Phoenix Police Museum

It was another spring break adventure for us yesterday. We took the baby on light rail again, past Chase Field (a tear for BOB) and to the the Phoenix Police Museum.  We saw the museum while we were walking to the US Airways Center (another tear for the former America West Arena) to see the Suns and decided we had to see what it was all about.

No stranger to the oddity of one room, off the wall, mini museums, I found this one quite enjoyable for a nice day out. (I've been to the Pez "Museum" and the Fortune Cookie "Factory" both outside of San Francisco.)

My boys outside the museum

and half of my reflection.

Riding a motorcycle.

I'm the Sheriff in town.

(This is two pictures placed side by side, if you are wondering.) 

Random cool things. The rock is Phoenix's first jail. haha. Then there is another cell down below that is more modern (I can't remember how modern). And the metal slab on the bottom left is a piece from one of the World Trade Centers.

Lastly, in the top right, is a lost dog poster. I thought is was funny. 

It says:

$50 Reward, Lost Dog. 

Three Legs, blind in right eye, missing left ear, tail broken, accidently neutered and answers to the name of Lucky.

More stuff from the museum. The mail box on the left was used at the academy for training, but it says on the plaque that it has not been confirmed wether the bullet holes are from its life at the academy or as property of the US Postal Service. Haha, again. The computer thing is an old KDT (That is what they are called now). I Don't know what it is called, but it was cool. It reminded me a lot of TTYs that deaf people use to talk on the phone. And, lastly is a motorcycle windshield that had different calibers of bullets shot through it, as well as a vest with the same rounds. It was amazing to see the damage of different rounds and their affect on the two different pieces.

They also had badges from all kinds of places. We found this Maricopa Police badge right off the bat, as well as this New South Wales one (Where Cam served his mission). It took us a while to find the Tempe one though. The lady there (the mother of the museum's founder/curator) told us they were all badges from officer's home cities that had visited.

The same lady gave us these cuffs. She called them thumb cuffs, but they didn't fit Cam's thumbs. She actually gave them to me to keep him in line! :)

Some other things there included another motorcycle with a kind of freaky manikin riding it- so I didn't post the picture I had and a really old like 20's police car. There were actually two motorcycles and two cars on display. I also took pictures of a ton of other displays, but thought I would spare you. Did you know that Phoenix didn't have their first female officer until 1995? I know! Right? 

Jake was also very cute the whole time. He flirted with some senior citizens on the way to Phoenix, slept through most of the museum and then drank a bottle on the way home. On the light rail though - oh my! Most people are fairly normal, but on the way there, Cameron was highly distracted by this gentleman in front of us swigging shots of some hard liquor. (The clear one... Vodka?) Then, on the way back, I was distracted by this father and son in matching Star Trek outfits. Oh yes. You don't see that in public every day. Although, in their defense, I think the Science Center, which is one of the light rail stops, is running a special Star Trek exhibition. I just needed to document that for journaling purposes. 

Oh, and if you noticed in the picture of the stroller, we got a new one. The travel system one is too big for light rail. We no longer own the one in the picture, but we did use it for the day. I thought I would like it, but at 5'3'', I was kicking the wheels with every step. It was worse for Cameron who was not only kicking the wheels when he walked, he was really hunched over trying to reach the handles. Needless to say, we returned it and got a different stroller. We went for the mid-level Combi. It is nice and I think we are going to enjoy it a hundred times better. 

Sorry this is so ridiculously long. For those who made it through - I hope you have a great day!