Is a place called the Desert Botanical Gardens --
I had read in the Arizona Republic about Las Nochas de Las Luminarias, the nights of the lights, which is held around Christmas time at the Botanical Gardens. We invited our friends Tom and Juni to attend with us as their Christmas present. The first musician we encountered was this harpist as we came towards the entrance --
The show started at 5:30 PM, just as it was beginning to get dark. We saw the many lights on the trees as well as the luminarias (traditionally candles in paper bags weighted with sand in the bottom).
This basin fountain was surrounded by white poinsettias --
There were white amaryllis complimented by paper whites --
As well as this tree also made of white poinsettias --
A Mariachi band was playing in this corner of the courtyard --
We saw this family of stone people watching the musicians from outside the gift shop --
Trails lit by luminaria led us further into the gardens of cacti --
There were lights everywhere --
As we wandered down the paths, we came to this gypsy violinist --
Looking back towards the sunset --
Forry and Tom sitting in the darkness, listening to the music --
Another beautiful lit tree --
The next musician was a classical guitarist --
I'm glad this cacti was lit up. I'd hate to stumble into it in the dark!
A Native American flutist --
Scattered throughout the gardens were various sculptures. I think the most spectacular ones were these lighted glass ones --
Scattered at strategic points around the gardens were little stands that sold glasses of wine or beer. At the Garden Cafe, we had some hot butternut squash soup topped off by cream-filled churros. The soup certainly took the chill off.
It was an interesting evening. They do this for three weeks of nights with thirty different groups of musicians providing music. It is the main fund-raising activity for the gardens. The paper said that on Saturday and Sunday nights, they have as many as 2500 people visiting the grounds.
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