there is a lot more in Arizona that we still want to see. Maya wants to visit the Yuma Territorial Prison. Matt would love to go to Biosphere 2. There’s also the Wrigley mansion, Cosanti, the trail up Black Mountain and the Vulture Mine in Wickenburg. But we are just so tired of going and doing… That’s not to say we’ve stayed home all the time, or had no interesting experiences. We have discovered a few interesting stores that are worth a mention.

First up - a CD store called Zia Record Exchange. After hearing them on American Routes Maya wanted to get some music by Feufollet. They are a group of collage students that play Cajun music. It’s some really fun stuff. We didn’t find any of their music, but Matt did find an album he’s been looking for. Blows Against the Empire is a sci-fi themed concept album by a lot of the folks in Jefferson Airplane as they broke up and became Jefferson Starship. It was even nominated for a Hugo Award for Dramatic Presentation. It didn’t win, but strangely none of the nominees in that category did. Anyway Zia’s – great store if you are looking for CDs or DVDs and happen to be living in the Phoenix area.

Several times we have passed a store called Pop the Soda Shop. We thought it was a 50s style soda fountain type place. It turns out it’s not. The soda shop sells sodas. Hundreds and hundreds of kinds of soda. Imported, gourmet, vintage, weird and wonderful. Most of them we had never heard of. Fentiman’s Curiosity Cola is a less sweet, more flavorful cola. Schartner Bombe’s Zitronenfruchtsaftlimonade is a very light limon-lime type soda. And of course they sell Jones Soda as well. We took our drinks to the park and sipped soda greatness under the trees. We would totally go there again if it was at home. Good thing they ship worldwide!

The last of our last little discoveries is the Sphinx Date Ranch. They have a sign out front advertising their world famous date milkshakes which we have seen many times. You can only see that sign so many times before you just have to try one. That is if you like date. Maya wasn’t really interested, but Matt likes dates enough to try it. It was good if you like dates. There were tasty little date chunks mixed in. As we were stepping out there was a tourist stepping in. Lured in by the sign, just like Matt. He asked us what else there was to do nearby. After six months here we know all about it! We probably told him a lot more than he wanted to know about Hohokam Indians, museums, hiking trails and obscure shopping. We feel like such experts of this city now. Neat little stores: just another thing we’ll miss…