The Valley of the Sun

By Lee | May 12th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

I spent a few days in the Phoenix area this past weekend. I have to say that I really like Phoenix. To sum it up, on the shuttle from the airport to the rental car area, the driver gets on the speaker and gives his weather forecast. He says, “It’s gonna be hot. It’s gonna be sunny. And it’s gonna be beautiful. Welcome to Arizona.” Needless to say, everyone cheered. It was pretty funny. But he was right, it’s always perfect out there.

It may get pretty hot in the summer but it’s dry heat and personally I’d rather deal with two months of excessive sun and heat than 6 months of cold, snow, rain and bad weather. The best part about the heat in Phoenix is everyone has a pool so you can always beat the heat and stay outside. In New York, the cold is unavoidable and the only way to beat it is to stay inside and hibernate.

We mainly were in North Scottsdale and Scottsdale, which are ridiculously nice and fun. I did manage to get downtown to catch a Diamondbacks game on Thursday and I had been to Phoenix before so I didn’t need too much of a look around. Although it had been several years and I was in Tempe the last time I was there. It was for the 2003 Fiesta Bowl where Miami got robbed by the referees and Ohio State ended up getting the national championship. It is still to this day, the biggest travesty I have ever witnessed in sports.

Aside from the weather, Phoenix is very affordable, especially after the recent real estate crash out west, you can get a ton for your money. Traffic is bad, although not as bad as LA. But they have everything you could “ask” (or not ask) for including every single big chain store and restaurant that ever existed, especially in Scottsdale. They have a ton of bars and a crazy mix of people from all over the country because nobody is from Phoenix-everyone just moves there. Kind of like LA.

Although I didn’t get to play any golf this trip, it also has tons of golf courses and if you’ve never played on a desert course-it doesn’t get much better or more scenic.

Anyway, Phoenix is great. It’s really laid back and easy to relax out there. The weather is tough to beat and the people are friendly. Everything is relatively new and clean and it’s a lot of fun.