A Visit from the Blaylocks, Day 6: Eisendrath House, the Spicery, and Doll Museum

Lisa wanted to visit the Eisendrath House in Tempe. I had never heard of it, but I guess she was searching for things to do in the Phoenix area and wanted to see it. I said sure why not. She bought tickets (they weren't too expensive, like $10 each), which reserved us a time with a guided tour at 10am. It was located in Tempe, so not super close but not far enough to complain about. We left Lisa's kids home with the Nintendo Switch for a babysitter. 

Lisa and I were the only two on the tour. The Eisendrath House was interesting; it was fun learning about the early settlers in the area. We learned about how the house was built with adobe, the care of the house, and some of its history.  A wealthy German/Jewish woman had it built as her vacation home at the turn of the century (1900's). All in all, it was mildly entertaining but not the most amazing house I've toured. I think it would have been more interesting if the original furnishings had been in the house--they found random furniture to furnish the house, and it just didn't quite do the trick. Lisa seemed really engaged and asked a lot of questions. The house was undergoing renovations, so our tour guide took us outside to see how the house was constructed using adobe. I don't remember why I didn't take any pictures of this house tour. Here's a picture I stole off the internet of the house:

The Rose Eisendrath House in Tempe

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I had reserved a three-course tea experience at the Spicery that same day around noon. It was a fun experience! I've only ever done one other tea place: the English Rose Tea Room back in November (see other post here). I was unable to get reservations to the English Rose Tea Room during Lisa's visit, so I took Lisa to the Spicery instead. I had been to the Spicery several times before but never for the tea experience. I thought the food and desserts were better at the Spicery than at the English Rose Tea Room, but the scones at the English Rose were better than the Spicery's. The Spicery's scones were too biscuity-soft to be scones in my opinion. The tea was about the same quality I thought. We were too full to eat most of the desserts, so we took them to go. 

A picture of Lisa just before we dug in!

The sandwiches--yum!

The "scones" and some shortbread

Eating a cute bunny scone

Some tea and the desserts

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Instead of just going back home, Lisa wanted to check out some shops that were just around the corner. It was cold and rainy (probably the only cold and rainy day of the entire year) but I was up for it. After putting the food in the van, we went to where a few shops were. Lisa wanted to go in the doll museum. The lady at the front desk told us it would be $5 for the museum tour. I was like sure, why not. A couple of other people joined us on the tour, but other than them it was just us. The museum wasn't very big, but it sure had enough fun stuff to look at for hours! There were lots and lots of dolls, some were quite old. Some were creepy, some were cute, some I recognized, and some were just plain weird. I took lots of pictures of the museum tour. It was fun learning about the old dolls. After the tour, Lisa and I shopped around for some dolls that were for sale. I guess people donate these dolls and they fix them up and either put them in the museum if they are rare/old/special enough, or they sell them. The prices on the used dolls were pretty good compared to places like the Brass Armadillo antique mall or even Ebay. I picked out a small, old fashioned doll for Elisa, along with some vintage plastic trains (from the 1950's) for Gabe, a piano figurine, a little trinket box with a piano painted on it, and a kitty card for my mom. Lisa bought Aaliyah a few dolls. We spent a long time looking at/shopping for dolls. So long that I was worried I'd be late for my piano lessons. What a fun museum! I wish I would have known about this place when Elisa was younger and into dolls.

A miniature doll house. This is the sewing room. Dolls have better sewing rooms than I do.

The oldest doll in the museum--over 200 years old now.

A neat/creepy doll classroom

An original Strawberry Shortcake doll!

Dolls that my mom has! I took pictures of and sent to her. Above: Penny Brite. She is still in good condition with her clothes on. Bottom left: Baby Kissy. She's unfortunately in pieces and her hair has all fallen out, but I still recognized her! Bottom right: Crissy doll. She's in ok condition but missing her clothes.

Lisa in the room full of for-sale dolls. She bought Aaliyah that baby doll.