1175. Visit the Hall of Flame in Phoenix

When planning our trip to Spring Training, the hubby said to find other things to do besides baseball and since the baseball games didn't start til 1 anyways we really had our mornings free. The hubby has a narrow spectrum of things he's interested in and there's not much else outside of that spectrum I can get him to go see. Anything to do with hiking or outdoor stuff not even on the radar. Of course my first place to look is the bucket list. What is on the list that the hubby would enjoy??

The Hall of Flame was that would be up the hubby's ally. It's a museum devoted to fire trucks. My cousin thought about going but didn't like the reviews.. something about crabby old people. We still decided to check out.

The hubby loved it and so did I. The Hall of Flame is tucked away on the ASU campus in a non-descript building. The inside was much better. Entering through a small gift shop, we paid our $7/person fee and was handed a binder that described each exhibit. I thought it was a bit odd but okay. Each piece was number and corresponded to a blurb in the binder. I guess it's easier to update a binder than exhibit signs when they change our equipment.

There are 4 exhibit halls that take you through the history of fire fighting equipment starting in the 1700s or earlier. The amount of vintage and old-school fire wagons and trucks is amazing.

 The museum was actually started by a man from Lake Geneva and his first fire truck was from Oshkosh.

The last exhibit hall features a NYFD 9/11 Rescue Truck that was at Ground Zero.

There are patches and seals from various fire departments across the country. There are a lot of German seals and patches.

I don't know what reviews my cousin was reading but the place was awesome. Yes, you can't touch any of the trucks (alarms will sound) but there are enough things to look at. There is a small children's area where they can learn fire safety and a fire truck anyone can climb aboard.

The only disappointment was they didn't have a Pierce Truck on display. Apparently there was one in storage when we asked.

I'm glad we ended up going and very impressed to see this museum has Wisconsin ties. I have come to believe don't always trust reviews. If you are interested, check it out and form your own opinions.