More AZ Exploring!

Hey everyone!  Sure hope ya'll are having a wonderful week doing all things Christmas!  The Man has been working hard on an outdoor project and wanted to take a little break, and we just love continuing to explore our surroundings.  This time we were off to Old Town Chandler.  Our newspapers, as I'm sure all of your papers also, are filled this time of year with interesting things to do and see.  This particular item caught our eye and we had to check it out.

Yes, it's a Christmas Tree, but can you see what it's made out of?

You're getting warmer!

Yes, those would be hundreds of tumbleweeds!  Where else but Arizona, right....lol!

The tree is 35 feet tall and totally strung with colored lights.  This is the 55th year

they have put this baby together!  If you've ever seen a tumbleweed up close, they are

kind of stickery, so my hat is off to the worker bees who work on this.  

This is the internet pic of what it looks like at night.

                                            

This whole downtown area of Chandler is filled with history, and is very quaint and charming.

There are lots of little shops and several restaurants with plenty of outside dining.  There is even a brewery cafe that seems to be doing quite a bit of business -- stresses of the season, maybe?

Anyway, I was intrigued when we were walking around and discovered this old hotel, so I had to do some internet searching on the history.

This is the courtyard of the Crowne Plaza San Marcos Resort.

It seems that a certain Dr. Alexander Chandler founded this small town east of Phoenix in 1912 and bestowed his name on it.  He was a visionary, apparently with a lot of money, and dreamed of building an oasis in the desert (he stole my blog name....lol), a resort that would bring the rich and famous from all over the world to the little town of Chandler.  He teamed up with the infamous Frank Lloyd Wright, his good friend, and the resort opened in 1913.  

Then......it did bring the rich and famous as Dr. Chandler had envisioned, such as Fred Astaire, Joan Crawford, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, Gloria Swanson, George Gobel and Cher.  Even President Hoover and his family stayed here.  They were seeking sunshine and warmth!

and Now.  It has undergone many updates and additions over the years and is currently for sale.  There is talk that someone is interested in buying it and turning it into condos -- sniff, sniff :(.

Well, it's still gorgeous.  This is a courtyard just outside a large dining room.

The dining room also boasts this beautiful covered outdoor dining space.  The Man and I hope to come down here for dinner one evening, just to experience the ambience.

Well, that concludes my little "Exploring AZ Tour" for this time.  Thought you might need a break from all the Christmas stuff going on.  Hope you enjoyed!

Carol