We were scheduled to receive a tour at the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf and for all four of us, it was our first time visiting the school. The first thing I noticed about the school was that there was no large main building welcoming you to the front of the school. The campus, complete with outdoor lockers and cottages that house several classrooms as opposed to having all classes in one building, was a huge change of pace from what I’m used to seeing in the East. Depressing hallways and crowded buildings are nonexistent here at PDSD, and it certainly is a nice amenity of the school.

Bonelle Amann, PDSD’s ASL coordinator, was on hand to give us a tour of the school. She has been teaching at PDSD for well over 30 years, and was without a doubt the best person on school grounds to give us the tour. We were told that from pre-school to 12th grade, more than 340 students attend the Day School which is controlled by the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind in Tucson. While both ASDB and PDSD have their own superintendents, yet another superintendent regulates both schools and distributes funding.

One of our first stops on the very small campus was the pride and joy of PDSD, the gymnasium. Don’t think that the pride and joy of the school comes simple, however. The gym is a dome, designed by Will Bruder, a world renowned architect. Frank Amann, Athletic Director and Bonelle’s husband, explained to me that schools all over the area love coming to play in PDSD’s dome, and that it is a fantastic morale booster for the students to have a great facility to play in. Since PDSD is hosting the Western States Basketball Classic, the floor will be replaced in time for the tournament and the gym will officially become the envy of Phoenix high schools.

Attached to the gym is the school theater, a large auditorium decorated with art created by Deaf artist Chuck Baird, who spent several years teaching at the school. The art, hands fingerspelling messages throughout the auditorium, were painted using various students and faculties’ hands, allowing for a beautiful sense of community to exist throughout the building. Like in New Mexico, Arizona has a deep affection for art and like in the auditorium, you can find Deaf art all over the campus. Most of the art, other than the paintings by Chuck Baird, is courtesy of art teacher Sandy Inches, who talked to us about how she incorporates art in building self-esteem and cultural awareness. She likes to focus on Deaf art, and much of her student’s excellent work is displayed throughout the campus. The best display, in my opinion, can be found in the library. High on the walls of the library are plaster masks of students signing different powerful words, with the biggest facial expressions you could imagine. Perfectly captured on the masks are every groove of each student’s teeth, skin, and face , and it was some of the best artwork I have ever seen produced by an art class.

After wrapping up our tour and saying good bye to our excellent tour guide Bonelle, we quickly left to arrive at the Pima Air and Space museum just outside of Tucson. The museum is the world’s largest privately funded air museum and boasts more than 250 planes on 80 acres. With many collections of fighter jets, bombers, cargo planes, passenger planes, the museum holds years of aviation history. We had the chance to enter the Air Force One which served President Kennedy, and see inside the cockpit of a B-52 bomber. It was a neat museum which was just a few miles away from what we really wanted to see, the famous Airport Graveyard. The graveyard is a fenced enclosure on a military base where surplus planes from the Korean and Vietnam wars were parked. Ten million square feet of out of service military planes are parked side by side at the grave yard, and our jaws were dropped the entire time we drove around the enclosure. The magnitude of how large our aerial force was during these wars was just eye-popping.

The museum and the grave yard was a neat experience for all of us, and we learned a lot about our aerial capabilities. Having been to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, I can definitely say that the Pima Air and Space Museum has a much better comprehensive collection of airplanes for people to view. The neatest part about the museum is that most of the planes are junked planes that are no longer functional, but the bodies and paint of the planes are still in pretty good shape. With barriers around just a few of the more valuable planes, you could even hang off the plane’s wings and climb them, getting a more fun, interactive experience.

We then parked the RV for the night just a few miles away from ASDB where we are visiting tomorrow at a very nice campground with a pool (!). My experience in Arizona the last few days has been awesome, and I have begun to really take a liking towards the state and all it has to offer.

With sun-burnt shoulders, good night.