1 Train, 2 Train, Locomotive, Choo-choo Train

The next day in Phoenix, Dear Husband and I had a much-needed slow morning, since our out-of-the-house activities would be concentrated in the afternoon and evening. We did take a nice bicycle ride up and down the length of the dry and wet canals near our Air BnB. After I had a continuing medical education Zoom class, we hopped in the car and headed over to Scottsdale for our second baseball game, where we had to park and walk with the masses. After the game ended, we headed north to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, a free public park run by the municipal Parks & Rec Department.

With a miniature railroad, a carousel, a playground, and a birthday suite, it's mostly directed toward families with young children. However, there's enough to see that two grown adults were entertained for an hour and a half.

In one of the several old train depot buildings moved to the site is a small museum crammed with memorabilia. Here's a diorama of a signal operator. 

The park is proud of being the final resting place of Arizona's part of "Merci Train," 49 railroad cars stuffed with presents from grateful French people after Americans gathered >700 carloads of supplies for them after World War II. Each state received one (and D.C. and the Territory of Hawai'i shared the 49th; sorry Alaska). Some of the gifts included these vases made out of artillery shells from World War I and these embroidered anthropometric animals.

There is also the the Roald Amundsen Pullman Car, which was used by every president from Herbert Hoover through Dwight Eisenhower. (The NORAD agreement was signed on it.)

Fancy-schmancy dining room.

Left: The rooms were all en-suite, with bunk beds and a sitting room with a sink in one corner and a toilet in the other (not shown).

Right: In one bathroom you could take a shower if you stepped over the toilet!

In the attached Baggage Car were a bunch of other exhibits, such as this one about the luxury enjoyed on a Pullman Car, and another on the Pullman Strike (1894).

On the left, objects from Fred Harvey's restaurants, which were famous for "The Harvey Girls," which was also a 1946 movie featuring Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury. 

On the right, dated railroad nails for recording when sections of the track were serviced. The paper on the right lists various historical correlates, like "1909 Orville Wright injured in plane accident," "1923 bathtub gin and home brew popular," or "1928 Al Smith campaigning -- Yankees in 4." You know, the important stuff.

Then it was on to the main attraction: the model railroads!

Above is a sculpture celebrating the "5Cs" of Arizona: copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate.

At the drive-in movie theater scene, they have a camera connected to a tiny screen with a label that reads: "Now showing: Attack of the Giants." You can see me impersonating Godzilla.

DH says he's always wanted to make a baseball stadium for a model train set.

This scene reminded me of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix (which we visited last year), because both have models of flat-topped and round Native shelters. Turns out I didn't put any photos of them in my previous blog post, but you can see how much colder it was by the layers we're wearing.

Covered bridge to nowhere.

The park is on the former estate of Anne and Harold Fowler McCormick, Jr., (grandson of both John D. Rockefeller and Cyrus McCormick of reaper machine fame), who donated 100 acres from their cattle ranch to the City of Scottsdale in 1967. Anne's son from her first marriage, Guy Stillman, donated his 5/12-scale ridable locomotives from his private property to the Railroad Park in 1971. The Paradise & Pacific Railroad has about 1 mile of track, and you can ride it for $3 on the hour and half hour.

We decided to skip the train and carousel and headed still farther north to eat a healthy dinner at Desert Child and then take our seats in the Left Balcony of the Musical Instrument Museum for a nearly sold-out guitar concert. Last year we had listened to a beautiful classical guitar concert, so I figured this would be something similar. Boy, was I wrong. It was an electric guitar concert! I guess I could have done more research when I bought the tickets, but it would have been nice if 1) the people working the doors had explained why there was a bowl of ear plugs, or 2) the sound techs had turned it down so ear plugs weren't necessary. We stayed until the end, but some people walked out after the concert had started.

Uh oh, the puzzle is almost finished!

Time is running out on our vacation...